Each year, between 1.7 million to 3 million sports and recreation-related concussions occur in the U.S. alone. Of those, roughly 70-80% of the people experience vision problems.
So how can you prevent head injuries? Consider sports vision training. It not only improves performance but can also protect your head from injury.
What is Sports Vision Training?
Sports vision training isn’t about correcting your eyesight.
Rather, it's a customized program made to improve the communication between your eyes, brain, and body while playing sports. It helps amateur and professional athletes process information and then react faster and more accurately to what they see on the field, court, or rink.
Sports vision training uses a personalized series of techniques and exercises, that teaches the brain and body to respond more accurately and efficiently to the fastball or hockey puck rapidly coming toward you. The training focuses on improving visual skills, such as depth perception, hand-eye coordination, eye tracking, focusing, and peripheral vision.
Sports Vision Training and Sport-Related Head Injuries
Head injuries, especially concussions, are among the most common injuries incurred while playing sports. However, they can be prevented!
If your visual skills are not functioning at their peak, you may misjudge the distance between yourself and the ball or yourself you and other players. Miscalculating the velocity of a ball or the positioning of other athletes due to poor peripheral vision can result in serious injury, head or other.
Just as you train your muscles to be at your peak, so too, you must train your eyes to communicate more efficiently with your brain and body.
Does Sports Vision Training Lead to a Decrease In Sport-Related Injuries?
Studies show that players who undergo sports vision training have significantly fewer concussions than their peers.
One study, conducted by the University of Cincinnati Division of Sports Medicine, found that university football players who underwent sports vision training to improve their peripheral vision had fewer concussions than those who did not undergo the training.
In short, sports vision training teaches the the eyes and brain to react better to the changing environment, leading to increased success with fewer injury-causing collisions.
Want to take your game to the next level? Contact Village Eye Centre today.
We serve patients from Edmonton, Sherwood Park, St. Albert, and Fort Saskatchewan, throughout Alberta.