Award Date

May 2023

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Occupational Therapy Doctorate

Department

Brain Health

First Committee Member

Donnamarie Krause

Second Committee Member

Jefferson Kinney

Number of Pages

108

Abstract

The purpose of developing the case study was to determine the satisfaction of implementing an ergonomic protocol tailored to esport athletes in addition to tracking improvements in performance through KovaaK’s tracking trainer while reducing the risk of repetitive strain injuries. Occupational therapists are trained to assess individuals with a holistic lens while treating the deficits that prevent them from living a meaningful life. Occupational therapists advise ergonomically correct positioning for their clients to decrease the risk of injury and to optimize the person’s performance. There is a need for an ergonomic protocol tailored to esport athletes because of the increase in players leading to a high incidence of injuries due to the high number of hours they train. Esports has increased exponentially in popularity over recent years, and the growing population of esport athletes require more medical professionals to attend to the unique needs of this field. The esport ergonomic protocol was implemented with the consent and participation of a selected member from the Overwatch 2 team from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, at the Black Fire Innovation Esports Arena. The protocol's effectiveness was measured through a post-structured and semi-structured interview after an eight-week period. Additionally, the KovaaKs tracking trainer will assess the member’s aiming performance, in person, during weeks one, four, and eight of the protocol’s implementation. This capstone study suggests that if esport athletes focus on caring for themselves during training and competitive hours through implementation of an ergonomic protocol repetitive strain injuries can be prevented and higher level of performance can be achieved.

Keywords

Body posture; esports healthcare; Gaming; Online PC games; Overwatch; Repetitive strain injury

Disciplines

Education | Occupational Therapy

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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