Hello Professor Oakes,

I am Jeffrey Mariles a freshman here at Penn State University Abington and I am currently
studying how have virtual reality simulation help athletes improve their performance. I have
always loved sports and I think this would be a great topic to look into. With our world changing
each and every day and getting more advanced in technology I believe that this will be the way
that athletes train in the future. I was hoping that since you have a wide range of knowledge in
Information, Science and Technology that you would be willing to join me for this extended
ACURA project. If you find that your time is limited then I will always be able to work on a
standard ACURA project as well.

If you could get back to me in at least two weeks that would be great. I understand that you may
be very busy as well so if you cannot assist me then that is no problem.

Thank You,

Gray, R. (2017). Transfer of Training from Virtual to Real Baseball Batting, Volume 8
Vignais, N; Kulpa ,R; Brault, S; Presse, D; Bideau, B: Which technology to investigate
visual perception in sport: Video vs. virtual reality, 11/2014.

This article investigates “the transfer of perceptual-motor skills trained in an adaptive

baseball batting VE to real baseball performance.” The experimental methods include analyzing
eight baseball players training and practice with the addition of equal practice of hitting training
in virtual experiences. The statistics of the following seasons were compared to a players
practice methods using the virtual simulation compared to the traditional on field training. “For
the majority of performance measures, the adaptive VE training group showed a significantly
greater improvement from pre-post training as compared to the other groups. In addition,
players in this group had superior batting statistics in league play and reached higher levels of
competition.”

Miles, Helen C; Pop, Serban R; Watt, Simon J; Lawrence, Gavin P; John, Nigel W: A review of
virtual environments for training in ball sports Computers & Graphics, 10/2012, Volume 36,
Issue 6.

This scholarly source goes into what is needed for a virtual reality simulation and the
expenses for the type of software needed to have a virtual reality simulation. The article goes
into if the skills that are picked up in virtual reality simulations transfer to real world scenarios
and this is based off different experiments in other sports such as baseball, rugby, and soccer.
The findings were difficult to ultimately conclude because of the difficulty to represent a large
playing area in the virtual simulation such as a baseball or football field.
Neumann, D.L., Moffitt, R.L., Thomas, P.R., Loveday, K., Watling, D.P., Lombard, C.L. Virtual
Reality, 09/2018, Volume 22, Issue 3, (183-198)

The journal article is aimed to document research on virtual reality simulations that have
taken place in sports such as running, cycling and rowing to give a better understanding on how
it can actually improve performance. It has been detailed that there are four components to a
virtual reality simulation: the environment, the sport tasks, characteristic of an athlete, and
aspects of the real world environment. The journal article also describes the psychological
aspect of adding the presences of others in VR simulations that will engage and influence the
athlete training in the simulation. The authors did conclude from the research that VR
simulations improved “adherence (Annesi and Mazas ​1997​), better race strategy performance
(Hoffmann et al. ​2014​), higher cognitive functioning (Anderson-Hanley et al. ​2012​), improved
mood and reduced tiredness (Plante et al. ​2003b​), increased workload (Chen et al. ​2015​), and
higher enjoyment (Mestre et al. ​2011​; Murray et al. ​2016​).”

Ranganathan, R., & Carlton, L. G. (2007). Perception-action coupling and anticipatory

performance in baseball batting.​ Journal of Motor Behavior, 39​(5), 369-80.

The journal article describes the methods of how they were able to manipulate pitches in
the virtual reality simulation. In the experiment 10 expert and 10 novice baseball players were
used to predict the pitch types. Based on the outcome of this experiment the authors “suggest
that specific task requirements determine whether a highly coupled perception-action
environment improves anticipatory performance. The authors also highlight the need for
research on interceptive actions to be conducted in the performer's natural environment.”

Zaal F. T. J. M., Bootsma, R (2011) Virtual Reality as a Tool for the Study of Perception-Action:
The Case of Running to Catch Fly Balls. ​Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 20​(1), 93-103.

The article looks into how virtual simulations can be used for perception action in sports
to help athletes train and be familiar with ball trajectories. The article is mainly focus on how
knowing the baseball trajectory for outfields can help them know how to get to the area of where
the ball is landing at the correct time. The authors suggest that this method can be used in other
sports such as football and soccer. The virtual simulation allows to create trajectories that
cannot be easily mimicked in real life which make it more effective to train in this way.