The training of athletes’ anticipation and decision-making skills has received increasing attention from researchers, who developed and implemented training programs to achieve this. Video-based training (VBT) has become a popular method in anticipation and decision-making skills training. However, little is known about the benefits of implementing VBT in soccer. This systematic review considered the results of studies on VBT aiming to develop decision-making and anticipation skills in football players, and analyzed its effects. Literature published up to March 2022 was systematically searched on the scientific electronic databases Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, SportDiscus, and Google Scholar. In total, 5,749 articles were identified. After screening the records according to the set exclusion and inclusion criteria, ten articles were considered eligible, including six longitudinal studies and four acute studies. Eight of the ten included studies (80%) showed that VBT group performance in anticipation or decision-making skills was significantly better at post-test than at pre-test, as evidenced by improvements in response accuracy (RA), response times (RT), mean distance scores (MDS) and passing decision-making performance. In six studies that included the no video-based training (NVBT) group, results showed that athletes in the VBT group performed better in anticipation or decision-making skills than in the NVBT group, as evidenced by improvements in RA and RT performance. The studies used different methods for VBT, both explicit and implicit training effectively improved participants’ anticipation and decision-making skills. In addition, the implementation of the “first-person” perspective (i.e., the player’s perspective) and virtual reality (VR) improved the presentation of video stimuli, effectively improving anticipation and decision-making. The findings of this review suggest that VBT is beneficial in developing anticipation and decision-making judgments in football players. However, some findings were inconsistent with previous studies due to differences in intervention duration and experimental protocols, and further studies are needed. Furthermore, future research should actively seek to design appropriate retention tests and transfer tests to truly understand the benefits of VBT for athletes.

Objective Extended reality technologies (e.g. virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR)) are gaining popularity in sports owing to their unique advantages. This study aims to analyse the progress of the application of extended reality technology in sports and reveal its cooperative features, research hotspots and development trends. Methods We searched the literature in the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database within the period 2000 to 2021 and conducted a bibliometric analysis. The analysis methods included statistical, co-occurrence, hierarchical clustering and social network analyses. Results A total of 340 articles were gathered. The literature related to its research showed an increasing trend over time. The paper collaboration rate was 90.88% (309/340 papers), and the degree of author collaboration was 3.96 (1345/340). VR was found to be the most productive journal, and Queen's University Belfast was the most productive institution. The United States, China and the United Kingdom were the three main contributors to the field. The foundational themes in sports extended reality research were (i) sports games and extended reality systems, (ii) virtual simulation devices and artificial intelligence, (iii) sports training and performance and (iv) age-appropriate physical activity, sports rehabilitation and physical education. Conclusion The level of author collaboration was low, but the degree of author collaboration is largely on the rise. The closeness of the collaboration between institutions and countries was also low. In addition, the subject of sport extended reality is relatively fragmented. Therefore, more research is needed to strengthen it in the future.