The Impact of VR and AI on Youth Sports

Here’s an Olympic story you might not know. Canadian bobsledder Lyndon Rush was sitting in a Munich airport during a layover on his way to the 2014 Sochi Winter Games. While Lyndon was physically sitting in the terminal, mentally he was speeding through the dangerous twists and turns of the track he would soon be navigating.

This Olympic athlete was using the art of visualization to mentally walk through his upcoming bobsled runs. His practice typically includes muscle tensing, leaning into each turn, and controlled breathing to simulate competitions long before donning a skintight suit and helmet to seek team and country glory. 

Visualization is extremely effective at the Olympic and pro sports levels. Yet it’s beyond the capabilities of most youth sports teams and athletes — not because they don’t have the brains and drive to succeed! Instead, the fact is, Olympic athletes like Lyndon Rush who rely on visualization enjoy high-priced sports psychologists assisting them in this advanced mental technique. Of course, families involved in youth sports already have plenty to pay for. Few (if any) families have the budget to pay for big league sports psychology assistance to boot. What’s more, visualization is most effective with a known set of variables — think about the turns on a bobsled track, not the wildly different plays of football, baseball, or practically any other popular team sport.

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The Future of Game Day Preparation

Now the good news. Rapidly advancing fields of virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI) present a new way for young athletes to prepare for games, gaining an edge to play to their full potential. In fact, VR can replace sports psychologists with technology that America’s youth are already quite comfortable with, such as VR headsets. As a leader in applying cutting-edge innovation to youth sports, GameChanger is especially excited by how VR and AI can enable athletes to build gameplans before warmups ever begin. 

Best of all? This isn’t speculative science fiction. The tech is already here for high level athletes and will be for athletes at all levels in the near future. One example of VR’s dramatic impact on player performance is Washington Commanders rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels. The second pick in 2024’s NFL draft is considered by many to be enjoying the best rookie season in NFL history. 

Interestingly, he attributes part of his success to VR training. Daniels explained how VR helped him in a recent Sports Illustrated article. During his time with the LSU Tigers, Daniels’ coaches used a VR headset to create field models, then programmed likely defense schemes of upcoming teams. “It's like real life,” said Daniels in the SI piece. “They load in the stadium that you're playing in…. It's the actual scheme. Say we are playing a big Cover 3 team, they have different versions of Cover 3 we might see. So it is just like another way to prepare mentally before the game."

As Daniels’ experience reveals, it’s easier for an athlete to learn how to react when the 250-pound linebacker barreling at them is virtual — not a flesh-and-blood opponent intent on knocking them into next week. He went on to describe VR training more once the simulacrum is loaded: "I'll get in there and they'll probably give me seven seconds to know the play, presnap I got to basically see the coverage and know where I'm going with the football all before the play clock runs out."

Turns out the VR game preparation was so successful that the Commanders ordered the same equipment — as the quarterback explained in an episode of All Facts No Brakes with Keyshawn Johnson. So what does this mean for athletes who aren’t pro quarterbacks, not to mention, those that don’t even play football?

Although systems used by pro teams and high-level college programs may be quite sophisticated, there are few barriers to attaining VR preparation for athletes at any level. VR headsets are advancing at a stunning rate even as prices plunge. Also, software used to create virtual models is not difficult to create when compared to modern video games. As far as other sports, we see this approach being just as valuable in baseball, softball, soccer, lacrosse, and volleyball — to name just a few where VR could greatly benefit athletes. 

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VR and AI: A Powerful Combination

But VR’s potential to improve athletic performance is almost limitless when you add in one more ingredient — AI. In recent years, GameChanger has introduced impactful AI tools to youth basketball, from products like AutoStream, enabling coaches to concentrate on developing their players, to Film Room which uncovers powerful insights into each player’s performance and development areas. As our team considers VR applications for youth sports, we also recognize the potential for AI to take VR to a whole new level.

Think about how both teams used VR to help Daniels prepare for games. Now imagine that along with programming in defensive schemes quarterbacks may face, AI could also model defensive players’ actions based on their stats. The result would be a far more accurate and insightful simulation, empowering greater mental preparation. This perfectly translates to youth sports where GameChanger already uses AI to capture game plays and instantly generate content. 

Regardless of the sport, VR preparation fueled by AI statistical analysis gives athletes of every sport the ability to step onto the field with unparalleled preparation levels.

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