What’s the most overlooked part of football conditioning?
photo credit: Trippography
by Brandon Begotka, OD
Conditioning is critical in sports – particularly in football. While so much emphasis is placed on lifting weights and running, one of the most critical parts of the body is overlooked by most coaches: Their players’ eyes.
It doesn’t matter how strong or fast you are. If you can’t see the ball, you can’t catch it. Unfortunately, an athlete can have vision problems that go undetected, even if they have perfect “20/20” vision.
Seeing 20/20 is only part of the picture
When most people think of vision, they think “20/20”. The term “20/20” is a measure of visual acuity, which is the ability to see detail at a given distance.
The first 20 refers to the test distance, which is 20 feet. The second 20 refers to the distance at which an ‘average’ person can decipher the size of a letter on the chart (for a 20/20 letter the size is a little smaller than 3/8ths of an inch).
The smallest letter a person with 20/30 vision can see at 20 feet can be seen by a person with 20/20 vision at 30 feet. In other words, the person with 20/30 vision has to move closer to the letter in order to see it because they have poorer visual acuity than the ‘average’ person.
For a football player, good visual acuity is important to see the ball clearly. Seeing 20/20 is only one of many visual skills that are critical to gridiron success.
Need to see depth if you want to go deep
One of the most important visual skills in any sport is depth perception, which is
the ability to perceive the spatial relationships between objects in visual space. The more information our brain has about these relationships, the better our understanding of where things really are and the better our performance in sports.
So how does depth perception work?
There are two types of depth perception: monocular (meaning one eye) and binocular (meaning two eyes). Our brain uses both monocular and binocular depth cues to accurately determine where things are in our visual space.
Accurate binocular depth perception is critical for success in sports, and it can only be achieved if both eyes are working well together.
We have two eyes, each controlled by six muscles that move them into different positions. When looking at an object, like a football, the eye muscles automatically move the eyes so that they are both pointing at the same spot in space.
Each eye has a slightly different image of the target, and the brain combines these images into one complete image. This is considered binocular depth perception, or stereopsis.
So just how important is binocular depth perception?
Think about when the football is flying through the air to an intended receiver.
Many players see the ball as quite small, but those with good depth perception may see it as much larger. Obviously, the larger the ball appears, the easier it will be to catch.
There’s no better example than Larry Fitzgerald, wide receiver for the Arizona Cardinals. Fitzgerald had vision therapy as a child to help correct a depth perception problem. Today he’s a Pro Bowler and one of the elite wide receivers in the game.
If a player has a vision problem, difficulties will extend beyond the football field and a few dropped passes. He or she will notice a myriad of vision-related symptoms, such as headaches, difficulty reading, low attention spans, and tired eyes. Grades will slip, and in some cases, dyslexia or attention deficit disorder may be diagnosed.
In many instances, the problem is related to vision.
Improve your vision, elevate your game
The question you should now be asking is, “If there is a problem, how do I improve my depth perception?”
The first step, if you wear glasses, is to have a lens prescription that allows your vision to function optimally. This lens prescription is not necessarily the one that provides you with the sharpest vision, since good vision means more than just 20/20.
Instead, you should be using the prescription that allows your two eyes to work well together in order to maximize depth perception.
The fastest way to do that is with a program of optometric vision therapy. Vision therapy uses optical devices and exercises to retrain the muscles that control the eye in order to make movements easier and more efficient.
As a developmental optometrist, I view vision as a learned and developed skill that can be changed at any age. By training the eyes to work better together with optometric vision therapy, we can actually improve a person’s binocular depth perception. It will help you on the field with football, and off the field in school or in daily activities. It’s why vision therapy helps you not only in sports but also in the game of life.
If you think you have a problem, take our Vision Quiz. This is the first step to determining if you have a vision problem. You may also contact The Vision Therapy Center with any questions by calling 262-784-9201.
Dr. Brandon Begotka
Brandon Begotka is a developmental optometrist who practices at The Vision Therapy Center, located in both Brookfield and Madison. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Wisconsin Optometric Association and is a member of the College of Optometrists in Vision Development. More information about Dr. Begotka and The Vision Therapy Center can be found at www.thevisiontherapycenter.com.
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