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Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Keeping an Eye on the Game
Central Oklahoma, OK
By: Dr. Michael Bennett and Dr. Brian A. Padgham
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Photo(s) By: Kyle Danztler/MyActionPortraits.com
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Getting your eyes in shape is important for the upcoming season.
Most athletes and coaches think of vision as simply eyesight.
However, like eye color, visual ability differs from person to person. We may not realize it, but vision is more than being able to read the bottom line of an eye chart. Visual skills can be tested and often improved.
The concept of sports vision is relatively simple. It is vision with athletes in mind. In fact, vision is beyond 20/20. It’s an entire set of skills, like reaction speed, peripheral awareness, and tracking. The good news is these visual skills can be trained and improved at virtually any level from youth to professional. Sports vision training is not intended to correct vision, rather it is like “weight-lifting for the eyes” working with eye movements, eye-hand reflexes and mental quickness to enhance visual performance.
Possibly the most advanced sports vision training facility in the world today is located in Colorado Springs, Colorado at the United States Air Force Academy’s (USAFA) Human Performance Laboratory. In 1994 coach Al Wile and Thomas Wilson, O.D. started USAFA’s sports vision program with an objective to take the Academy’s training program and its athletes to the next level. Researchers at the Human Performance Laboratory have found that sports vision training does improve the athlete’s visual skills. And with an athlete’s visual system at a higher level, their overall performance moves to a higher level as well. Wile and his staff have helped thousands of cadets realize their dreams both in the Air Force and on the athletic playing field.
The Doctors of Guthrie Vision Source are excited about the development of the Oklahoma Sports Performance Center and the sports vision training program that can add “vision” to your game. Our unique training program (modeled after the USAFA Human Performance Laboratory) is designed to train four main areas: binocular vision, depth perception, dynamic sports vision, and eye fatigue. We try to emphasize using both eyes to their fullest capability by training the intra-ocular muscles as well as the extra-ocular muscles of the eye. Therefore, an athlete must ensure their eyes are in good “physical” health and have optimum vision before training.
A basic sports vision training program at the Oklahoma Sports Performance Center is designed for a bi-weekly training regimen for six weeks. The training consists of five performance centers in which an athlete will carry out an activity at each for approximately four-to-five minutes. One of these utilizes the state-of-the-art Accuvision 1000; this is a unique instrument that puts an athlete’s hand-eye coordination and peripheral field of vision to the test. The Accuvision 1000 is a flat, touch sensitive “board,” with lights that flash on and off in varying areas of the peripheral field of vision. An athlete must quickly and accurately touch each light before it goes off again. This instrument trains the athlete’s dynamic sports vision, which is vision in motion, to match the way that an athlete remains in constant motion during a competition.
While sports vision training for the most part is unknown in athletic circles, there’s no question that it will become an increasingly important role in the future. And, as athletes max out their potential in other areas of performance such as speed, power, or strength, there’s little doubt that the trend will be for athletes to turn to vision training. Remember, it’s not whether you win or lose; it’s how you play the game. Even though our eyes are often taken for granted, they are precious and vulnerable – protect them well and enjoy your sport.
For more information, go to www.visionsource-guthrie.com
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