Along with physical strength and stamina, sports demands a lot of focus and concentration. Most of the sports require the coordination of your eyes with the rest of your body. In case of poor coordination between the eyes and the body a player’s performance will degrade, and the players may end up losing the match. For example, the various ball games such as basketball and baseball require the players to follow the movement of the ball keenly.
Sports such as golf require the players to be careful with the shifts of the ball which occurs in far off distances. Good vision training also helps in sports such as running and cycling because it helps in spotting far off obstacles. Other than that, there are many other benefits of vision training which helps sports persons resulting in a good performance during the game.
Undergoing Vision Training Can Help A To Improve His/Her Vision Skills Like:
1. Dynamic Visual Activity
There are various sports which require following the ball which is moving quickly. In the absence of dynamic visual motion, it becomes difficult for the players to be invested in the sports and actually score. These sports include tennis, hockey, racquetball and such games.
2. Eye-Hand and Body Coordination
It is very difficult for your body to work as per the directions of the eyes. The coordination of hands and your body is essential in any sports. What you see should be translated into movements. Thus, eye-hand-body coordination is something which needs to be worked upon through regular vision training.
3. Visual Concentration
Our eyes have the power to notice things which are happening in front of us and even around us. The players obviously focus on their games but they might be distracted by things happening around them like something which occurred with the audience or as simple as the rustling of the leaves.
To screen out all such distractions, it is important for them to go through intense vision training. It is easy to lose focus and thus face the consequences of being distracted. Thus, players ensure that they go through various eye exercises to earn the power to focus and screen out the rest of the movement occurring nearby.
Visualization
Picturing is an integral part of sports. Imagining yourself doing something like scoring a basket plays an important role in actually achieving it. A player can visualize his aim and thus analyze the pros and cons of such movement. This visualization can be developed through eye training and regularly playing with your mind in order to achieve it.
Visual Memory
In sports, a player has to focus on various things at once. The multi-tasking of your eyes needs to be trained accordingly. The player needs to remember where his opponents are, where the ball is headed to and even where is their space to cover up and reach the goal. All this needs to be done quickly in seconds. This memorizing of strategies are something which is taught by optometrists through visual memory training in eye exercises.
Depth Perception
In sports like a racquet, a player needs to quickly analyze the distances between him, his opponent, the ball and other boundaries present. Poor analysis of depth may lead to failure in responding to the opponent’s attack in time. This might end up in losing the game. Thus, through vision training a player may significantly improve his or her perception of depths and work upon it.
An optometrist uses various tools and equipment while training athletes for sports. Eyes account for almost 85% of the sensory responding systems which are essential for any player to perform well in their area of sports. These 6 benefits sum up the reasons why vision training is important for sports.
