The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent response by governments to introduce national lockdown regulations have confined individuals to their residential premises. As a result, no recreational or sport activities are allowed outside the (often small) boundaries of family homes, a situation often rapidly introducing social isolation. Research has proven that emotional coping mechanisms, such as sport, can lower the stressful and uncertainty burden on individuals. However, without the availability of this coping mechanism, many individuals have been forced to use virtual sport training technology to keep active. This preliminary quantitative study investigated the role of technology, in particular virtual sport training technology (if any) by cyclists as emotional coping mechanism during a period of national lockdown. The results of an online survey indicated that sport, in general, has always been an emotional coping mechanism during normal challenging situations but that slightly more respondents used sport as mechanism during the lockdown period. Respondents indicated that virtual cycling training technology enabled them to continue with using their normal coping mechanism even in a period of national lockdown. One of the benefits of a virtual training environment is the ability to socialize by riding with virtual team members. Surprisingly, the number of cyclists who preferred riding alone in the virtual cycling environment was slightly more than the cyclists who preferred to join scheduled rides with virtual team members. The research is the first step towards an in-depth investigation into the adoption of technology as an emotional coping mechanism in stressful environments.
A Preliminary Investigation into the Role of Virtual Sport Training Technology as Emotional Coping Mechanism During a National Pandemic Lockdown