How Sports Vision Training Can Help Athletes?
Sports Vision Training focuses on improving the visual skills of an athlete. If
an athlete has a deficit or weakness in any visual skill, this will impact their physical
performance.
Sports vision training helps an athlete improve their visual skills so they can
process information faster, make more accurate decisions and see things without
looking. An athletes sports vision training program must focus on the athletes
visual demands and ensure that any visual deficits are also addressed.
We know that the brain makes decisions based on the information available to it. However if
the information coming from the senses is not telling the full story, you are basing
your movements and decisions on misinformation. In a sports setting that means
mistakes are made, often when the stakes are high and play is fast and pressured.
Athletes with visual deficits may display the below issues
A visual system with deficits can lead to accuracy and timing issues because the
visual information is sub-optimal. If the eyes do not move well together this will
impact how your athlete perceives the world. Just like trying to drive in fog, we
slow down and are more cautious as the visual scenery is unpredictable. How can
you predict your environment if the information coming into your visual system is
poor? This does not mean you have an athlete moving in slow-motion, it means
you may have an athlete that just can not meet the mark consistently, may make
timing mistakes and could feel as though they still have so much more potential
yet have been unable to reach it.
When the eyes do not move well together in convergence/divergence your athlete may think objects are closer or further away than they really are. This will also cross over with accuracy and timing issues. They are linked together. Accuracy is impossible to execute when the information coming in from the visual system is not clear or accurate itself. You can not make decisions based on misinformation and expect them to be consistently correct.
Balance issues and sub optimal agility
The visual system and vestibular system are closely interlinked. Therefore if the visual information feeding into the balance system is poor this can impact an athlete’s ability to orient themselves. It does not mean your athlete can not stand up straight, it means when your athletes body and brain are under pressure and moving at a fast pace, they may not have access to the same speeds they would
have if the information coming from the visual and vestibular systems was optimal. The old saying “It is hard to shoot a cannon from a canoe” rings very true in this situation. It is extremely hard to move at high speeds in sport with optimal agility if the visual information coming into the brain isn’t giving you accurate information. Your brain will slow you down to avoid injury and ultimately put the breaks on performance.