Journal of Advances in Para-Sport Science
A peer-reviewed, open-access academic journal dedicated to the advancement of sports sciences for individuals with diverse abilities

Virtual reality games and mental skills of elite athletes during the COVID-19 pandemic

Authors

Fereshteh Izadkhah 1
Alireza Bahrami 2
Peyman Honarmand 3

1 Assistant Professor of Department of Motor Behavior and Sport Psychology, Faculty of Sport Sciences, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran

2 Associate Professor of Department of sports psychology, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, University of Arak, Arak, Iran.

3 1Department of Movement behavior and sports psychology, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Abstract
 The current study's prime objective was to assess virtual reality games' impact on the mental skills of elite athletes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In this study, 228 elite athletes were randomly selected and divided into four groups of 57 controls and experiments. All subjects in the control and experimental groups received virtual reality games for 15 minutes for ten sessions; then, each group was re-examined. The control group performed a follow-up test according to the posttest after two weeks using the Ottawa mental skills assessment questionnaire (OMSAT-3), and repeated measures analysis of covariance and Bonferroni post hoc test were used to test the hypothesis (P≤0.05).
The results obtained using repeated measures analysis of covariance and Bonferroni post hoc test showed that virtual reality games influenced elite athletes' mental skills in COVID.
From these findings, it can be said that virtual reality games can improve the mental skills of elite athletes during COVID-19

Keywords

virtual reality games
mental skills
elite athletes
COVID-19
Athletic Performance
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Journal of Advances in Para-Sport Science
Volume 3, Issue 4
December 2023
Pages 522-532