Towards an Understanding of Situated AR Visualization for Basketball Free-Throw Training
This work addresses the problem of enhancing skill-based sports training for athletes using AR, but it is incremental as it builds on existing visualization methods.
The study compared co-located and situated AR visualizations for basketball free-throw training, finding that real-time visual feedback improved athletes' angle consistency and focus on body form.
We present an observational study to compare co-located and situated real-time visualizations in basketball free-throw training. Our goal is to understand the advantages and concerns of applying immersive visualization to real-world skill-based sports training and to provide insights for designing AR sports training systems. We design both a situated 3D visualization on a head-mounted display and a 2D visualization on a co-located display to provide immediate visual feedback on a player's shot performance. Using a within-subject study design with experienced basketball shooters, we characterize user goals, report on qualitative training experiences, and compare the quantitative training results. Our results show that real-time visual feedback helps athletes refine subsequent shots. Shooters in our study achieve greater angle consistency with our visual feedback. Furthermore, AR visualization promotes an increased focus on body form in athletes. Finally, we present suggestions for the design of future sports AR studies.