sports vision training and are curious about how you could benefit from it? In this video,

I'm going to answer 5 frequently asked questions about sports vision training, what it is and

how it works.

1) What is the role of vision in sports vision? Vision is our dominant sense in sports. It's

the way that we acquire information about our surroundings in the game and it's also

what guides our body's movement when we're playing sports.

2) What makes up vision? In order to have a good vision, we need healthy

eyes, a healthy brain, and our brain needs to learn how to use our eyes together efficiently.

Many people don't know that vision is a learned skill. In fact, we learn 17 visual skills

that come together to make up vision. Let's talk about a few of these visual skills so

you know I mean.

Visual acuity The first is visual acuity. This is our ability

to be able to see clearly and see fine detail at any given distance. This is where the concept

of 20/20 vision comes from.

Eye movement control Another important visual skill is eye movement

control. Our brain needs to utilize the 12 eye muscles that surround our two eyes in

a way that's coordinated and efficient for us to be able to move our eyes from place

the place and get the information that we need.

Depth perception Depth perception is another important skill

for athletes. Depth perception is our brain's ability to use our two eyes to be able to

judge how far things are from each other or how far they are from us.

Eye-hand coordination Of course, every athlete has heard of eye-hand

coordination. Honestly, the way we should really be thinking about this is eye, hand,

foot, and body coordination. Basically, this is a skill where we get integrate our vision

with our body's movement.

3) How does vision develop? Many people find it surprising to learn that

we're not born with fully developed visual skills. The 17 visual skills that I mentioned

earlier are things that we pick up over time, just as we learned how to walk and we learn

how to speak as infants.

Vision is a process that develops throughout our whole lives and, just like any learning

process, is something that we can enhance with training.

4) How can an athlete enhance their vision? Vision enhancement for athletes comes in 2

major forms.

1) Vision correction Vision correction consists of glasses, contact

lenses, surgery, and special tints that help the athlete be able to see more clearly and

be able to see in better contrast. These forms of vision correction are prescribed by your

sports vision eye doctor, who takes into account the sport that you play, the lighting conditions

that you play in, and also your visual demands.

2) Sports vision training Sports vision training is as a process that

teaches our brain how to use our eyes more effectively and it uses specific exercises

that train our brain on the 17 visual skills.

The goal of vision correction and vision training is to enhance the vision of the athlete far

beyond what's considered to be good vision for the average person. Athletes who complete

sports vision training are able to get information through their vision in a way that is faster,

more accurate, more efficient, and, most importantly, automatic. As a result, they don't have to

consciously think about where to look and what to do with their visual system to get

the information they need. Instead, they can just focus on the game and be aware of where

things are in their visual space.

5) How does sports vision training work? When we typically think of any type of sports

training, we think about testing the athlete's skills and then coaching them on how to improve

those skills. When we typically think about any type of sports training we think about

testing the athlete's skills to see where they have the most opportunities and then

move on to teaching those skills to give them the best improvement possible in performance.

Sports vision training works the same way. In sports vision training you work with the

sports vision eye doctor who tests your vision skills and then prescribes a combination of

vision correction which may be through, contact lenses, glasses, tints or a combination of

all three, as well as sports vision training exercises that are made to help you learn

how to use your vision in your eyes better. These vision correction tools and exercises

are tailored to you specifically based on what visual skills you have the most opportunity

to improve in as well as what support you play and what visual demands you have in that

sport.

Just like any other forms of training, the more time and effort you put into your sports

vision training, the bigger benefits you'll see in your performance.