The impact of virtual sports on the functional performance of college students with disabilities

ABSTRACT Background: Modern education actively introduces new technologies that help improve the educational process. The presence of health restrictions leads to a decrease in the physical activity of the student. Students exempt from physical education classes experience a further decline in physical activity. Virtual reality technologies can help to overcome the gap between the need for physical activity of students and the health condition that prevents it. Objective: To assess the effect of virtual sports on the functional characteristics of health and vitality of college students with health restrictions. Method: Classical experiment. Subjects: 30 college students (17-18 years old) with disabilities; including 16 girls. They were randomly divided into control and experimental groups (15 students each (8 girls and 7 boys)). Diagnostics: breath holding on inhalation (Stange test), static balancing, mindfulness questionnaire (MAAS), vitality questionnaire, "Subjective assessment of diseases" questionnaire. Impact: 3 virtual sports sessions over 3 weeks using VR simulators (rock climbing - The Climb 2, archery: Archery Kings, racket games: First Person Tennis). Statistics: Wilcoxon test, ANOVA analysis of variance. Results: The experimental group students significantly increased: static balancing time (by 29.7 sec. (p<0.01) and stress resistance. The following increased at the trend level: breath holding time on inhalation (by 6.2 sec. (p<0.10) and overall vitality. No changes were found in the control group. Functional health indicators are also affected by the duration of sports sessions. Conclusion: Virtual sports sessions over 3 weeks, 1 session per week, have proven effective for students with disabilities. Keywords: disabilities, college students, functional disabilities, virtual sports, virtual reality, static balancing, breath holding, mindfulness, vitality