Aim: Sport activities can increase the number of motor tasks performed by children with disabilities, helping to motivate these children to sustain life-long exercise. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of virtual and traditional golf training on balance, muscle strength, lower extremity flexibility and aerobic endurance in children with cerebral palsy.

Methods: 19 children with unilateral cerebral palsy were divided into two groups, each of them received either virtual (n = 9) or traditional (n = 10) golf training, for over 12 weeks with three days of a 60-minute session/day. The effect of golf training was assessed with the Gross Motor Function Measure-88, the Modified Ashworth Scale and Lateral Step Up, Curl Up, Six-Minute Walk, Sit and Reach, Modified Thomas, and balance tests.

Results: Both training methods were associated with improved lower extremity flexibility and muscle strength, aerobic endurance and Gross Motor Function Measure-88 compared with the pre-training baseline values (p < 0.05). There was no difference found between virtual and traditional golf training groups except for balance and lateral step up tests (p > 0.05).

Conclusions: Both virtual and traditional golf training applied for 12 weeks on children with unilateral cerebral palsy improved lower extremity functions and physical performance. The use of virtual and traditional training as a complementary application to reduce motor problems in children with cerebral palsy could enhance the sustainability of this type of training because of its edutainment features. Virtual golf has an important advantage over traditional golf in that (a) the latter can be expensive and inaccessible for people with disabilities, and (b) making virtual golf a safer activity.

目的：体育活动可以增加残疾儿童执行的运动任务的数量，有助于激励这些儿童维持终生锻炼。本研究的目的是调查虚拟和传统高尔夫训练对脑瘫儿童平衡能力、肌肉力量、下肢柔韧性和有氧耐力的影响。

方法：将 19 名患有单侧脑瘫的儿童分为两组，每组接受虚拟（n  = 9）或传统（n  = 10）高尔夫训练，为期超过 12 周，每天 60 分钟的课程为期三天. 高尔夫训练的效果通过 Gross Motor Function Measure-88、改良的 Ashworth 量表和横向提升、卷曲、六分钟步行、坐下和伸展、改良 Thomas 和平衡测试进行评估。

结果：与训练前的基线值相比，两种训练方法都与改善下肢柔韧性和肌肉力量、有氧耐力和粗大运动功能测量 88 相关 ( p  < 0.05)。除了平衡和横向提升测试外，虚拟和传统高尔夫训练组之间没有发现差异 ( p  > 0.05)。

结论：对单侧脑瘫患儿进行为期 12 周的虚拟和传统高尔夫训练均能改善下肢功能和身体表现。使用虚拟和传统培训作为补充应用程序来减少脑瘫儿童的运动问题可以提高此类培训的可持续性，因为它具有寓教于乐的特点。与传统高尔夫相比，虚拟高尔夫具有重要优势，因为 (a) 后者可能价格昂贵且残疾人无法使用，以及 (b) 使虚拟高尔夫成为一项更安全的活动。