Why Great Vision Is Important to Athletes

If you play sports professionally or recreationally, you know how important great vision is. The ability to see a fastball flying at you or to shift your focus from a golf ball to the target and back is absolutely crucial to your game. Read on as the team at Access Eye breaks down some of the visual skills that are particularly important to athletes.

Visual Skills Important to Athletes

Visual Acuity

Visual acuity refers to the clarity or sharpness of your vision. Good visual acuity allows you to see nearby and faraway objects or players clearly, even when they are moving fast.

Depth Perception

Depth perception is the ability to correctly judge how far away an object is. This visual skill helps you judge the distance between you and the ball in play, boundary lines, teammates and opponents.

Contrast Sensitivity

Contrast sensitivity enables you to detect and track objects against various backgrounds. This is important in sports like golf, where you have to read the greens, and baseball, where you might have to track a fly ball against a bright sky.

Visual Reaction Time

Visual reaction time refers to the ability to react quickly to a visual cue or stimulus. A quick response is incredibly important in all sports, particularly sports like hockey and racket sports, which require you to track a puck or ball moving at lightning-fast speeds.

Peripheral Vision

Your peripheral vision is your side vision, or the vision outside of your direct line of sight. Being able to see clearly out of the corners of your eyes is tremendously important, especially in sports like football where you need to be able to see and sense movement on either side of you to guide your path and avoid being tackled.

Improve Your Vision and Sports Performance

To excel at your sports, you probably spend a lot of time working on mechanics and keeping your body in peak physical form. But the team at Access Eye encourages you not to neglect the importance of your eyes and vision.

Great sports vision starts with a comprehensive eye exam to uncover or monitor emerging problems. Based on the exam and your doctor’s assessment, you can learn more about how to improve your vision performance and eye health.