Can interactive textiles influence a novice’s throwing technique?

Early skill development often occurs without the presence of a skilled instructor, or in settings where the skilled mentor is unable to provide prolonged one-to-one instruction and guidance. Interactive textiles are offering new scope for novice training. New textile sensors, such as strain sensors, are enabling measurement in a way that allows real-time feedback stimuli in diverse training and competition environments. The goal of this study was to explore the potential of a wearable interactive garment to provide rhythmic auditory biofeedback to augment the learning of a novice in a setting where there is no expert guidance. An “interactive sleeve” placed on the shooting arm provided auditory information in the form of drum beats to participants if they were successful in approximating a certain range of movement at the elbow and wrist during the execution of a modified netball shooting skill. It was thought that this form of biofeedback would provide a learning advantage relative to a control group who completed the same task wearing the garment with the biofeedback function disabled. Twenty-two secondary school children (16±1 years) with limited to no previous netball or basketball free throw shooting experience participated voluntarily in this study. It was found that the interactive sleeve intervention group improved their throwing accuracy relative to the control group and that this was due to the use of the interactive sleeve. The effect of the interactive sleeve on throwing technique and learning is discussed.