Sport Vision
Having 20/20 vision means that you should be able to see the ball well, but what if your opponent sees the ball before you? What if your opponent can follow the ball better than you? You���re immediately on the back foot and they have that all important edge.
Most people judge their vision by how clearly they see.
However, vision is much more complex; there are many processes contributing to vision, clarity of sight being just one.
We must also consider speed and accuracy of focus, depth perception, peripheral awareness, stability of eye dominance, how efficiently the 2 eyes work together as a team and much more.
Elite athletes understand the need to train and keep the body in peak fitness.
With vision being the dominant sense in most sport, we must maximise all aspects of vision to maximise sporting performance.
Vision and Sporting Performance
Vision involves many subtle and sophisticated links between the brain, muscles and the eyes; the way the eyes work and how this information is processed and fedback to the body will have an effect on;
Balance
Timing and Anticipation
Reaction times and Aiming Accuracy
Hand-Eye-Foot co-ordination
Maintenance of high levels of concentration.
Inefficient Visual Systems will be affected by;
Dehydration
Stress
Tiredness
As stress increases, the sympathetic nervous system becomes more dominant resulting in reduced peripheral awareness.
Dehydration and tiredness affects how the eye muscles work. This will lead to focus, binocular vision, depth perception, pursuit and convergence problems. [see component parts of vision].
Clarity of Sight (Visual Acuity)
What you see and how clear it (stationary target) is.
Many athletes are able to see well beyond the bottom line of a standard optician���s chart (20/20 vision).
Dynamic Visual Acuity
Clarity of a moving target.
Accommodative Function
How accurately you focus on what you are looking at, how well you maintain this focus and how quickly you can change your focus as the target moves.
Binocular Vision
How well the eyes work together as a team and how well they continue to work when the system is stressed. Has an effect on performance consistency, spatial location of the ball/target.
Ocular Movement Skills
How accurately the eyes move. Includes pursuit tracking and convergence (eyes moving inward as a ball approaches). Inefficiencies will lead to mistiming (early or late).
���Keep your eye on the ball���.
Glare Sensitivity
Ability to cope with glare (low sun/stadium lights). Glare sensitivity is often caused by (correctable) problems with the focussing or binocular vision systems.
Depth Perception
3D judgement, spatial sensitivity. Dramatically affected by binocular vision inefficiencies.
Eye Dominance
Unstable eye dominance will affect balance and aiming. Its relationship to body dominance will have a dramatic effect on how well a player will perform.
Certain eye-body dominances will give an advantage to many sports.
Visual Field and Peripheral Awareness.
The vision around you and how you integrate information in it with your central vision.
Fusional Reserves
Eye Muscle strength and flexibility.
Colour Vision and Contrast Sensitivity
Ability to see subtle differences in colour and grey tones in a range of lighting levels.
Visual Centring
Relating where you are in your visual space and relating this with other objects.
Vision Assessment
A Sport Vision Assessment is very different to a standard sight test or eye examination.
It is essential to consult a suitably qualified sport-vision practitioner. There is a fine balance between central vision, peripheral vision and 3D processing. Most optometrists and opticians will not have had the additional sport-vision specific training recommended*. In the wrong hands the results could even be detrimental to your performance.
Vision Performance Assessment
A full performance assessment will discuss any parts of your game you find difficult or frustrating. This is followed by a number of tests that assess all aspects of vision as detailed in the components of vision section (link). The results are discussed and advice given. Correction (contact lenses/sport spex/glare tints) and vision training (link) may be prescribed. Full reports are provided for the athlete and coach if required.
Vision Screening
The Sportvision Centre can come to you. An established screening set up means that coaches often prefer an initial screening assessment at the team���s training ground/club premises.
Full feedback and any recommendations are given to the participating players and the coaches.
STOP PRESS NEWS
There are a limited number of sponsored screening sessions available for 2008.
Is your team reaching potential?
Make the most of the complimentary industry supported advice and Contact Us now for information.
*The SportVision Centre is accredited and regulated by the Association of SportVision Practitioners (SportVision UK). This is the leading sportvision body in the world, is supported by the industry. We are also registered as meeting the standards required by the British Olympic Association.
Vision Training
The SportVision Centre provides tailor-made one-on-one vision training.
We are happy (and recommend) discussing Training Programmes with the coach/sport scientist/physio so that vision training can be bolted onto the athlete���s normal training routine.
Training is generally undertaken off-season as there may be changes in perceptual processing which can take time to adjust to.
Computer-based training software is available and is an option for some athletes. However, sport is a 3-dimensional activity and best results are from individualised 3-dimensional training programs.
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