Physical Skills and Digital Gaming: The Relationship between Basketball and an Augmented Reality Adaption

The focus of studies in Game-based-Learning and Serious Games is often set to exploring the relationship between experience and the ability to learn in digital game environments which are transferred to real world contexts. As Fritz (Handbuch Medien: Computerspiele (p. 229-246). Bonn, Germany: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, 1997) states, those transfers are not of monodirectional character. In our own study about a complex motor-driven action in a sports’ context we tried to explore the antipodal perspective and searched for references in real word sports skills when applied to digital gameplay.
When motor-driven sport skills become evident, it is strongly influenced by several components of the action itself, by anthropometric characteristics e.g. endurance and coordination skills of the player and by the exterior and situational conditions under with an activity is performed (comp e.g. Ehlenz et al., Krafttraining. Grundlagen, Methoden, Übungen, Trainingsprogramme. München, Germany: BLV, 1987, p. 11; Weineck, Optimales Training (14. Auflage). Nürnberg, Germany: Spitta, 2004, p. 21). The execution and control of motor-driven sport activities in kinesiology is explained via schematics based on abstract movement-experiences (Schmid, Psychological Rev 82:225-260, 1975; Schmid, Eine Schematheorie über das Lernen diskreter motorischer Fertigkeiten. Kassel, Germany: Kassel University Press, 1994; Schmid & Lee, Motor control and learning: A behavioral emphasis. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2005; Olivier & Rockmann, Grundlagen der Bewegungswissenschaft. Schorndorf, Germany: Hofmann, 2003).
By the example of basketball we’ve looked for considerations regarding to an “intermondial transfer” (Fritz, Wie Computerspieler ins Spiel kommen. Theorien und Modell zur Nutzung und Wirkung virtueller Spielwelten. Berlin, Germany: Vistas, 2011, S. 93) from real-world movement schematics to action in a digital (game) adoption: We observed the performance of players passing through real-world tasks (penalty shots) in comparison to the their action in an adapted augmented reality environment.