One of the greatest challenges we face as high school physical education teachers is getting our students to be motivated. Although it is costly to have this sort of virtual reality equipment at our school, it is something that we can possibly plan for the future and have as an activity for days in which our teaching areas are affected by rainy day, construction, testing, or for students who cannot have long exposure to the sun. Sounds fun ☺
I feel strongly about kids actually having to go out and participate actively in "real life" sports. I do however see the benefit of using virtual reality to improve mental strategies and to develop skills independently. Virtual reality in sports and fitness can help to encourage young people to be more active. This article describes some of the advantages and disadvantages to using virtual reality in sports and fitness.
Here is an interesting article on how virtual reality is used for physical rehabilitation. People in the rehabilitation community and neuroscientist question whether virtual reality truly affects the nervous system or if it just serves as motivation for the patient in a controlled environment.