Visual simulation training conducted at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is designed to improve athletes` skill in decision-making. By being able to better read the game, they can respond more quickly and accurately than their opponent, and know instinctively what is going to happen next. Once again, it is about one thing — that winning edge. This is skill acquisition `research in action`. Players are tested in an interactive video simulation decision-making test. The test utilises near life-size video projections of game situations filmed from the player`s perspective. The players are required to interact with the video display as if they were in an actual game situation by watching the play unfold and then making a decision to shoot, pass or dribble (if they are, for example, basketballers or netballers) or handball or kick (if they are, say, Australian football players) at the critical moment. Their physical response is recorded to extract decision-making speed and accuracy measures. So far, it has been an essentially 2D test but now the scientists are taking it into the 3D world, creating the impression of actually being in the film. Donning 3D goggles (a little like the ones some of us remember from those old 3D movie days), the player feels as if they are right there in the middle of the action, real-time, much like the feeling one gets at an IMAX cinema. The logic behind this approach is that if the players feel 3D is more realistic than 2D, they will perform more naturally and any video simulation training they complete will better transfer to actual competition performance.
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