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Sports Vision Training is an under-represented part of an athlete's overall training program. Athletes train nearly year round for their sport; honing their skills, strengthening their muscles, and conditioning. Despite these efforts, many athletes fall into slumps, perform inconsistently, or fail to reach their personal goals for the season. For some of these athletes, faltering performance is linking to deficient visual skills.

Fortunately, many of these vision skills can be improved quite easily. Improving vision for sports may be as simple as wearing glasses or contacts to improve clarity of vision during competition. For those looking for a competitive edge, Sports Vision Training provides an opportunity to improve visual functioning; eye teaming, eye focusing, peripheral awareness, and split attention.

 This blog discusses a recently published article titled “High-Performance Vision Training Improves Batting Statistics for University of Cincinnati Baseball Players.” Baseball provides an excellent opportunity to discuss sports vision training for a couple of reasons: 1) The act of hitting a baseball is very visually demanding, 2) The number of statistics that are recorded during baseball provide almost immediate feedback.

Prior to the 2010-2011 season, the players on the University of Cincinnati baseball team underwent baseline testing and then began a 6 week vision training program. During the season, the players were placed on a maintenance program for vision training. At the end of the season researchers were able to compare performance during the 2010-2011 to that during the 2009-2010 season (no sports vision training program was performed before or during the 2009-2010 season).

How did the team do during the 2010-2011 season? Here are the numbers:

• When compared to the previous season, The University of Cincinnati team batting average increased from 0.251 to 0.285
• The slugging percentage for The University of Cincinnati increased by 0.033 while the rest of the Big East decreased by 0.082 that same season. This produced a difference of 0.115.
• All batting parameters that were evaluated by the researchers improved by 10% or more.

This is not the first time improvements in batting performance have been observed following sports vision training. In 1994 the US Air Force Academy used a sports vision training program and increased their batting average from 0.319 during the previous season to 0.360. The number of home runs also increased; from 32 during the previous season to 76 during the 1994 season. The US Air Force Academy went on to lead the nation in hitting during the 1994 season.

While many people are aware of the physical demands of sports, they often forget about the visual demands. Whether it is hitting a baseball, kicking a soccer ball, hitting a slapshot, or reading the defense, your eyes guide much of what your body does during athletic competition. If your eyes inadequately interpret visual information or inaccurately guide your body during competition you can expect reduced or inconsistent performance. Sports Vision Training is yet another tool available to athletes of any ability level who are looking for an extra competitive edge.