It is not uncommon to see college athletes passing the time in between classes and practice by playing video games. According to Joe Brescia of the New York Times, video games improve their physical and mental skills, too.
Video games like Nintendo’s Wii Fit or Electronics Arts’ Madden N.F.L. series aren’t just for armchair athletes.
Professional athletes in a range of sports say that video games improve their physical and mental skills, in part because the quality of the sports simulations by companies like Electronic Arts and Take-Two Interactive has gotten so good.
With Major League Soccer’s season now under way, Conor Chinn, a forward with the New York Red Bulls, spends an hour on the day of each real game in front of his Microsoft Xbox 360 playing FIFA Soccer by Electronic Arts. Mr. Chinn is one of those who say they believe that video games help performance.
“It gets your soccer brain started that day,” said Mr. Chinn, who began the regimen in college. Each virtual player mimics “the way a player moves, the way they shoot, the way they pass the ball” in real life.
“You really get to see and experience the players’ style of play,” he said. “After I face a guy on the field, you can see how very similar the movements and actions are in the video game.”
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