Traditional Versus Immersive Video-Based Referee Training Methods and How They Affect Situational Confidence Levels in Intramural College Basketball Officials

Abstract

The number of sports officials around the United States and world has been slowly declining. The average age of sports officials keeps rising year over year, meaning younger officials are leaving their jobs at a high rate. The goal of this study was to compare training methods, traditional and immersive video-based, specifically RefReps training, to see how this training method affects officials’ confidence level at performing their duty as college intramural basketball officials. The study included college level intramural basketball officials from different universities in the United States (N = 34). A pre-test survey asking about confidence level was administered to each participating official prior to training for the upcoming intramural season. A control group (N = 13) used the university’s traditional training as their only form of training, while the test group (N = 21) trained using RefReps immersive video-based training. A post-test survey was given with the same confidence level questions for the participants to answer. The results showed that the RefReps group showed a greater increase in confidence in their ability to possess the most extensive knowledge of the rules compared to anyone else at the game and an increase in confidence in their ability to determine if a foul or violation had been committed.