CAN SPORTS VIDEO GAMES IMPROVE AN ATHLETES’ SKILLS?

By: Chance Badger

Introduction History of sports video games Quotes from various athletes of various

sports What the SVG’s are helping to improve how some people are using the SVG’s How they are benefiting the athletes Downsides to the video games

Brandon Stokley Took extra 6 seconds off the clock

to score winning touchdown He ran in a perfect diagonal across

the field at the 1 yard line before he crossed to the end zone

While it was an exciting move that shook all fans of Broncos and Bengals, it was a familiar move

Brandon Stokley Continued Answered Chris Suellentrop’s question

as to if the move was off a video game, “It definitely is; I think everybody who’s played those games has done that.”

Sam Weinberg, of The News Record, called it the, “bragging asshole move”; while running down the clock you’re also taunting your opponent.

History 1982: William Higinbotham, nuclear

physicist, hooked up an electronic virtual tennis game called Tennis for Two

Magnavox’s Odyssey, the first game console had a virtual version of Ping Pong

Later Pong, from Atari came out Shortly after all the other sports started

jumping in with the video games.

History 2 Basically if a sport required two or more possible

players there was going to be a virtual version of it soon enough.

Video game companies race for most realistic game Next idea=

For better reality, put real professional athletes on the game

1983: EA sports signed Larry Bird and Julius Erving for a license to basically put a virtual copy of them on the game itself.

History 3 It wasn’t long till other companies were

coming out with video games using big name athletes Now fans could play as their favorite athlete

Trip Hawkins, founder of Electronic Arts, says, “Most of my friends will tell you I started EA as an excuse to make a football game. And there’s probably a fair amount of truth to that.”

Madden First for the Apple 2 in 1989 Then for Sega Genesis in 1990 Became most commercially successful

video game produced Since at the time Madden was the closest to

reality in video gaming 2004 an exclusive license was made

with the NFL, this eliminated any competitors fast

Madden 2 The Gospel of John Madden

In 2008, Madden sold the most copies than any other game except for the WII play. Research done by

NPD group This brought in $263

Million dollars to EA

The Madden series became known as this.

This franchise video game had more impact on football than anything else (besides money)

Caused more people to watch football and more football athletes being raised up

Process in reality of Video GameWhat they Copy off a Player Motion Capture System

Looks facial expressions Height Weight Movements

Based on specifics and skills

Recreate any movement by athlete

Athlete wears a black spandex neoprene suit

There are small green light sensors on specific spots of the suit

Joints, chest, back, ect.

Motion Capture System These “recordings” of the athlete

become the base for imitating the athletes exact movements

Then they are tweaked by a design team who takes the time to perfect those movements down to the best detail possible.

This System is so powerful the athletes and trainers and teams are using this system to improve their form to be more effective in reality

Process in reality of Video Games 2 Example of MPS:

A pitcher records himself pitching a specific throw

Then watches and measures form Then figures out what to improve for a more

effective pitch Then it is back to practice and recording for

viewing again

Bryan Lam, a spokesman for 2K sports, says, “Our developers pore over hundreds of hours, watching footage of players and paying extremely close attention to all their movements, physical nuances and a variety of other granular detail. We work closely with pro athletes to capture their signature style, so it’s their exact movements in our game.”

Rob Schremp, hockey player for New York Islanders example.

Positives While a player is injured they can keep

skills and focus in check in the virtual world while waiting to heal

Makes for good friendship and bonding Helps players to learn to play as a team Helps improve field/court awareness Improves skill and movements If an athlete plays the same move/play

enough times, they will probably be able to imitate it in a real game

Soccer Conor Chinn, a forward for the New York Red

Bulls While in college he started a routine “They mimic the way a player moves, they way

they shoot, and pass the ball like in real life, you really get to see and experience the players’ style of play. After I face a guy on the field, you can see how very similar the movements and actions are in the video game.”

Nascar Joey Logano Practices his driving on a simulation on his

computer, using a steering wheel and peddles for the controllers

This is as close as he can get to the real thing since Nascar racers are not allowed to practice on real tracks.

This is all to help him memorize the track and improve his driving

Purpose The purpose of the athletes playing is to

learn the plays Team work Practice skills while not at practice Stay on focus Learn specific moves Play against the opposing team to get

familiar with them and how they play

Purpose examples: What if a pitcher threw a double play in

video game over and over, could he imitate that in the real world when the time comes?

Driving the same virtual representation of the track you are about to race, over and over so that you will have it memorized

Football players practicing the same play over and over so that in the real game they can perform it to perfection

New and recent designs In the newer games, the user can play as the

coach; this allows them to play the part right What if the coach of a real team played the

coach on the virtual machine? This new attribute to the game allows new

plays to be put into the game for the players to use You can bet lots of coaches got on top of that real

fast Colorado state, Penn state, and many more

use the Madden game to program their plays into the game

Young Athletes Craig Wilson, a youth hockey coach in Maine “My son scored three goals this weekend

with a move I’ve never seen him do, I asked, ‘where did you get that move?’ and he answered with NHL 11, when he practiced it on the screen in the shootout.”

It seems that most young athletes develop a way of learning using these video games through visual learning.

Young Athletes Training Over 90% of all youth coaches have had no

type of coach training, but they instruct around 25 million youth a year. -Scott Lancaster

Most coaches have a lot of help from the youth playing sports video games and learning the game in such a way as to be able to perform well in the real game.

John Hart, a former general manager for the Rangers.

Cons. To Video Games Cause athletic passion to disappear

Gilbert Arenas, player for the Washington Wizards, he became so addicted to winning in Halo that he played with a fake team member just to rack up his experience points.

Cause health issues Joel Zumaya was not able to pitch for the Detroit

Tigers in 2006, because he was suffering from forearm and wrist inflammation because he had been playing Guitar Hero way too much.

Future Thoughts Marshal Faulk, running back for the St.

Louis Rams, claimed that in 1994 “probably 10, 15, 20 percent” of NFL athletes were gamers

Later when asked again he estimated 50%

Recently when Stokley was interviewed about his amazing touchdown, he was also asked for an estimate and he estimated, “Everybody.”

Conclusion No doubt athletes are using Video games to

improve their skills And as each generation grows they become

more of a virtual generation, and so there will be even more kids than ever before, raising up “practicing” to become an amazing athlete

As the virtual world becomes more real, there is no telling how far virtual reality will go before it becomes reality.

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