What is Sports Vision Training?
At Visionary Eye Center, we offer ways to improve athletic performance! Sports vision evaluations help athletes determine how well their eyes perform, beyond a basic ability to see the standard of 20/20. Sports vision training enhances the visual skills needed during athletic performance and gives athletes a distinct advantage over the competition. Book and appointment to achieve your athletic goals today and future aspirations!
What do Sports Vision training programs entail?
Sports vision training has little to do with improving the clarity of one’s vision (visual acuity) and everything to do with improving visual performance (specific visual skills used during competition). These skills include:
- Binocular vision (depth perception)
- Eye tracking
- Eye focusing
- Eye scanning & tracking
- Visual attention (both central and peripheral)
- Visual processing speed (reactive agility)
At Visionary Eye Center, we evaluate visual performance specific to the sport and position played. The results show areas of visual strengths and weaknesses, visual performance compared to elite and professional athletes, and are used to develop a structured, sport specific vision training program to address visual system deficits. Many sports vision skills that can be addressed and improved upon are as follows: hand- eye coordination depth perception, eye tracking ability, reaction time, and contrast sensitivity.
Who can benefit from Sports Vision?
Any athlete, regardless of level of play! Athletes use sports vision training to elevate their level of play and edge out the competition. In today’s world of competitive sports performance most athletes have the physical strength, speed, and endurance necessary to play the game. However, it is visual processing and reaction speed that separates the high performing athlete. These high performing athletes have the ability to make split-second, game-changing decisions that lead their teams to victory – Use sports vision training to rise above the competition!
What we offer:
Dr. Westcott, being an athlete herself, has a colorful perspective! She will spend time finding out details about the patients specific sport(s), position(s), and competitiveness, crafting the perfect solution(s) for our patients. Even correcting a small refractive error for sport specific use can improve performance. Another factor is protection! Too often we are sending our athletes on the playing field in their day-to-day glasses. Think of sports eyewear like your sneakers—would you play soccer in flip flops or dress hoes? Dress eyewear has no place on a field, rink, or court, both for safety reasons and for breakage. Every athlete playing a sport should have a separate pair of eyewear that meets all the safety standards.
In sports, almost 80% of perceptual input is visual. But even 20/20 vision does not mean athletes are performing at their peak. Objects don’t just sit there. They move. Fast. Regular eye exams may reveal that you can see clearly, but they can’t tell how well you ascertain where a ball is in space, how fast it’s traveling or if it’s changing direction.
That’s why we offer vision testing designed specifically for athletes. Using state-of-the-art eye-tracking technology, we can measure the specific vision skills that affect reflexes and hand-eye coordination, including:
- Eye movement speed
- Processing speed
- Dynamic visual focus
- Smooth visual pursuit
- Simple reaction time
- Choice reaction time
- Binocular vision skills
- Visual concentration
- Contrast sensitivity
RightEye Sports Vision EyeQ measures and analyzes your eye movement, brain processing and reaction time against peers, amateurs and pro athletes. When the report identifies opportunities for improvement, our optometrists will customize a plan for you, built from an online library of 150+ training drills. And in just a few weeks, you could be upping your game.