It amazes me how many young athletes don’t take care of
their eyes. Yearly check-ups are a good start, but if you’ve heard some of the
stories I’ve heard about how terrible kids are with taking care of their
contact lenses, you’d be astounded. Example: I once had an athlete come in with
terribly red eyes, so I advised him to see an optometrist. He informed her that
he’d been putting his contacts in the same solution at night for two weeks.
That’s like reusing the same bath water for 14 days – except the eyes are worse
because they’re more prone to infection.
About a month back I had the pleasure of reading a new book,
See to Play: The Eyes of Advanced Athletes by Dr. Michael Peters, discussing
the role of the visual system in athletics, as well as some easy at-home
assessment and training techniques to assess specific visual qualities. Dr.
Peters strongly believe that a lot of players AND students have significant
performance limitations based on visual limitations that are simply missed in
traditional screening. He also believes that this information provides an
alternative explanation to some of the postural, motor, and musculoskeletal
issues we see commonly AND heavily influences symptoms and return to play times
following a concussion.
Dr. Peters is the team eye doctor of the NHL’s Carolina
Panthers and has also worked closely with athletes in all of the major
professional sports leagues. Through his own experience, Dr. Peters speculates
4 out of 10 athletes don’t make it to the professional level because of
something wrong with their visual system.
The benefits of excellent vision may seem obvious but there
are a few details that are not quite so clear. The eyes are our first line defense from injury. Our bodies fight and flight mechanism
is on high alert and this is the first role of vision. Many of you may remember Barry Sanders
from his playing days with the Detroit Lions. He was small in stature by professional football standards
but it was as if he had eyes on the back and side of his head because he always
avoided a catastrophic direct hit.
In his book Dr. Peters discusses the detailed vision zone. In his opinion the athletes with larger
zones see more of the playing area see more of the play developing and can
react to where they need to be to make a play or in the case of Barry Sanders
where not to be to avoid the big hit. Visual acuity is also very important
because this affects reaction time.
Athletes who don’t see clearly do not react as quickly or accurately.
According to Dr. Peters:
Athletes overlook
vision. They think they see “good
enough”. The problem with that
thinking is that elite athletes see the best! They’re vision is awesome. This is because of a physical trait that
they were gifted with or they were smart enough to get to the eye doctor early
and often. Maximizing visual
acuity insures athletes are allowing their eye hand coordination to develop to
its fullest potential. Another limitation I find is that athletes don’t use
their complete area of vision. The
detailed vision zone is the most important visual trait for hockey athletes and
through vision training, athletes can insure they are maximizing their genetic
potential and not allowing this zone to shrink due to disuse.
What visual system qualities may be overlooked in a typical
eye exam?
During routine eye
exams, eye doctors test for visual acuity and eye health. We don’t normally test for an athlete’s
detailed vision zone, their speed of focus and perception. Separate exams, known as sports vision
exams, provide this extra testing to help fully evaluate athlete’s visual
system.
What role does the visual system play in returning from
injuries like concussions?
The eyes take a
picture and send it back to the brain to decipher it. Concussions can affect the part of the brain that is in charge
of figuring out the picture the eyes have taken. Athletes with visual issues in their concussions will
complain of blurred vision, dizziness, light sensitivity, decreased
concentration, anxiety when walking into a crowd of people and motion sickness
when driving or riding in a car. Usually, these visual issues resolve with
rest. For the athletes with
lingering symptoms, we use vision training to help speed up recovery.
I often play a game with kids where I have them lie on the
bellies and on my command they have to get up as fast as they can and balance
on one foot. To make the game more
challenging I will have them start on the ground with their eyes closed, then
they get up and attempt to balance on one-foot with their eyes closed the
entire time. When their vision is
taken away the body becomes very sensitive to the slightest change in
equilibrium because it senses how vulnerable it is without the ability to see.
This game is an excellent example of how powerful vision is to body control and
spatial awareness, two elements that are crucial during athletic development.
This book is definitely worth checking out as it provides
more of the low-lying fruit
(posture, nutrition, sleep) that is so easy to get to with very little
physical or monetary investment, yet has powerful implications on sport and
academic performance in addition to injury prevention.
While I am on the topic of eyesight a lack of physical
activity has been linked to vision loss:
The book See To Play:
Story Update:
Earlier this summer a bill was making in its way through the
state legislature that would require youth sports organizations and schools to
adopt concussion-awareness guidelines.
Governor Snyder signed the bill this week. Here are the details:
Head injuries and concussions are a real problem based upon
the need for this legislation as well as conversations I have had with a local
high school athletic trainer, chiropractor (#1 reason young athletes come to
see him, head injuries), and concerned parents. Awareness and education is key to safeguard your kids. This book is an excellent resource that
can help:
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