CONNECTING OUR EYES, BRAIN, AND BODY CAN MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE
Eye of the Champion: A Guide to Learning About Sports Vision
Available now on Amazon!
Athletes have Super-Human (Visual) Abilities
Have you ever wondered why some athletes seem to possess an almost superhuman ability to track a speeding baseball or react instantly to a teammate’s cut across the field? The answer lies in the specialized field of vision known as Sports Vision.
Sports Vision is a relatively new medical specialty dedicated to understanding the role of vision in sports performance. Practiced by either Ophthalmologists (MD, medical eye doctors) or by Optometrists (OD, eye specialists) the best practice is based on an evidence based approach and is tailored specifically for each sport and especially based on the abilities of each athlete.
Beyond basic eyesight, sports vision includes a range of visual skills critical for peak athletic performance. These can include, depending on the sport:
- Visual Acuity: The ability to see details clearly at various distances.
- Depth Perception: Accurately judging the distance and spatial relationships between objects.
- Peripheral Vision: Seeing objects outside your direct line of sight, crucial for situational awareness.
- Eye-Hand/foot Coordination: The seamless integration of visual information with motor skills for precise movements.
- Visual Reaction Time: How quickly you can process visual information and react to it.
- Visual Concentration: How long you can attend to a task, without distraction
- Quiet Eye: What you are looking at just before, during and immediately after the critical task in the sport
- etc …
Learning about Sports Vision is the Key to Greater Success
Almost every athlete, regardless of skill level, can benefit from learning about sports vision.
Here’s how you can learn about sports vision and start your journey to maximal performance:
1. Explore Online Resources: Many websites and YouTube channels offer valuable information about sports vision. It is critical that you look for content from reputable sources. Remember, often what you read online is worth what you paid for it — nothing! Viewing information from reputable sources such as universities, national organizations, and reviewed sites are the most valuable. Resources from single eye care providers or from for-profit companies often provide poor or often false information that could damage your athletic performance as opposed to helping it. Valid resources often provide articles, videos, and infographics explaining the different aspects of sports vision and their importance in specific sports and can be very helpful.
2. Consult With a Sports Vision Specialist: Locate a qualified professional who can evaluate your specific visual skills and design a personalized training program. Certifications are often less important than experience. Find a specialist who has experience with elite athletes in your chosen sport. Degrees and certifications are nice, but often can be obtained without any substantial experience. Be careful of specialists who push a specific agenda or have a one-size-fits-all approach. Make sure they discuss visual skills relevant to your sport. During a consultation, the specialist should assess relevant skills. You should have a full medical eye exam prior to seeing a sports vision specialist. Make sure your eyes are healthy then see how they can perform even better to help your success!
3. Leverage Technology: Several mobile apps and online platforms offer vision evaluation programs as well as training programs. With the low cost of apps as well as hardware, this becomes a very valuable route to improve your performance both economically as well as efficiently. While these can be an excellent starting point, it’s also helpful to consult with a professional for a personalized approach of you and your sport.
4. Buyer beware is always the best approach: Once you understand your strengths and weaknesses, delve deeper into training techniques for targeted improvement. Learning on your own is often the best approach. Judge everything you see and hear with a grain of salt and apply the “smell test” — if it doesn’t smell good, the it isn’t good for you! There are many popular methods floating around including specialized equipment like strobe lights, juggling balls with different colors, and performing specific eye tracking exercises. Make sure these offered interventions are scientifically sound, relevant to your sport and economically viable.
5. Read “Eye of the Champion”: Having spent 30+ years working with elite athletes at the Professional as well as Olympic levels, and after working in the MLB, NHL, NBA, and the English Premier League, I have distilled my experience into a new book titled Eye of the Champion. The book is available on Amazon in ePub (Kindle), softcover and hardcover formats (audiobook coming soon). In the book I present an approach to sports vision that has led to 8 MLB World Series Championships as well as Olympic gold! This book is most certainly the single best thing you can do to understand the role of vision in sports and how you can leverage that knowledge for both an advantage over the competition as well as for maximal on-field success.
Now that you understand the importance of knowledge in beginning your sports vision journey, there are many other critical areas for ideal performance — we’ve covered many and we’ll cover more of them in future posts. So be sure to check back (and subscribe) for more tips on how to maximize your performance in your sport!
Reading EYE OF THE CHAMPION is the Single Best Way to Improve
In the meantime, would you like to learn more about how your eyes (and brain) can help you play better in your sport? Head on over to Amazon and pick up Eye of the Champion, then sign up for my 5-day FREE e-mail course by clicking here (safe link to my website).