 By Karen Karvonen
Experts say that sports performance is directly related
to visual skills. Improve your visual skills and you’ll
see the payoff-in your performance. Sports vision training
works the nine muscles of the eye to improve balance,
focus, reflexes and scanning ability-whether you’re
navigating a gnarl downhill on your mountain bike, hitting
a ball, reaching for a secure handhold on a rock face
or skiing down a crowded slope.
According to Dr. Thomas Wilson, sports vision consultant
with the United States Air Force Academy, USA Shooting
and the University of Colorado ski team, researchers
estimate that more than 20 percent of the optical fibers
go to the brain’s balance centers. “Any time
you have a more efficient visual system, we feel it improves
your ability to perform athletically,” he adds.
Visual training is similar to strength and conditioning
resistance training. By stressing or overloading the visual
system during sports-specific exercises, you build visual
strength, stamina and speed for the intense optical challenges
you face in your sport. Whether you’re biking a
rocky descent or skiing a black diamond, you want your
eyes to make accurate, lightning-quick decisions ot guide
your body and not be so overwhelmed that thye tire and
lose focus. To speed up your reflexes and increase your
visual coordination and endurance, Dr. Wilson recommends
doing balance activites—on a teeterboard, balance
beam or mini-trampoline-and juggling as you work your
eyes.
While training is often done with specialized tools
and computer programs, many eye exercises can be performed
with readily available equipment. Practice these simple
exercises for up to 20 minutes at a time, three to five
times a week.
1.
Eye Jump
Improves
focus from near to far.
How to: Place a tennis ball four inches away and a second
target two to ten feet away. Look at the near target,
then at the far target, and back to the near target.
Make sure that both eyes come into focus on the near target
and diverge when looking at the far target. Do 30 to
40 near-far eye jumps each day.
 2. Balancing Act-Integrates
eye focusing and balance
How to: Stand on a two-by-four, with one foot in front
of the other, and hold a pen with lettering in your fully
extended arm at eye level. Staying focused on the pen,
make wide, sweeping figure eights without moving your
head. As your balance improves, practice walking forward
and backward on the beam. Rest after five minutes and
repeat.
*Vision
drills courtesy of Dr. Thomas Wilson’s Sports
Vision:
Training for Better Performance and Dr. Burton Worrell.
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