Cognitive Load and Motor Adjustment Under Virtual Defensive Pressure in Mixed Reality Sports Training

Hayato Saiki, Kiyohiro Konno, Kosuke Naruse, Takahiro Shimizu, Yasuhiro Suzuki, Seiji Ono, Kenji Suzuki

2025

Abstract

Defensive pressure experienced during competition exerts a significant impact on athletes’ psychological states and motor behaviors; however, reproducing such pressure in training environments remains a persistent challenge. This study developed a Mixed Reality (MR)-based training system that enables athletes to experience realistic defensive pressure during actual physical movements, using virtual avatars that perform closeout actions. By integrating motion capture technology with an optical see-through head-mounted display, we constructed an environment where the perceived intensity of defensive pressure could be modulated by manipulating avatar height. Experiments involving nine skilled male basketball players compared three defensive conditions-Free (no defender), Human defender, and Virtual defender (180 cm)-and further examined the effects of avatar height variations (160 cm vs. 200 cm). Results indicated that virtual defenders, despite the absence of physical contact, induced psychological load comparable to that of human defenders, as measured by NASA-TLX scores and ball-holding duration. Notably, taller avatars elicited greater perceived pressure and accelerated shot preparation, although no significant differences in shooting accuracy were observed. These findings suggest that MR-based training systems offer an effective means to systematically scale perceived difficulty without compromising performance. Furthermore, the observed dissociation between subjective workload and final outcomes highlights the importance of incorporating multisensory feedback to enhance ecological validity in future system designs.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Saiki H., Konno K., Naruse K., Shimizu T., Suzuki Y., Ono S. and Suzuki K. (2025). Cognitive Load and Motor Adjustment Under Virtual Defensive Pressure in Mixed Reality Sports Training. In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Sport Sciences Research and Technology Support - Volume 1: icSPORTS; ISBN 978-989-758-771-9, SciTePress, pages 13-24. DOI: 10.5220/0013661700003988

in Bibtex Style

@conference{icsports25,
author={Hayato Saiki and Kiyohiro Konno and Kosuke Naruse and Takahiro Shimizu and Yasuhiro Suzuki and Seiji Ono and Kenji Suzuki},
title={Cognitive Load and Motor Adjustment Under Virtual Defensive Pressure in Mixed Reality Sports Training},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Sport Sciences Research and Technology Support - Volume 1: icSPORTS},
year={2025},
pages={13-24},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0013661700003988},
isbn={978-989-758-771-9},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Sport Sciences Research and Technology Support - Volume 1: icSPORTS
TI - Cognitive Load and Motor Adjustment Under Virtual Defensive Pressure in Mixed Reality Sports Training
SN - 978-989-758-771-9
AU - Saiki H.
AU - Konno K.
AU - Naruse K.
AU - Shimizu T.
AU - Suzuki Y.
AU - Ono S.
AU - Suzuki K.
PY - 2025
SP - 13
EP - 24
DO - 10.5220/0013661700003988
PB - SciTePress