Enhancing Eye-Hand Coordination in Volleyball Players: A Comparative Analysis of VR, AR, and 2D Display Technologies and Task Instructions

Previous studies analyzed user motor performance with Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) Eye-Hand Coordination Training Systems (EHCTSs) while asking participants to follow specific task instructions. Although these studies suggested VR & AR EHCTSs as potential training systems for sports players, they recruited participants for their user studies among general population. In this paper, we examined the training performance of 16 professional volleyball players over 8 days using EHCTSs with three display technologies (VR, AR, and 2D touchscreen) and with four distinct task instructions (prioritizing speed, error rate, accuracy, or none). Our results indicate that volleyball players performed best with 2D touchscreen in terms of time, error rate, accuracy, precision, and throughput. Moreover, their performance was superior when using VR over AR. They also successfully followed the task instructions given to them and consistently improved their throughput performance. These findings underscore the potential of EHCTS in volleyball training and highlight the need for further research to optimize VR & AR user experience and performance.