Vision and performance in sport

Photo by Goh Rhy Yan on Unsplash

Good vision is, perhaps, one of the most underrated skills that any sporting professional has. Yet it is one of the easiest and most effective ways to improve your performance.

Whether you’re serious about sports or it’s more of a hobby, there are a couple of ways that you can quickly improve your game through your eyesight.

Clearer vision = Optimal performance

Photo by Aksh yadav on Unsplash

Clear vision is intrinsically linked with performance in sport, so it’s important to make regular visits your optician regardless of whether you’re a current glasses wearer or not. Your optician can check that your eyes are in good health and will test your eyesight to see if you would benefit from vision correction. If you haven’t already trialled them, it’s worth asking your optician about prescription contact lenses. For those with a competitive streak, having crisp, clear and uninterrupted vision can be the difference between winning and losing.

The impact of contact lenses in sport is particularly evident in cricket. Long gone are the batters like Geoffrey Boycott and David Steele who played with a pair of glasses perched on the end of their nose. In fact, Daniel Vettori is the only top-level international cricket player remaining that hasn’t opted for contact lenses.

Find out which is your dominant eye

Most people know which their dominant hand is, but don’t realise that they also have a dominant eye. By identifying your dominant eye, you can position yourself in a way that gives you better hand-eye-coordination, and better aim.

If you play tennis, golf, cricket or any sport that requires accuracy, take this test, because a simple tilt of the head could give you that extra edge:

• Form a triangular-shaped gap with your hands by overlapping your right thumb and index finger over your left
• Hold your hands up in front of you at arms-length
• Focus on a single object across the room, and look at it through the triangle you have formed
• Close your left eye
• If you can still see the object, your right eye is the dominant eye. If not, try closing your right eye. Whichever eye keeps the object visible through the triangular hole is your dominant eye.

You can easily improve your hand-eye coordination by relying more on your dominant eye while taking aim by altering the position of your head. You can also improve the strength of your weaker eye as a longer-term goal. Some people achieve this by putting an eye patch on their dominant eye.

If you’ve experienced an improvement in sports by perfecting your vision, or have any other tips to share, let us know! We’d love to hear from you.