The research group «Human movement analysis», supervised by Antonio Oña, dean of the Faculty of Physical Activity and Sports Sciences of the UGR, has managed to improve sportsmen’s abilities thanks to a virtual reality program. The researchers, who have been working on the development of an integrated and automated system since 1989, are using new technologies to improve sports performance. «We aim to achieve better times and improvements in the psychological and physical behaviour. At the beginning we worked on motor skills to pass to go on to study the most complex point: the open processes».
The researchers started to work on closed abilities such as a race where they simulated, not only the starter’s shot, but also the background noise. «We started to deal with psychological subjects like anticipation, and physical, like the start technique, thanks to a rug connected to a computer. The results of the proofs, carried out in the Centro de Alto Rendimiento of Sierra Nevada (specialized sports training centre), were clear: we managed to improve aspects which escaped our notice in a conventional training session».
This group went on making progress in the new technologies and they are working now on open abilities such as tennis, wrestling, basketball or football, «where it is very difficult to predict the partner’s reaction, the environmental situation… They analyse decision taking and anticipation processes». It has been possible thanks to virtual reality and movement sensors simulating situations with response variables from a general to a particular level. As for basketball, researchers say that «improvements are clear after a two-week training (about six sessions)».
Tennis is other of the sports analysed. «We are working here, above all, on the anticipation process. We anticipate the shot through biomechanics. Shoulder position anticipates the result of the shot and it is possible to get in before the service». This group intends to bring sport closer to new technologies and make trainers understand that they must change their role. «We applied one of these techniques with the Olympic volleyball team and their training sessions, as well as complete, could be measured with tangible improvements».
