Video games are changing how professional soccer is played:: "Ibrahimovic said that he would “often spot solutions in the games that I then parlayed into real life” as a young player. Mats Hummels, the Bayern Munich and Germany defender, has suggested that “maybe some people use what they learn in FIFA when they find themselves on a pitch.”
It happens with racing games as well.
posted by grum@work at 11:04 PM on October 19, 2016
I've heard a similar thing about High School quarterbacks that start subconsciously start learning how to read defenses via playing Madden while growing up. No idea if there's anything legit about it, but it certainly wouldn't surprise me.
Heck, I remember hearing that Gretzky (I believe it was him) used to sit on the couch with a drawing of a rink and tracing the path of the puck of whatever game he was watching and how that gave him a better sense of how the puck would bounce/where it would wind up. If that has any basis in truth, I don't see why video games wouldn't help.
posted by Ufez Jones at 05:17 PM on October 19, 2016