Virtual Reality in sports is slowly becoming an important
aspect to both the fan experience, as well as the player experience. It is
changing the way the industry operates and is creating new opportunities for
companies in the Virtual Reality industry.
Virtual Reality for Athletes
Right now, a lot of college and professional sports teams
are starting to implement virtual reality into their training activities. In
football, a quarterback can put on a virtual reality headset and step into his
own shoes after the fact and re-analyze the play. This allows quarterbacks to
see different formations of the defense, as well as look for which receivers are
open on each given play. Virtual reality gives the opportunity to re-live and
learn from different situations and apply them to game situations.
Another way virtual reality can be applied in sports is in
the baseball world. Virtual reality gives players the ability to stand in on
different pitches and see them from a batter’s perspective as many times as
needed. This exposes players to different types of pitches and it allows them
to work on their pitch recognition. Here is a video of a virtual stadium at Villanova
University with some of the benefits virtual reality can provide to baseball
players.
With virtual reality, players can practice their craft in
completely new and innovative ways. They no longer need to experience the
physicality of the games they play in order to practice and get better. Virtual
reality is finding ways to reinvent sports as we know it.
Virtual Reality for Fans
Virtual Reality can also potentially become an experience
for fans of sports. Currently, companies are experimenting with virtual reality
from the fan experience at different sporting events. One example is the 2016
Rio Summer Olympics where NBC and BBC provided the option for watching in
virtual reality through their respective apps. The idea that fans can watch as
though they are actually at the event is a potentially game-changing innovation
in the sporting world if implemented correctly.
Another interesting but slightly less useful implementation of
virtual reality for fans is idea of actually capturing a sporting event from a
player’s perspective. A Spanish startup called FirstV1sion has smart clothes for athletes to allow them to record player perspectives during games. This
would allow a person to see what the athlete is seeing and allows the fan to
feel like they are the one that is actually playing. Unfortunately, with the
current state of virtual reality technology, viewing from a player’s
perspective would be very chaotic and have various dizzying effects for the
user.
As technology for virtual reality continues to improve, I
expect more sports organizations to implement it into their training and
practices. Fans will be able to sit in their homes and experience sports like
they are actually in the arena. There is no limit to where this technology can go,
and I am very interested to see where virtual reality can take us in upcoming
years.
Questions
1. What do you think about using virtual reality as an
athlete? Do you think this would be a helpful tool? What are some other examples
you could think of where virtual reality would help an athlete practice?
2. What do you think about virtual reality from a fan
experience? Would you personally want to watch a sporting event in virtual reality?
Can you think of some good ways to implement this technology to make the fan experience
better?
Link to Articles
Article on Athlete Experience - https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/24/sports/virtual-reality-athletes.html
Article on Fan Experience - https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/15/how-virtual-reality-is-transforming-the-sports-industry/
Link to full Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8udNOTFiqUs
VR is definitely going to take sports entertainment to the next level. They had VR apps to watch March Madness, which definitely would have been cool to experience. For your first question, the only way I see how VR could be helpful to athletes is to be used for film. Players and coaches could experience what has happened to other teams from basically a first person perspective and details could be broken down even further. For baseball I think it would be helpful as a batter to better be able to recognize what type of pitch is being thrown as being able to pick out a curve or change up quicker would definitely be advantageous. Overall, I think it would make more of an impact on the spectator side of sports since you can now experience sitting first row or ring side at sporting events without shoveling out 100s of dollars.
ReplyDeleteI think it will be interesting to see, as VR starts to get more exposure as an option for sporting events, how it will compete with just watching on TV. I know for me personally, I would much prefer to watch games at home as opposed to actually going to the game because you get commentary and better angles to watch the game. It will be critical for VR to enrich the fan experience and create value for spectators.
DeleteI agree that VR is definitely going to take sports entertainment to the next level. Imagine being able to watch a sports game from a player's point of view. I also really like your idea of coaches and players being able to watch plays in first person. VR would also be really helpful for sports similar to tennis. It's hard to practice throwing a ball in virtual reality, but it's very easy to practice your reflexes and swing with a virtual tennis racket, or for baseball like you mentioned.
DeleteOne thing to consider that I did not mention in my original post is that there are some ways to implement real objects with a virtual space. It’s not necessarily virtual reality in the sense that you are immersed, but I like to think of when you go to a golf shop to try out new clubs. They set you up in front of a screen that you can actually hit balls into and you can see the projected flight path and distance on the screen. You are actually doing the action but he result is in a virtual space since the ball hits the screen that is 10 feet away from you. This technology could also be applied to tennis on serves so you could actually practice serves without the need to be on the court and you can track the data of your serve.
DeleteGreat post, Matt. As VR becomes more mainstream, it will certainly impact sporting industries and athletes themselves. One example I could think of would be for athletes in impact sports. For sports like football and hockey, where there is a lot of physical contact, players could practice their skills in programs instead of on the field or ice. In football, a running back could practice his routes and jukes with virtual defenders coming at him. But because it is virtual, the back wouldn't actually feel the pain associated with the hit. Overall, VR could definitely reduce the amount of injuries outside of official games in multiple contact sports.
ReplyDeleteFor fans, VR could also impact their sporting experiences. For example, by placing a 360 degree camera in a sporting event that can live stream to VR headsets at home, fans can experience events as if they are there. As the NHL playoffs are starting, teams could place this camera in a front row seat on the glass. Fans could then login. To the live stream and watch the game as if they had front row seats. This could potentially open up a whole new subscription-based streaming industry and change how we experience sports.
VR would definitely help with very physical sports. With the Concussion issues in football and NFL teams having less options in terms of practice because of the limits on contact, VR could be the way they go in terms of getting meaningful practice without destroying their bodies. It allows them to focus on the strategy of the game and improve their decision making process for when they have to perform in game. The only issue that teams would have to combat would be the idea that players would potentially lose some physicality to their game if they only practiced using VR. It will be important for players to find a balance so they can keep performing to the best of their abilities.
DeleteI think this kind of stuff is so interesting! As a high school athlete, I think this would've been really cool to do while practicing, especially because you can only practice so much like a real game in practice. As a fan, what a weird concept to be watching a game in your own home but live and in virtual reality like you're really there. It's like watching TV and pretending you're there, but at the next level!
ReplyDeleteVirtual reality is absolutely going to help athletes take their play to the next level. I believe because of this type of technology, we are going to see athletes play a much "smarter" game. There have been athletes in the past that the world declares "smart" because their game is different than those around them; their abilities to see the game, their teammates, and what the best move is allows them to become legends in their respective sports.
ReplyDeleteBesides practicing and playing, I believe this tool could be incredibly helpful for coaching. Coaches have so much pressure put on them; however, they are not the ones on the field. I believe it would give coaches a better insight into what the players see and allow them to offer better suggestions, run different drills and coach a stronger team.
Really interesting topic. I think that using virtual reality as an athlete is something that is more safe than playing sports physically. Both have different experiences associated with them, obviously what we experiences in VR is something beyond what we experience in reality. I think its cool to play sports VR games but a real athlete would prefer the physical experience, simply because of their understanding of the game's rules in real life. In my opinion, I feel that it is a helpful tool for an athlete to practice using VR, however, it would not be helpful to completely rely on VR for practicing purposes.
ReplyDeleteFrom a fan experience, I think that VR is something really cool to play with, especially for games that have lots of movements involved. Some good ways to implement this technology is to maybe develop lightweight glasses that are not wired, this would make the experience better I think, and give a more realistic feature to it.