Comparing Scoring Mechanics for Encouraging Technique Adoption in a Sport Training Game

Athletes of all levels can find drills repetitive, tedious, and unengaging. Sport training games address this, aiming to make practicing techniques fun. However, there is little information about what feedback athletes need to support skill acquisition and improve engagement. To address this, we develop a game for training the optimal shooting arc technique for basketball free throws, and compare several scoring mechanics based on: 1) adherence to technique, 2) results (successfully making a shot), and 3) a combination of technique and results feedback. We find that technique feedback is essential to adopting a new technique, while results feedback improves engagement. We also find that combining technique and results feedback is effective, but can be overly complex for novices. Our results allow us to make recommendations to designers and researchers on how they can effectively scaffold skill development and engagement in sport training games.