Vision greatly affects an athlete's sports performance. Hand-eye coordination and accurate perception are imperative to the skills required by many fast-paced sports. Vision deficiencies and vision problems can be correlated to a poor sports performance.
Here are a few types of vision deficiencies that impact sports performance.
Vision Acuity
Vision acuity measures the eye's ability to resolve detail. Acuity can be measured in two forms: static or dynamic acuity.
Dynamic acuity is the ability to resolve detail in a moving target. Poor dynamic acuity is common in athletes and people in general, and it’s usually expressed through near- or far-sighted vision. Luckily, contact lenses can easily solve this deficiency.
Peripheral Vision
Peripheral vision is the ability to see objects located away from the direction of gaze. The clarity of objects typically decreases as they move further away from the center of the gaze.
A deficiency in peripheral vision will limit an athlete’s ability to identify or monitor other players or objects located on their sides, such as an oncoming opponent. However, peripheral vision deficiencies are relatively rare, occurring mainly due to glaucoma or stroke.
Depth Perception
Depth perception is the ability to perceive the distance to or between objects, and it’s extremely important in sports such as baseball and football where an athlete must hit or interact with moving objects.
Adequate depth perception relies on information from both eyes. A deficiency can exist if one eye has a much worse vision than the other.
Color Vision
Color vision deficiencies often develop due to genetic inheritance. One of the most common vision deficiencies affects the ability to see shades of green and red. A popular struggle of athletes with a color vision deficiency is differentiating between teams.
Eye Movements
Athletes rely on eye movements to make quick and accurate decisions on a playing field, such as deciding when and to whom to pass the puck in hockey.
Neuromuscular conditions are the most common eye-movement deficiencies that can affect sports performance, slowing down eye movements, and accuracy.
Vision deficiencies of all kinds can impact sports performance, such as poor visual acuity, peripheral vision, depth perception, color vision, and eye movements.
