Ziel

The goal of the present research was to investigate the beneficial effects of playing sport video games in addition to on-field training within a quasi-experimental field study amongst adolescent soccer players. Specifically, we tested wether one group of soccer players who received an additional soccer-specific training wirh the game EA FIFA 2014 showed additional benefits concerning motivation, self-efficacy, and soccer-specific tactical skills compared to a group that received a placebo video game training. Both groups received exactly the same on-field soccer training for one week. The results indicate that there were no carry-over effects from playing EA FIFA 14 on any of the dependent variables. This pattern of results suggests that caution is warranted regarding the positive transfer of digital games to real-world behavior. Future research should focus on a systematical adaptation of the digital games to the demands of the real-world behavior.