Vision and sport

Most sports have a great implication with vision. Currently, sports performance can be improved through a selective study of visual functions and establish a plan of specific exercises for each sport.

For those who wear contact lenses or want to have surgery to remove their glasses, there are novelties that offer better results and greater safety for the practice of sport.

Importance of vision in sport

Each sport has different implications on the visual apparatus. It is very rare that in a certain sport there is not an important relationship with the visual system. We have examples of all kinds, in sports such as skiing, eye protection against ultraviolet radiation is essential. In others, such as tennis or squash, the speed of the ball requires very good visual reflexes to be able to adjust the movement when the ball hits.

Visual study for athletes

All those who practice sports should make a prior study of their visual conditions. With the visit of the ophthalmologist, the absence of eye diseases will be revealed or, if there is any pathology, it must be determined what sports can be performed and with what frequency and intensity.

In the same way, those people who have undergone surgery and are well, such as after a cataract surgery or myopia, they should consult with an ophthalmologist who is an expert in sports, to determine what they can and cannot do and, especially, mark a pattern of check-ups to make sure that no complications appear that could affect vision.

The state of sight in athletes

Once we know the state of health of our eyes, we are able to study our visual system. Vision is something much more complex than the state of our eyes.

Remember that the mink is a process of capture of light signals from the outside by the eye, which must reach the brain, through the optical path, where they are processed, the external world is reconstructed, awareness is taken of that information and develop a motor action plan, for example, move an arm to reach a ball.

The visual system is not something passive, like a telescope, it is organized to act. We currently know that 70% of the brain is involved in visual functions.

Characteristics of vision in athletes

In the case of sports something similar happens. If we are playing tennis and are prepared to return a serve, our brain establishes a plan of action, albeit unconsciously: first try to decide the type of serve that will make us, which side the ball will go to and at what speed, to establish a movement of the body and the arm that is going to be placed in the right place and time to find the ball and hit it with the racket correctly.

Professional players know the importance of this process, since the ball can go over 200 km/h in such a way that it arrives in 200 or 300 milliseconds, with almost no time to see it or react to return it.

The eyes collect information that they transmit to the brain, position of the player, grip of the racket, etc., so that they can intuit where the ball will go and what kind of movement and speed it will reach like this, once the service kicks in, it will only have time to go towards a position where it intuits when the ball arrives, there is no time for more, you can not follow the trajectory of the ball, it is too fast for the visual system, the player does not look at the ball as it advances, he only has time to look for it in the meters near the point that he believes he will find himself behind the serve, 3 or 4 meters in front of him, at which point he can fix it with his sight and adjust the movement of the arm to hit the racquet correctly. We see this even more exaggerated in the case of squash.

Improve vision in athletes

Currently we can improve the reaction response to increase efficiency in the return of a serve, we can improve the estimate of the point and contact time with the ball, "collision time", both in professional players and amateur players or players young people who belong to a tennis school and want to improve their game.

There are many examples and each sport has its own characteristics. Before we talked about skiing and we all think about the importance of protect the eyes And, really this is the first thing, but surely the fans of this sport, have ever had to ski in poor visibility conditions, with fog, and we have all had the sensation of not seeing well and even losing balance. In these cases there are therapies, basically visual exercises, aimed at improving the conditions of contrast and visibility.

Myopia in athletes

Another important aspect in people who practice sports, is the correction of visual defects such as myopia.

Sometimes those who use contact lenses consult us about problems related to their bearing during the practice of sports, they are more dry or they move or even see less. This is due to the fact that during the practice of sports, the conditions of the tear vary and it is necessary to resort to a different type of lens, to look for the material and the most suitable geometries for each situation.

Operation of myopia for athletes

In the same way, when we are presented with a refractive surgery, like the ones we make to eliminate myopiaIt's not the same if it's about a person who does sports with respect to those who do not, especially in high level athletes, the needs of your visual system are different.

A motorcycle or car driver needs good dynamic vision and calculate distances very well, for this a laser technology is needed that performs special treatments, with optical zones amplias and parabolic aspheric profiles, a technology that not all refractive surgery centers have.

Ophthalmologists specializing in athletes

In our Ophthalmology Department we have the Vision and Sports Unit, dedicated to both elite athletes and all those who practice sports, at whatever level, to carry out a study of their visual conditions and advice on how to improve performance in each sport, increasing the level of efficiency and safety.

Our ophthalmology service for athletes

For our Unit have been Barça players, both soccer and basketball, pilots such as Toni Elias, Tito Rabat or Espargaró brothers, and members of most national teams seeking to improve their performance and, along with these well-known characters, Many fans have also gone through that without looking to get out in the media for their sporting achievements, they have sought to improve their skills. All of them have benefited from something that remains unknown to most of those who practice sports.

With this article we want to encourage all athletes to get to know their visual capacity better and to seek advice on how to improve their sports performance, so that their favorite sport is more effective and safe.

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