How to develop the 3 most important vision skills in sports
A survey of coaches who at the time were working with athletes at the club, high school or pro-level was conducted about a year ago. The coaches were asked about eyesight training, about their own experience, as well as their opinion of its value in sports and athletics. The results were eye opening.
Overall, there is not a single coach who does not believe that eyesight is a huge asset in field sports, and in athletics. On the other hand, less than a half of those coaches claim to develop their athletes’ eyesight in any shape or form. Mostly, they do not know how to train it, and so it never makes the list of their practice drills. So, let’s see if we can shine some light on the subject and approach.
According to coaches, reaction speed, judgment of speed and distance, and great space/field awareness, are the most important eyesight driven skills in sports. They are also the three skills with the largest gap between players capabilities and the desired level of proficiency. Let’s address each of them one by one.
SPATIAL AWARENESS
The ability of a player to understand their position on the field, the position of other objects on the field, as well as their constant movement, is dependent on the quality of the player’s peripheral vision. Subsequently, the quality of peripheral vision is dependent on two factors: the size of the player’s active field of view, and the engagement of visual rods, the photo receptors responsible for seeing movement. In other words, peripheral vision depends on whether the eye is fully used, both from the perspective of the total area of the eye, as well as from the perspective of the level of activity within each area.
A great way to start improving peripheral vision is by simply paying attention to one’s surroundings. While looking forward, notice what is to your sides. This is best done if the objects to your side are moving. So choose a spot where tree branches are moving in the wind, or stand on a side of the street and notice cars passing by. Alternatively, while looking forward, wave your hands on the side of your face, closer in, further out, up above your head, down below your chin. Notice the movement.
Additionally, in sports, flexibility of one’s neck and shoulder muscles plays a significant role in the player’s ability to see as much of the field as possible. So make sure that these muscles are loose, free of tension and able to work properly.
REACTION SPEED
A sequence of signal recognition followed by a desired muscle movement, performed at the highest possible speed, is what we are looking for here.
Signal recognition is what initiates the action. Signal recognition is, again, strongly driven by how active the player’s visual receptors are. For situation recognition on the field, peripheral vision practice (such as the one described above), will greatly improve how quickly a change is recognized. For signal recognition requiring the use of the central vision (focus), ball tracking practice cannot be beat. Just pass the ball with another player or bounce it against a wall and follow it with your eyes throughout its trajectory. As you do, do not lock gaze on the ball, pay attention to the space around the ball as well.
Desired movement is what follows. The player or their coach should decide what the reaction to each visual signal should be, then train it in two steps.
- First in the player’s mind. The player should be shown what the ideal execution is, then close their eyes and imagine themselves performing the action.
- Second in real life practice. Only once the player is capable of imagining themselves executing the drill well, should they practice it in real life.
Feels like an overkill? Do not let yourself skip step one. Test it out just one time, and see how much faster a new skill we be acquired and the desired reaction automated.
JUDGEMENT OF SPEED AND DISTANCE
The ability to correctly estimate the distance between two (or more) objects is pre-conditioned by the player’s ability to see 3D, to see relative size of objects, and the space between them. Objects that are far away appear to be smaller than objects that are closer in. The brain, when trained properly, can calculate this relative appearance of the objects and the spaces between them, and therefore estimate how far they are.
Dependent on the ability to judge distance is the player’s ability to estimate speed. Speed is ultimately a repetitive judgment of distance of a moving object, combined with computing the difference between the distances over time. To properly judge speed, the player must not only have good 3D vision as described above, they also need to have well developed eye movements.
One-eye practice is strongly encouraged for training 3D vision and eye movement. For 3D practice si ply cover one eye and practice some of your favorite targeting drills that way (i.e. hitting the top bar of a soccer goal, or placing a tennis ball on a target spot on a training wall). For eye movement find a pattern that you can quickly follow (baseball field fencing, parquet on the basketball court), then move your eyes from spot to spot as quickly as you can. Remember to follow your eyes with your head, breathe calmly and blink frequently, so that staring does not occur.
As for the patching, use an eye patch that will leave your peripheral vision present at the sides, top and bottom, so that you retain a good perspective of where you are on the field. To eliminate the guessing game, and increase the effectiveness of your practice, check out Performance Eyesight Trainer by Overbound. It provides the tools & well designed training sessions that will effectively develop all of the above skills in a methodical manner.
Back to the survey now. Vision, while valued, is being left untrained by most sports programs. One day this will change. There is too much at stake. So the immediate question is, given what you have just learned, will you jump into the future now or will you retrospectively wish you had done it.
Wishing you to see well and to feel victorious!
IC
