Sports Vision

“Keep your eye on the ball!” “Focus on the finish line!” “Don’t lose sight of the green!” If there’s one thing that seems to be a key to success in sports, it’s vision. But did you know you can improve your performance by improving some aspects of your vision? It’s easy to recognize problems, and even easier to solve them. The following are some aspects of vision which can be the difference between victory and defeat.

Dynamic visual acuity is your ability to see objects when they are moving fast. This is important in sports like hockey, racquetball, and tennis.

Visual concentration is your ability to ignore distractions happening around you. Your eyes naturally react to movement in the field of vision from spectators, other participants or the playing environment.

Eye tracking is following an object with your eyes without much head motion. It is important with any sport that involves a fast-moving ball. Good eye tracking will improve balance and reaction time.

Eye-hand-body coordination is how your muscles and limbs react to the information gathered by your eyes. It affects timing and body control.

Visual memory is the ability to process and remember a fast moving, complex picture of people and things. It is very important in basketball, hockey, and soccer, where the game quickly moves up the field. Visual memory helps you know where your teammates and opponents are positioned.

Peripheral vision is the ability to see what is not directly in front of you, out of the corner of your eye. This allows you to see your teammate to your left or right while focusing on the goal in front of you.

Visual reaction time is what allows a batter to hit the ball, or a tennis player to return a serve. It is the speed with which your brain interprets and reacts.

Focus flexibility allows a quarterback to quickly focus on his receivers even though they are at varying distances.

Depth perception lets you judge distance. This is especially important in basketball, golf, and other sports involving distance to the goal.
By improving these aspects of your vision, you can improve your performance, no matter what sport you’re involved in.