There is much more to vision than just seeing clearly; it encompasses many skills. Just as practice and exercise can increase stamina, strength and speed, there are ways athletes can improve their visual fitness and accuracy. 

We know from normative studies, that athletes in general outperform the general population with respect to variance measurements. This means that their ability to quickly select content in their visual field to interact with is very high functioning, and as a result they are able to minimize the amount of eye jitter around that content during both eye movements and fixed gaze tasks. Through accurately training the eyes with various exercises, athletes have the FITLIGHT® at their disposal to gain immediate results while periodically tracking their progress.

But what type of visual skills can be improved?  The important visual skills that can affect how well you play your favourite sport include the following:

Dynamic Visual-Acuity:  Ability to see objects clearly while in motion

Eye Tracking:  Closely related to dynamic visual acuity, this is the ability to “keep your eye on the ball” or follow a moving object.  It is also known as visual pursuit

Eye Focusing:  the ability to maintain clear vision as your eyes change focus quickly and accurately while looking from one distance to another

Peripheral (side) awareness:  Ability to see people and objects “out of the corner of your eye” while concentrating on a fixed point.  You do not see things in the same way that you see something in front of you, but rather you are aware of someone or something to the left or righ of you.

Depth perception:  Being able to quickly and accurately judge the distance between yourself, the ball and your opponents, teammates, boundary lines, and other objects.

Fusion and flexibility stamina:  Being able to keep both eyes working together, even under high speed and physically stressful conditions

Visual Processing:  Ability of the brain to rapidly and effectively interpret visual input accurately and tell the body what to do properly to complete the athletic task.

Contrast sensitivity:  This is an important measure of visual function, needed in situations of low light or glare, when the contrast between objects and their background is reduced.  Contrast is determined by the difference in the color and brightness of the object and other objects within your field of view.

Eye-hand and body coordination:  Appropriate use of your hands, feet, and body, when responding to visual information, such as getting yourself the ball. 

Improving eye-sight is difficult, taking into account the above metrics that reflect a 20/20 vision score however with neuro-technology at the forefront, any coach and/or athlete can become their own eye performance coach. With FITLIGHT® user friendly app, it not only gives you access to numerous vision training exercises but also enables you to correct track and measure your data overtime so you can maximize your performance.