If you play sports, our doctors will assess your eye with the following protocols
If there's one thing that seems to be a key to success in sports, it's vision. But did you know you can improve your performance by improving some aspects of your vision? It's easy to recognize problems, and even easier to solve them. The following are some aspects of vision which can be the difference between victory and defeat, and some exercises to improve performance.
Dynamic visual acuity is your ability to see objects when they are moving fast. This is important in sports like hockey, racquetball, and tennis. To improve dynamic visual acuity, cut out letters, stick them to a record turntable, and try to identify the letters at different speeds.
VISUAL CONCENTRATION
Visual concentration is your ability to ignore distractions happening around you. Your eyes naturally react to movement in the field of vision from spectators, other participants or the playing environment. To improve your visual concentration, have a friend stand nearby and wave their hands erratically while you practice.
EYE TRACKING
Eye tracking is following an object with your eyes without much head motion. It is important with any sport that involves a fast-moving ball. Good eye tracking will improve balance and reaction time. You can improve your eye tracking by watching the flight of a ball while keeping a book balanced on your head
EYE-HAND-BODY COORDINATION
Eye-hand-body coordination is how your muscles and limbs react to the information gathered by your eyes. It affects timing and body control. To improve your eye-hand-body coordination, jump up and down on an old mattress while a friend tosses you a tennis ball from a variety of angles. Catch the ball and toss it back.
VISUAL MEMORY
Visual memory is the ability to process and remember a fast moving, complex picture of people and things. It is very important in basketball, hockey, and soccer, where the game quickly moves up the field. Visual memory helps you know where your teammates and opponents are positioned. To improve visual memory, look at a magazine page for a second, then turn the page. Try to reconstruct the images you just saw. When you have mastered the exercise, allow 5 seconds between seeing the image and reconstructing it.
PERIPHERAL VISION
Peripheral vision is the ability to see what is not directly in front of you, out of the corner of your eye. This allows you to see your teammate to your left or right while focusing on the goal in front of you. To make your peripheral vision more useful, try watching television with your head turned to one side or the other.
VISUAL REACTION TIME
Visual reaction time is what allows a batter to hit the ball or a tennis player to return a serve. It is the speed with which your brain interprets and reacts. To improve your visual reaction time, stand with your back to a friend. Have them toss a ball to you and yell, "Now!" When you hear the yell, turn around and try to catch the ball. By repeating this exercise, you can teach your brain to react more quickly.
FOCUS FLEXIBILITY
Focus flexibility allows a quarterback to quickly focus on his receivers even though they are at varying distances. To improve focus flexibility, post a magazine page on a wall about 15 feet away at eye level in front of you. Hold a similar page in your hand out in front of you, so that it is slightly to one side of your view of the page on the wall. Focus on an object or words on the page on the wall. Then quickly switch focus to the page in your hand. By switching focus back and forth, you will improve your focus flexibility.
DEPTH PRECEPTION
Depth perception lets you judge distance. This is especially important in basketball, golf, and other sports involving distance to the goal. To improve depth perception, have a friend point a straw at you, parallel to the ground, with the straw about two feet away from you. Practice quickly inserting a toothpick into the straw.
SPORT LENSES
If you play sports, you should keep two things in mind related to your vision: protection and precision.
Sports lenses protect the wearer's eyes. Sports like tennis, baseball, softball, and racquetball may see ball speeds of 90mph or more. In baseball alone, there are over 500,000 injuries per year! But that ís not the most common eye injury. Most eye injuries occur in basketball, where an elbow or a finger jabbed into the eye can cause corneal abrasions, fractured bones, retinal detachments, or even blindness. Polycarbonate lenses are more resistant to impact than glass or plastic and offer protection for 90% of eye injuries. Protective eyewear fits well, features a padded bridge, has prescription or non-prescription lenses, and deep-grooved eyewires to prevent the lens from falling out.
The specialized lenses also optimize your vision. Depending on your sport, certain lenses are more appropriate than others. Dark, UV protection lenses are great for baseball and other outdoor sports. Golfers can benefit from gray-brown tinted lenses which make it easier to outline the course. Even if you don't normally wear glasses, non-prescription sports lenses can benefit your performance. Some people think that lenses prevent the wearer from seeing the action, but many sports lenses have anti-fog, glare reduction, and scratch resistant properties. Some are also designed to maximize peripheral vision.
SUNWEAR
To reduce exposure to UV rays and their effects, test15v6 recommends you invest in a set of sunglasses which can provide at least 98% protection from UVA and UVB rays. While cheaper sunglasses can range from poor to excellent UV protection, our sun wear lines provide the best protection from the sun. We carry a large selection styles and colours.
Another product to consider is polarized sunglasses. Polarized lenses block light reflected from surfaces like a flat road or smooth water. If you are involved in activities like water sports, skiing, golfing, biking, fishing, and even driving, polarized lenses can be very helpful in reducing glare and giving a clearer view.
Finally, if you have a youngster in the family, it is never too early to fit them with sunglasses. Children under the age of 20 are the most susceptible to the damaging effects of UV light. One concern of parents is that their child will scratch, break, or lose the sunglasses
PROTECTIVE EYE WEAR
Don't wait for your child to become a statistic
add protective sport goggles to their sport gear TODAY!!
The results of a recent study by Prevent Blindness America showed over 38,000 people experienced a sport related eye injury and needed emergency room treatment, and in some cases, even further attention. Some of the highest eye injuries occur in children between the ages of 5 to 14 and are caused by participation in basketball, baseball, softball, football, racquet sports, and swimming.
Nearly one-half of eye injuries require costly emergency room care. It's also important to remember that even if an eye injury seems to be minor; it may be serious. Symptoms like loss of vision or severe pain or tenderness in ducts around the eye require immediate medical attention.
Don't Be Duped
If your child plays a sport that requires a helmet or face guard, don't make the mistake of thinking your child's eyes are protected from injuries. Your child's eyes are still exposed to danger from sports equipment or an opponent's fingers penetrating the openings of a face mask.
Likewise, if your child wears glasses, everyday fashion eyewear is not held to the same protective standards as regular eyewear products labeled as protective eyewear for sport use. The lens in your child's regular eyeglasses could easily pop out and puncture or cut the eye. A frame mangled from impact could also injure the eyes and ocular region of the face.
You Can Take Action
The good news is that you can help prevent your child from being sidelined because of a serious eye injury. You can make the decision to protect their eyes as well as the rest of their body by adding protective sport goggles to their equipment bag.
While sport goggles provide significant protection, they cannot guarantee to be unbreakable or guard against all foreseeable impacts. However, a quality pair of sport goggles equipped with polycarbonate lenses can be sight savers since they help keep the eyes and surrounding ocular region safe. For kids who need corrective prescription lenses, we can make a pair of prescription lenses that fit into their sports goggles.
Children & Contact Lenses
The important thing for parents and their children who wear contact lenses to remember is that contacts are prescribed medical devices. Contact lenses are not a cosmetic accessory. While the wearer may be happy about his or her new look, it's extremely important that the lenses be properly cleaned and worn according to the instruction of the eye doctor.