Power‐VR: Interactive 3D virtual environment to increase motivation levels of powerlifters during training sessions

AbstractMotivation is one of the important factors that increase the success of athletes, especially who lift weights. It increases not only the success of the athletes but also influences other notions such as increasing self‐confidence, decreasing anxiety, and improving endurance. Although motivation has a key role in the performance of athletes, most of the athletes may be fully motivated only in competition environments. However, being motivated only in competition environments is not enough for athletes since they spend most of their time in training. If they are motivated in training environments as motivated as in competition environments, they can increase their performance, however, being motivated during training sessions is not easy since there are not enough motivational factors, such as spectators, in training environments. In order to solve this problem, this study aims to increase the motivation levels of powerlifters during training sessions by developing a virtual competition environment. In this environment, the athletes experience a virtual competition environment by using HTC Vive. To understand the efficiency of the virtual environment, it was tested with 32 professional athletes. The findings illustrated that using VR technology was beneficial to increase the level of motivation of powerlifters during training sessions.