Sports vision training is a personalized form of vision therapy aimed at developing specific visual skills in athletes. The exercises in a sports vision program train the brain to effectively interact with the eyes and improve visual functioning.
Sports vision training is typically done by our eye doctors or a certified sports vision therapist serving the Newport location will assess the athlete's visual skills and develop a customized training program. The training program will typically involve a series of exercises that are designed to improve the athlete's visual skills.
Sports vision training can help athletes improve their performance in a variety of ways, including:
- Improving eye-hand coordination. Sports vision training can help athletes improve their ability to coordinate eye movements with hand movements. This is essential for athletes who need to be able to quickly and accurately catch, throw, or hit a ball.
- Improving depth perception. Sports vision training can help athletes improve their ability to judge depth and distance. This is important for athletes who need to be able to avoid collisions or make quick movements.
- Improving visual processing speed. Sports vision training can help athletes improve their ability to process visual information quickly. This is important for athletes who need to be able to react quickly to changes in the game.
- Improving visual attention. Sports vision training can help athletes improve their ability to focus on visual information. This is important for athletes who need to be able to track a ball or opponent while ignoring distractions.
Sports vision training is used by many professional athletes, including:
- NFL and NBA players. Both the NFL and NBA have mandatory vision test for all players, and many players also choose to undergo sports vision training to improve their performance.
- Basketball players often use sports vision training to improve their shooting and passing skills.
- Football players use this training for recognizing defensive coverage and expanding peripheral awareness (quarterbacks) and for receiving drills.
- MLB players. Many MLB teams have their players undergo sports vision evaluations in spring training to assess their visual performance.
- Baseball players often use sports vision training to improve their hitting and fielding skills.
- Hitters can train to recognize pitches more quickly, which enables them to put more barrels on the ball.
- Catchers can train reaction time and peripheral awareness.
- MLS players. The MLS does not have a mandatory vision test for players, but many teams have sports vision training devices in their facilities.
- Soccer players often use sports vision training to improve their dribbling and shooting skills.
- Goalkeepers train their reaction time, peripheral awareness, and decision-making.
- NHL players. Many hockey goalies understand the importance of sports vision training to improve their performance in stopping shots on goal.
- ATP players. Many professional tennis players use sports vision training to improve their serving and return of serve skills.
- PGA golfers. Golfers often use sports vision training to improve their putting and driving skills. The "quiet eye" technique is a sports vision training plan that has been shown to improve putting.
If you are interested in learning more about sports vision training, or if you are an athlete looking to improve your performance, please come visit one of our Newport location, or give us a call for a Sports Vision Evaluation today.