The Outcome of Sports Vision Training on Collegiate Softball Players

Athletic Performance

Sports, Vision, Training

To investigate the outcomes of sports vision enhancement training on softball players, specifically the visual skills and visual function. This will help to develop and hone best practice methods for future research as well as training protocols for athletes.

After informed consent is given by each participant, they will go through a pre-training evaluation at the Sports Vision Clinic at University Incarnate Word. The evaluation will include a Senaptec Sensory station evaluation of 10 skills, 1) visual acuity 2) contrast sensitivity 3) depth perception 4) near far quickness 5) perception span 6) multiple object tracking 7) reaction time 8) target capture 9) eye hand coordination 10) go/No go. Other skills will be evaluated and re-measured using different types of equipment for better reliability. 11) visual acuity using Rabin Super vision 12) contrast sensitivity using Pelli-Robson and Rabin Super vision 13) accommodative facility 14) reaction time on Dynavision 15) depth perception on the Howard-Dolman, Randot and Automated Vision Tester 16) vergence ranges 17) accommodative amplitude. At the first evaluation each participant will also be asked to complete an entering questionnaire, and at the last evaluation each participate will be asked to complete an exit questionnaire. The above-mentioned evaluation of 17 items, will be given to each participant pre-training protocol, post-training protocol and once more after a washout period of 5 weeks. The training protocol will consist of once weekly training sessions 45 minutes in duration. Every participant will receive the same training protocol the only variation will be level of advancement, some athletes will advance at different rates onto more complex levels of each activity. This is to allow continued improvement of the athletes and maintain motivation. Each training session will consist of the following activities 1) Brock string to improve vergence accuracy and depth perception; 2) Senaptec Strobe glasses while performing toss and catch, to improve concentration and visualization; 3) Eye Metrix double eye speed scanning, activities using a number board, aimed at collecting visual information quickly and accurately; 4) Senaptec Synchrony activities to improve anticipation and timing; 5) Senaptec Sensory Station Near Far, focus and concentration activities to improve eye accommodation accuracy; 6) Dynavision activities to improve reaction time, eye-hand coordination, and central-peripheral processing speeds; 7) Sports Vision Trainer Go/No go activities to improve low contrast and go/ no go decision making; 8) Senaptec Sensory Station spatial memory activities to improve memory span and peripheral awareness. Each activity will be performed twice.

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