The Influence of a Ten-week ExerCube Training on Executive Functions as Well as on Training Motivation, Enjoyment and Mental Well-being in Young Athletes

Competitive game sports require the existence of several sport-specific skills. In particular, game sport athletes need a good set of skills in order to perform well on the field. Therefore, it is important for athletes, especially young athletes, not only perform their sport, but also perform variable trainings, which differently train/trigger sport-specific skills. One skill set that is important in competitive game sports are so-called executive functions. Executive functions are needed for action planning and adaptation to the individual environmental situation, e.g. inhibition, flexibility and divided attention. A form of training that is very promising in this respect is exergaming as nowadays coaches are using virtual reality simulations to create realistic training environments. An exergame that combines this cognitive stimulation with whole-body movements in a motivating training environment is the ExerCube. Until now, however, evidence is lacking how an additional holistic exergame training can influence executive functioning in young athletes. Therefore, this study aims to get preliminary insight into the effects of the ExerCube performance on the executive function in young athletes (primary objective). The participants will be allocated into either the intervention group (ExerCube training) or the control group (no additional ExerCube training). The intervention group will train 2 times per week for about 30 minutes over a time frame of 10 weeks. Additionally, to consider the effects of the training environment, the secondary objectives include training motivation, enjoyment and flow as well as mental well-being.