Using Mobile 360° Video as a Tool for Enhancing Sport Referee Performance: A Case Study

Many new video-based technologies (e.g., eye trackers, point-of-view camera) have been integrated into sport referee performance monitoring and training. Mobile 360° video (an omnidirectional video-capture tool affixed to the referee during their performance using a chest harness) provides moving images recorded from a first-person perspective. This case study explored rugby union referees’ and referee coaches’ engagement with mobile 360° video during a viewing of another referee’s performance. Using an other-confrontation interview approach, referees’ and referee coaches’ cognitive activity (interests, concerns, noticing, and knowledge) while viewing mobile 360° video was elicited and studied. Participants experienced heightened immersion in the situation, as well as enhanced discovery and noticing behavior, and they constructed different types of embodied and corporeal knowledge. Using a rugby union setting, this occurred through enhanced perceptual involvement provided by mobile 360° video for reflection on referee positioning and movement, contextual inference about decisions, and sensitivity to player cues and interactions. This study provides preliminary evidence for the utility and acceptability of mobile 360° video as a pedagogical innovation in referee training to enhance referees’ decision making, game management, and reflexivity. Limitations, challenges, and applications of immersive mobile 360° video as a pedagogical tool in rugby union refereeing and other sports are discussed