CONNECTING OUR EYES, BRAIN, AND BODY CAN MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE
The Threat To Novak Djokovic’s Success
Are contact lenses an advantage or a liability?
Novak Djokovic is arguably one of the best tennis players in the world. He has 88 career singles titles, 21 Grand slam men’s singles titles, and has been ranked number 1 for a record 373 weeks.
He has amazing skills in all aspects of the game and is neck and neck against Rafael Nadal with Djokovic better on hard courts, and Nadal better on clay.
All of this talent though depends on good vision, something Novak has learned during his career
“… (my) eyes are the most important thing when playing sport, as your coordination, sight, and reflexes are all a function of vision, so it’s important your sight is 100% perfect”
To get this level of vision, Novak wears contact lenses. Unfortunately, though, he often has trouble with the lenses requiring lubricating eye drops or even withdrawal from matches, as in the 2016 Dubai Duty-Free Tennis Championships.
On another occasion, during the 2010 ATP World Tour Finals, Novak had difficulty with his lenses and despite trying to resolve the problem, he lost to Nadal in straight sets.
Although Novak wears glasses off the court, certainly contact lenses are a great solution on the court.
In order to avoid the problems Novak has suffered, it’s critical not to overwear the contacts, not sleep in your lenses, change the lenses as required and be certain that the fit of the lenses on the eyes is ideal.
Contact lens overwear
Contact lenses are designed to be worn for most of the day without any problem. Wearing the lens for too many hours puts the eye and cornea at risk of infection or damage.
In general contact lenses can be worn for 2 hours less than all waking hours. The two hours without contact lenses, while awake, gives the cornea (the clear window at the front of the eye) a chance to recover. With the contact lens in place, oxygen which normally feeds the cornea is blocked by the contact lens cover. Two hours each day without a contact lens allows the cornea to recover.
Don’t sleep in your lenses
Not only does sleeping in your lenses deprive the cornea of oxygen, but this practice allows dangerous bacteria to grow and infect the oxygen-starved cornea.
Additionally, the contact lens may dry out and stick to the cornea creating a corneal abrasion when the contact lens is removed. Corneal abrasions have been found to be one of the most painful injuries to the eye, they also can become infected, made more likely by bacterial build-up, and can scar leaving permanent vision loss.
Change your lenses as required
Contact lenses should be changed every day, every 2 weeks or every month depending on the type of lens used.
Using a lens for longer than it is designed not only can reduce its effectiveness in correcting vision but makes infection and eye surface damage much more likely.
Contact lens fit
Although beyond the athletes’ control, it is critical that the contact lens is fit specifically to the eye that will be wearing it. The fitting is done by an eye care professional. Buying contact lenses over the internet, without being fit by a professional is dangerous and can lead to career-ending complications.
Hopefully, by following the above guidelines, Novak has been able to fix his contact lens issues and now can leverage his perfectly corrected vision to win!
Would you like to learn more about how your eyes can help you play better in your sport? Sign up for my 5-day FREE Email course by clicking here (safe link to my website).
