Do player performance, real sport experience, and gender affect movement patterns during equivalent exergame?

This study compared the movement patterns of forty-six college students, playing bouts of swimming exergame, while categorized based on their playing performance, gender, and prior experience of real swimming and exergames. Swimming events were divided into normal (controlled by visual feedback) and fast (no feedback) phases and upper limb kinematics were monitored during front crawl event. Those who performed better, completed the game with fewer upper limb cycles and in a shorter time (p < 0.003). Prior exergame experience resulted in higher start velocity (p = 0.019) and those who were familiarized with this swimming exergame, completed the front crawl event with fewer cycles (p = 0.022). Gender and real swimming experience did not affect biomechanical variables. With various playing styles and differences to real swimming movements, the data suggest that the motion capture device is not able to detect complex movements of swimming and previous knowledge of real swimming do not necessarily transfer into better exergame performance. These changes might have happened due to higher adaptation to the exergame. Understanding these patterns may help in the development of more realistic sport exergames and meaningful gameplay.