Virtual reality martial arts combine virtual reality with martial arts. Virtual reality is an immersive experience where reality does not exist, and it is created virtually by the use of computers.
ESCI – European Science Communication Institute video “What is Virtual Reality? | Virtual Reality Explained in 20 Seconds”:
The computer-generated environment simulates reality by the use of interactive devices worn as headsets, goggles, gloves, or body suits. These interactive devices have motion sensors that pick up signals of the movements of the wearer of these devices, and through these signals a three-dimensional illusion of reality is created.
Unreal Polymath video “Exploring the Hardware Behind Virtual Reality | #virtualreality”:
Technological advancement generally finds its first application in the military and virtual reality is no exception. However, soon after the military application, virtual reality was followed by applications in civilian fields also. Few such applications of virtual reality are presented below.
Military
Tactical Solutions Ltd video “Virtual Reality training for Military”:
Research
Reuters video “VR goggles for mice let researchers study their brains | REUTERS”:
Education
Reuters video “‘Metaverse school’ teaches students using VR”:
Healthcare
Meta Quest video “VR’s Healthcare Revolution: Transforming Medical Training at CHLA”:
Commerce
Curiosity Origin video “VR in Retail and Shopping: Virtual Retail – Shopping in the Age of VR”:
Real Estate
Atlas Bay VR video “High-End Virtual Reality for Real Estate”:
Virtual Reality Martial Arts
When martial arts are combined with virtual reality technology, then it gives rise to an illusion of martial arts known as virtual reality martial arts. Here, the user wears a headset where he can see a virtual environment, and sensors strapped to the user’s body allow the user to interact with the virtual environment.
IEEE Virtual Reality Conference video “Martial Arts Training in Virtual Reality with Full-body Tracking and Physically Simulated Opponents”:
Applications of virtual reality martial arts
Virtual reality martial arts applications are available in the form of interactive and immersive games. There are several games, however, the popular ones are as follows.
Thrill of the Fight
This game focuses on realistic boxing and offers a great workout while teaching basic boxing techniques.
Gamertag VR video “Thrill of The Fight 2 Is The Best VR Boxing Game on Meta Quest 3”:
kaden Wilson video “Fighting The Thrill of The Fight Paid Tournament Winner”:
Creed: Rise to Glory
This game is inspired by the Rocky franchise, and one can train under Rocky Balboa and fight against iconic characters from the series.
MAD LAD video “CREED RISE TO GLORY (VR) Full Playthrough”:
Blades and Sorcery
This game features medieval weapons, and one can wield swords, spears, knives, and battle-axes against virtual opponents.
Brutality video “Blade And Sorcery Brutality 202”:
Dragon Fist: VR Kung Fu
This game has a variety of characters and styles inspired by Kung Fu films.
substatica video “I Know VR Kung Fu! Dragon Fist: VR Kung Fu – Quest Gameplay”:
Les Mills Bodycombat
This game combines MMA, boxing, Taekwondo, and more, for a fitness-focused martial arts experience.
Dr. Tine G || Viking Princess VR video “BODYCOMBAT VR Fitness Review: Why this app sets the new standard”:
Benefits of virtual reality martial arts
—Full-body tracking. Virtual reality martial arts capture the user’s entire body movements, with special sensors attached to the body. Virtual opponents respond according to the user’s actions. This helps in practicing distance, timing, and reaction to different types of defenses and attacks.
—Immersive experience. Virtual reality martial arts provide a fully immersive environment where users can interact with a simulated 3D world using headsets and motion trackers. Action takes place in a digital environment with multiple camera angles, providing a comprehensive view of every movement and strategy.
Daedo International video “Virtual Taekwondo: Train Like Never Before!”:
—Real-time motion capture. The virtual reality martial arts system translates the user’s real-time movements into the virtual environment, which ensures that blocks, kicks, and strikes are captured in real-time.
—Realistic simulations. Virtual reality martial arts can simulate various opponents, styles, and scenarios, from dojo training to street fights. With different environments, users experience an increase in their situational awareness and tactical adaptability.
InterestinGameplay video “100 vs 1 in VR – Blade and Sorcery BERSERK Mod”:
—Technique repetition. Some virtual reality martial arts applications focus on specific martial arts techniques, such as punches, kicks, and blocks. Users can practice these techniques repeatedly to improve their precision and skill.
—Customizable characters and training. In virtual reality martial arts, users can choose virtual characters as per their own choice, thereby increasing personal customizations. Users are also allowed to customize their training programs on any desired skill or levels.
InterestinGameplay video “What 200 HOURS of VR combat experience looks like”:
—Immediate feedback. Virtual reality martial arts offer instant feedback on performance, allowing users to quickly correct mistakes and improve techniques.
—Match duration. Generally, there is no duration, as matches go on until someone is eliminated or declared as the winner. However, some virtual reality martial arts applications limit matches to 90 seconds per round, and users can compete in rounds such as best-of-3 or best-of-5.
FitXR video “What to expect in the Combat studio – FitXR tutorial”:
—Increased learning speed: Due to the immediate feedback, virtual reality martial arts help to understand the mistakes. Moreover, the ability to replay the fight helps to quickly correct the mistakes. These features increase the speed of learning.
—Zero injury. Virtual reality martial arts enable the user to practice dangerous techniques in sparring, but in a controlled virtual space, so that the virtual character may get injured but there is no real injury to the user. Thus, persons of any age or gender can participate with utmost safety and zero injury.
PozeAR video “PozeAR – Through The Lens: Quest 3 #martialarts #augmentedreality”:
—Motivation. Virtual reality martial arts are interactive which makes it engaging, leading to increased motivation and more enjoyable training.
—Convenience. Virtual reality martial arts can be accessed from anywhere and anytime, which allows users to train at their own convenience. Users with busy schedules can fit virtual sessions as per their own convenient timings.
InterestinGameplay video “Kung Fu and Martial Arts in VR”:
—Virtual trainer. Some virtual reality martial arts programs offer a three-dimensional virtual coach, who displays the entire procedure to perform a technique. Users can imitate the movements of the virtual trainer and learn the technique. Users can go on repeating the technique until they achieve a high level of perfection.
—AI personalized coaching. Some virtual reality martial arts programs provide artificial intelligence (AI) offering personalized coaching.
Tom Jedi video “Brutal Lightsaber Duels In Virtual Reality II (Blade & Sorcery)”:
Popular virtual reality martial arts drills
—Punching drills. Boxing virtual reality martial arts applications focus on different types of punches. However, rolling, slipping, getting behind, and other complex maneuvers are generally not supported as of now.
—Kicking drills. Virtual reality martial arts programs like Virtual Taekwondo, disregard punching and concentrate exclusively on kicking, especially striking the head or the body. This enables having an intense workout with different types of kicks.
—Parrying and blocking drills. In virtual reality martial arts, blocking and parrying the virtual opponent’s strikes improves the user’s reaction time and defensive skills.
—Sparring drills. A match in a virtual reality martial arts environment is high-octane sparring. As the session is intense and exhaustive, it can give an idea of how a real-time sparring environment may feel.
—Footwork drills. Some virtual reality martial arts applications allow footwork and moving around the virtual arena. With good footwork, positioning and maintaining balance can be experienced.
—Combination drills. In some programs, the user can combine attacking and defensive movements to develop coordination and fluidity.
—Reaction drills. In virtual reality martial arts, the attacks from virtual opponents are randomly generated by the computer. The randomness of these attacks improves the user’s ability to react quickly, which help to minimize reaction time and sharpen reflexes.
—Technique drills. Virtual reality martial arts also provide some training in techniques. By repeatedly practicing specific techniques in a virtual reality environment, the user can master the techniques along with building muscle memory.
—Scenario-based drills: Users can simulate several scenarios, indoors or outdoors, as per their choice. These virtual reality martial arts scenario-based drills improve the user’s tactical and situational awareness along with skill levels.
Conclusion
Virtual reality martial arts have grown in recent years, and martial arts like Taekwondo is actively adopting it.
World Taekwondo video “World Taekwondo looks to the future with innovative virtual sparring”:
World Taekwondo video “Virtual Taekwondo: A New Era Begins”:
With better technology, the interest in virtual reality martial arts has triggered virtual competitions. Virtual reality martial arts also has the potential to be included in the Olympics as an eSport.
CNBC International video “How virtual reality is revolutionizing traditional taekwondo”:
World Taekwondo video “Day 2 | World Taekwondo Virtual Championships Singapore 2024 | Young Adult Individual Male”:
Some martial artists have tried virtual reality martial arts, and they share their thoughts on it.
The VR Coach video “I Challenged a PRO Boxer to a VR Boxing Fight [TOTF2]”:
Sensei Seth video “Does VR Boxing Make You a Better Fighter? Thrill Of The Fight”:
Martial Arts Unlimited video “Is VR Good for Martial Artists? Black Belt Shares Thoughts”:
Sellsword Arts video “IRL Swordsman puts VR Sword Combat to the Test!”:
Art of One Dojo video “Does Virtual Reality Sparring Work? (REUPLOAD)| ART OF ONE DOJO”:
AJKICK 101 video “Martial Artist tries VR BOXING | THRILL OF THE FIGHT | AJKICK ADVENTURES”
BuzzFeed Multiplayer video “Real Olympic Boxer Fights In Creed: Rise To Glory • Professionals Play”:
As a new high-tech genre of martial arts, virtual reality martial arts hold sufficient promise. In the future, virtual reality martial artists and virtual reality martial arts competitions, may become common. It may also become an eSport in the Olympics. With advancing technology, the graphics, motion capturing sensors, and the headsets can become so advanced that in the future, a virtual reality environment may mimic the real environment to a very high degree.
Virtual Chap video “2025 Will Be The BIGGEST Year For VR… Here’s Why”:
Due to the intensity of the matches presented in the virtual environment, virtual reality martial arts applications can provide sufficient cardiovascular exercise, and it can also be enjoyed by persons of any age or gender. With virtual reality martial arts applications, previously injured martial artists can also find a means of practicing martial arts without experiencing any real injury at all. Moreover, an advancement of virtual reality as fluid reality can be attained with physical nerve sensation of touching being replicated in virtual reality, thereby providing a realistic ‘touching’ experience but in a virtual space.
Freethink video “A new class of haptic tech will redraw the borders of reality | Hard Reset”:
Future Interfaces Group video “Fluid Reality: High-Resolution, Untethered Haptic Gloves Using Electroosmotic Pump Arrays”:
Virtual reality martial arts are engaging, immersive, enjoyable, and this entertaining aspect has also inspired virtual reality movies. Popular virtual reality movies are “The Matrix”, “Total Recall”, “Tron”, “Inception”, “The 13th Floor”, “Virtuosity”, and more.
Blue Scarecrow Home Entertainment video “The 13th Floor”:
Again, from these virtual reality martial arts movies, creators have been inspired to create virtual reality martial arts gaming applications also.
Lacry video “Tron: Evolution Full Walkthrough Gameplay – No Commentary (PC Longplay)”:
Superhero FXL Games video “THE MATRIX Full Movie 2023: New World | Superhero FXL Action Movies 2023 in English (Game Movie)”:
Even after tremendous technological advances, reality in virtual reality, will always remain virtual, and therefore, it seems unlikely that in the future, virtual reality martial arts can convincingly replace real martial arts. Although it may not be able to replace real martial arts, however, as an upcoming new genre of martial arts, it is most welcomed. In the future, it is possible that one may meet virtual reality martial artists, who may take part in virtual reality martial arts training, sparring, and competitions. And as an eSport in the Olympics, virtual reality martial arts may feature different types of martial arts like Taekwondo, Karate, Judo, Jiu-Jitsu and more.
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