What a field test at the tennis base revealed about training peripheral perception

From the lab onto the court

Most of what we say about perception training lives in careful language. Brain processes. Visual information. Decision-making speed. All true and all a little abstract.

So we took it onto a real court.

We also made a short film about the day. It walks through what we set out to test, what we saw on court and what the players made of it, in their own words: crtX Tennis Put to the Test at the BTV Tennisbase | VR Training .

At the tennis base, we ran a practical field test with a simple question behind it: if a player spends four minutes in a crtX session built to sharpen peripheral perception, does anything actually change when they pick up a racket again? Not in theory. On the very next ball.

A clean before and after

The setup was deliberately plain, because plain is what makes a difference visible.

Each player started with a baseline stroke exercise, hitting at a set speed and quality so we had a clear reference point. Then came the headset. Between rounds, players worked through several crtX exercises on Meta Quest, around four minutes in total. That is less than we normally recommend. Our guidance is 10 to 15 minutes a day.

After the session, we ran the same stroke exercise again, at the same speed and the same demands. Nothing else changed. If the second round looked different, there was really only one place that difference could have come from.

Does VR training actually change how you hit the ball?

It did here.

In the second round, after four minutes in the headset, individual players completed the drill without a single error. Same exercise, same speed, same demands as the round before. Clean, all the way through.

The rest of what we saw pointed the same way. Reaction times were quicker. Players picked the ball up earlier and said so without being prompted. Where the first round carried a fraction of hesitation, the second felt more settled: clearer recognition of the ball, more relaxed responses, cleaner execution of the task.

The strokes themselves had not been retrained in the few minutes between rounds. The legs were not fresher. What had shifted sat upstream of all of that, in how early and how clearly each player read what was coming.

Why perception moves before the body does

This is the part that matters most to us.

In tennis, the ball gives you almost no time. By the moment you consciously decide to move, the window has often already closed. The players who look unhurried are rarely the faster movers. They simply saw the ball sooner, which gave them more time to spend.

That is exactly what peripheral perception training is meant to develop. Not the swing, but the reading of the situation that happens before the swing. crtX is built to train that layer directly and this test let us watch it show up in real strokes on a real court.

Seeing earlier does not just make you quicker. It makes you calmer.

In the players‘ words

Ask three players to describe the same session and you expect three different answers. We got one.

Asked to sum up the experience in three words, the first chose perception, calmness and precision.

The second put it more simply. Calmer and more relaxed through the swing.

The third landed on an effective training stimulus, mental calmness and unwavering focus.

Calmness, three times over, from three players who had just done the same drill twice. That is a telling response for a tool aimed at the eyes and the brain rather than the nerves. When you see the ball a fraction sooner, you are no longer scrambling to catch up with it. The extra time reads, from the inside, as calm.

And a player who is not scrambling is a player who does not miss. Which is roughly what the second round looked like.

A clear direction

We took crtX out of the training room and onto the court, ran a real before-and-after with players hitting live balls and watched what changed. Four minutes of training, one drill repeated, a visible difference. The result pointed in one direction and it matched what we see across the rest of our work: sharpen how the brain takes in the ball and the rest of the game has more room to breathe.

That is the whole idea behind crtX and it was good to see it hold up with rackets in hand.

The next ball is always coming. The goal is simply to see it a little sooner.

Frequently asked questions

Does VR training improve tennis performance? In this field test at the tennis base, players returned to the same stroke exercise after a short crtX session and performed it more cleanly, with individual players completing it without a single error. They picked the ball up earlier and reported feeling calmer and more precise.

Can peripheral perception be trained? Yes. Peripheral perception, anticipation and decision-making are trainable performance dimensions rather than fixed traits. crtX trains them directly in VR on Meta Quest, targeting how quickly and clearly an athlete takes in visual information before they move.

What is perception training in tennis? Perception training works on the phase that comes before the stroke: how early a player picks up the ball, how clearly they read the situation and how stable that process stays under pressure. It does not train the swing itself. It trains the reading of the game that determines how much time a player has to execute it.

Is there a video about the field test? Yes. IMPROVR produced a short film covering the field test at the tennis base: how the test was set up, what changed between the two rounds and how the players described the experience afterwards. It also explains what peripheral perception training is and why it matters in tennis. crtX Tennis Put to the Test at the BTV Tennisbase | VR Training

How long does a crtX session take? IMPROVR recommends 10 to 15 minutes of crtX training per day. In this field test, players used the headset for only around four minutes between the two rounds of the stroke drill and the difference was already visible in the round that followed.

About IMPROVR

IMPROVR is a Munich-based sports technology company specializing in brain-based performance training. By combining neuroscience XR and data-driven approaches, IMPROVR develops digital tools to train perception, decision making and visually guided movement preparation in sport. The company’s mission is to make modern brain-based training accessible beyond elite sport and support athletes and organizations worldwide.