A preliminary study on using augmented virtuality to improve training for intercollegiate archers

The purpose of this study was to understand how to use Augmented Virtuality (AV) to improve the training of intercollegiate archers and to understand the correlations among their levels of physical activity, health-related quality of life and archery performance in AV and 70M outdoor target archery competitions. The study employed cross-sectional study design and recruited 31 intercollegiate archers (age 19.55 ± 1.48, 16 males, 15 females) who were voluntarily to complete the health-related quality of life and "Papa Bear questionnaires and 4 Wii somatosensory games in August 2011 in Taiwan. SPSS 18.0 was utilized to analyze the data. The results showed that there are significant correlations between: (1) years of sport experience and scores in 70m outdoor target archery competitions (r = 0.49, p < 0.01);(2) levels of physical activity and scores in 70m outdoor target archery competitions(p < 0.05). The study concluded that years of sport experience and levels of physical activity still play key factors on their sport performance. In addition, although AV technology did not show its correlation with 70m outdoor target archery competitions, designing higher levels of difficulty and challenges in archery games, closeness to real environment and equipment modification are recommended to explore potential values of AV archery trainings.