Amprasi, E.*, Vernadakis, N., Zetou E., Antoniou, P., Giannousi, M.
Department of Physical Education & Sport Sciences, Democritus University of Thrace, Campus, Komotini, 69132, Greece.
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine whether there is a difference between a Full Immersive Virtual Reality-based and a typical training program, in female volleyball players aged 8-10 years old. In addition, the children’s mood experience while playing Full Immersive Virtual Environments (FIVE) games compared to Typical Training (TT) was also investigated. Forty-eight female volleyball players were randomly divided into three individual groups of 16 players each, one Control Group (CG) and two experimental groups (FIVE, TT). The CG did not receive any structured RT training program, while the two experimental groups performed a specific RT training program for eight weeks, twice per week and 24 min per session. The “Reaction Test” of Vienna Test System was used to assess the RT of the participants at the pre-test, post-test and retention test. At the post-test, participants of two experimental groups completed the variable “mood experience” of the Greek version of the English self –report questionnaire of Ho, Lwin, Sng and Yee (2017). Two-Way (3Χ3) analyses of variance with repeated measures were conducted to determine the effect of training program groups and measurements across time on RT performance. Furthermore, an independent samples t–test was conducted to compare participants’ mood experience between the FIVE and the TT groups. Analysis of the data illustrated that the post-test RT scores and the one-month retention test RT scores were remarkably greater than pre-test RT scores for both experimental groups and not for the CG. In addition, both experimental groups’ scores on mood experience were high. Conclusively, findings suggest that the use of FIVE as an intervention is a valuable, feasible and pleasant approach in order to improve RT of female volleyball players.
Keywords: Full Immersive Virtual Reality; reaction time; mood experience; volleyball.
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