An overwhelming statistic about vision training for sports: Approximately 80% of the sensory information we perceive in sports is visual.
No matter what sport you (or your child) are involved in, the ability to respond, concentrate, and react quickly can determine whether you lose, win, or avoid injury.
You might be wondering, “What exactly is vision training?”.
Vision training is a doctor-supervised program designed to improve the visual system’s function. It is a sequence of neurosensory and neuromuscular activities individually prescribed and monitored by a doctor to develop, rehabilitate, and enhance visual skills and processing.
At Aurora Eye Care, we customize your vision training plan to fit your individual needs. We look at the various visual issues you might struggle with and create a personalized program using several techniques, including computer programs, games, lenses, and patches.
Our visual training sessions are ideal for children facing learning challenges or adults experiencing visual strain.
What is the goal of our vision training services in Grande Prairie, Alberta? To provide individuals with a personalized approach to help transform how they see the world.
Keen to learn more or start a vision training program with us? Book an appointment in Grande Prairie now!
In this blog, we’re sharing the benefits of vision training, specifically for young athletes, including how these benefits extend into their academic pursuits.
Ready? Let’s get into it!
The Ins and Outs of Vision Training
Vision training is quickly becoming one of the most popular ways to strengthen the relationship between your eyes and brain. Both children and adults are reaping the benefits of these programs.
Most people think perfect vision means you can see the 20/20 line on the chart. But visual acuity is only one of over 17 skills we use while reading, learning, and everyday life.
Vision is a very complex process involving eye teaming, eye tracking, accommodation, and visual information processing.
Many children (and adults) have deficits in visual skills that make life more difficult than necessary.
Common vision problems in children include:
These vision problems are commonly overlooked. At Aurora Eye Care, we assess and treat these visual skill deficits through vision training.
Our vision training patients typically demonstrate improved visual function, comfort, reading ability, attention and concentration, and work and sports performance. Vision training improves our patients’ quality of life in many ways, including their confidence!
The Role of Vision in Specific Sports
Your vision is the MVP of your learning process and helps you develop your skills. If you’re visually able, you might even take it for granted!
To emphasize its importance, we highlight the skills that vision helps you improve in different sports.
Hockey
- Tracking a fast-moving puck
- Peripheral vision for awareness of other players
- Quick decision making
- Vision training for sports improves reaction times and accuracy in passing and shooting.
Basketball
- Court vision
- Spotting teammates
- Anticipating opponents’ moves
- Through improved focus and coordination, visual training enhances dribbling, passing, and shooting skills.
Volleyball
- Tracking the ball’s trajectory for accurate serves, spikes, and blocks
- Vision training helps improve visual perception for better timing and positioning.
Baseball
- Batting
- Catching
- Fielding
- Tracking the ball from pitch to hit
- Sports vision training will improve hand-eye coordination and visual processing speed.
The Benefits of Vision Training for Sports
Now, on to the reason we’re all here: the benefits of vision training for sports. Vision training can truly unlock the next level of athletic performance by helping you dial into key details.
- Improve Performance
- Enhance reaction time
- Better decision-making under pressure
- Improve accuracy and consistency in sports-specific skills
- Better coordination and spatial awareness on the field, court, or arena
- Boost Confidence
- Mastering visual skills leads to more self-confidence in athletic abilities.
- Reducing anxiety during games improves focus and reduces distractions
Integrating Vision Training for Sports Into a Young Athlete’s Routine
A solid foundation of visual skills is essential for establishing a healthy connection between the eyes and the brain.
When your eyes and brain are “speaking the same language,” or rather, working together to convey the image you see, you can focus more on your schoolwork, career, sports, and recreational activities.
We’d begin with a comprehensive eye exam to start your child’s sports vision training journey. This would help determine the health of their eyes and whether a prescription for glasses or contacts is necessary.
Then, we’d move on to a functional eye exam, which is a more in-depth look at your child’s visual skills and an overview of their extensive health history.
The functional eye exam will determine what visual skills need to be enhanced during their visual training, such as:
- Eye movements
- Eye teaming
- Eye focusing
- Visual perception
- Sensory evaluation with the synaptic sensory station, which will test the following skills:
- Visual clarity (tests down to 20/8 acuity)
- Contrast sensitivity
- Depth sensitivity
- Near far quickness
- Target capture (C-P coordination)
- Perception span (tachistoscope)
- Multip object tracking
- Reaction time
- Peripheral reaction (eye-hand coordination)
- Go no go
Consistency and balance are key to success in anything! Establishing and sticking with a vision training routine will only enhance your child’s skills faster. A combination of physical training, mental health, and vision training at any level of sport will make your child a stronger athlete and individual.
Interested in getting started? Fill out our online survey or book an appointment at our Grande Prairie location.
Academic Benefits of Vision Training
Visual training will not only improve your child’s athletic abilities but also strengthen their academic skills.
Two for the price of one? Say less. Developing all-around skills to face what life throws at you is a true gift.
During a very impressionable time in their life, having the self-confidence to tackle their sport and school work is priceless. It’s something we wish we had when we were younger!
Here are a few academic benefits of vision training:
- Improved Reading and Writing
- Better visual tracking helps with reading speed and comprehension
- Better Focus and Concentration
- Improve attention span and concentration in the classroom and at home while studying and doing homework.
- Enhanced Learning Abilities
- It helps in subjects that require strong visual processing, like math and science.
Reach Athletic and Academic Goals With Vision Training
We hope this blog gave you a better understanding of how vision training for sports can benefit the young athlete(s) in your life—athletically and academically.
Vision training can improve your child’s focus, concentration, skills, and confidence on the field and in the classroom.
We’d love to help your child reach their fullest potential. To get started, complete our online survey or go ahead and book an appointment with us in Grande Prairie, Alberta.
We can’t wait to hear from you!
Frequently Asked Questions
What is vision training for sports?
Vision training for sports is a doctor-supervised program built to improve how the eyes and brain work together. It uses a personalized sequence of neurosensory and neuromuscular activities — things like computer programs, specialized games, lenses, and patches — to develop, rehabilitate, and enhance visual skills. At Aurora Eye Care, we customize each plan around the specific visual challenges you or your child are working through.
How can vision training help my child’s athletic performance?
Since around 80% of the sensory information used in sports is visual, stronger visual skills can directly affect how quickly and accurately your child reacts on the field, court, or ice. Vision training can improve reaction time, decision-making under pressure, accuracy and consistency in sports-specific skills, and overall coordination and spatial awareness. Many young athletes also build more confidence as these skills develop.
Which sports can benefit from vision training?
Vision plays a role in nearly every sport, though it shows up a little differently in each one. In hockey, it supports tracking a fast-moving puck and staying aware of other players; in basketball, it helps with court vision and anticipating opponents’ moves; in volleyball, it aids tracking the ball’s trajectory for serves, spikes, and blocks; and in baseball, it supports the hand-eye coordination needed for batting, catching, and fielding.
What does a vision training assessment involve?
We start with a comprehensive eye exam to check the overall health of your child’s eyes and determine whether glasses or contacts are needed. From there, we move into a functional eye exam, a more in-depth look at visual skills and health history that includes sensory testing for things like visual clarity, contrast sensitivity, depth perception, reaction time, and peripheral awareness. Together, these steps help us map out which visual skills to target in your child’s training.
What common vision problems does vision training address?
Vision training can help with issues like lazy eye (amblyopia), crossed eyes (strabismus), nearsightedness, binocular vision problems, and reading difficulties or delays. These are often overlooked because they don’t always show up on a standard vision screening. A functional eye exam is how we identify whether any of these may be affecting your child’s performance in sports or school.
Does vision training only help with sports, or can it help with school too?
Both. The same visual skills that support athletic performance — tracking, focus, and processing speed — also play a role in reading, writing, and classroom concentration. Families often notice improvements in reading speed and comprehension, attention span, and performance in subjects that lean heavily on visual processing, like math and science.
How do I get started with sports vision training at Aurora Eye Care?
You can get started by completing our online survey or booking an appointment directly with our team in Grande Prairie, Alberta. From there, we’ll begin with a comprehensive eye exam and functional assessment to build a vision training plan suited to your child’s needs.