Real Practice and Virtual Practice Improve Basketball Free Throwing Skill Learning in Female Students: Examining the Role of Concurrent and Delayed Feedback

ABSTRACT Background Today, active video games, in which players' own body movements are used to control the avatar, can be used to teach students motor skills by providing concurrent feedback. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of concurrent and delayed feedback on basketball free throw learning. Methods Thirty female students performed 10 trials of the free throw basketball (pre‐test) in the real environment. Then, they were divided into three equal groups (concurrent feedback, delayed feedback and control group) by random assignment. Individuals in the concurrent and delayed feedback groups practiced 50 trials in each of four sessions over 2 weeks in a virtual and real environment in the acquisition phase. After the last acquisition session, the post‐test, the retention test and the transfer test were performed for all three groups. Results The results of mixed ANOVA showed no significant difference between the delayed and concurrent feedback in acquisition, retention and transfer ( p s > 0.05). Each of these methods was better than the control group in acquisition and retention ( p s < 0.05). Conclusions Therefore, it is suggested that teachers can use the concurrent feedback method and delayed video feedback.