Jonathan Bailin, Ph.D., Exercise Physiology/Biomechanics/Ergonomics
Sports Medicine & Ergonomics Inc.
Dr. Gary Polan, Optometrist and Sports Vision specialist,
and I have examined the computerized Sportwall. In our
opinion it warrants applied research toward defining
its potential benefits to the visual skills of its users.
Most importantly we feel confident that the Sportwall
will yield significant improvement in areas of learning
beyond sports and physical education.
The list of school offered sports in which we predict
Sportwall will show its impact include baseball, basketball,
football, racquet sports, soccer, volleyball, handball,
tetherball, t-ball, kickball, 4-square, as well as others.
In addition, we feel that the visual/motor skills impacted
by Sportwall will carry a global influence on a child's
self esteem because of increased abilities in learned
eye skills necessary for many forms of intellectual
effort.
Few realize that reading is a motor activity! We are
excited at the prospect of documenting Sportwall’s
potential influence on intellectual skills, which overlap
those of motor activity, such as those described below.
Dr. Polan has operated a private optometric practice
for twelve years at 881 Alma Real Drive Suite T4 in
Pacific Palisades, California 90272. He helped pioneer
the field of Sports Vision in 1984 (*). Finally, in
1996 year his work received corroboration by the staff
at the Jules Stein Eye Institute (**).
His experience in the training and improvement of visual
skills has resulted in "surprising" advances
in most learning disabled cases. Improvements in intellectual
activity which are generally unexpected, but very welcomed
by parents, have not been well documented by rigorous
research designs to date. Still, we are confident that
Sportwall will play a significant role in improving
reading skills, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), and
Dyslexia as describe later.
Introduction to Visual Skills
Readers of this proposal should realize that ALL visual
skills are learned. Thus a rigorous study of the effects
of the Sportwall’s interactive nature should be
performed to elucidate its specific benefits as a visual/motor
learning tool.
Visual skills can be divided into 3 sub areas: Visual
Acuity, Visual Efficacy, and Visual Processing. Visual
Acuity is measured by standard optometric tests commonly
used for eye prescriptions including standard eye chart
examinations.
Visual Efficacy can be measured by testing in the 24
areas listed below which include focusing, convergence,
divergence, etc. Visual Processing can be evaluated
by tests which measure the extent of learning disabilities
such as Reading Disorders, Attention Deficit Disorder
(ADD), and Dyslexia as found in items 2, 7, I5, 16,
18, 20, 21,22, and 24. Most ADD and Dyslexia is responsive
to treatments for visual/perceptual deficiencies in
these areas of training thus often diminished or alleviated
completely.
Though no device or learning system can be expected
to improve all areas of the visual skills listed below,
we are confident that the computerized Sportwall will
show potential benefits to its users in more than a
few of the areas listed here. The particulars of our
proposed research follow this list.
Visual Efficiency Skills
All movement mechanics during sports are enhanced by
eye skills and eye health. In turn, improvements in
several areas of eye skills will enhance eye performance
during motor activity. For example, reaction time is
first dependent on visual accuracy and recognition skills
listed. To acquaint the reader with the proposed research,
a brief review of each eye skill which can positively
effect motor performance must be considered. Please
note that Visual Efficiency Skills are a subset of all
the eye skills listed below.
Each skill is rated from 0-10. Ten represents our highest
confidence of finding improvement due to Sportwall practice.
For example, a rating of "4-6" means that
we are moderately confident that practice on the Sportwall
will show documented improvement. A rating of "0-1"
means that Sportwall should show little if any improvement.
The reader is cautioned that these are only educated
"guesstimates" which await documented findings.
1) Visual Acuity-your ability to achieve a sharp resolution
of an image can be divided into static acuity (stationary
images) and dynamic acuity (resolution of images in
motion).
a) Static Visual Acuity-Corrected or not, your eyes
should have 20/15 vision for high speed activities.
"20/15" vision means that is you see at 20
feet what the average person only sees accurately at
IS feet away. [0-1]
b) Dynamic Visual Acuity-the ability to see sharply
while the player, opponent, and ball are all in motion.
This ability is made up of many other skills such as
Convergence, Focusing, Tracking, and Interpretation,
etc. Following the action with the eyes rather than
the head or body is more efficient and puts less stress
on the balance and muscular-nervous system. [4-6]
2) Visualization—is the ability to plan, imagine,
and prepare for upcoming motor skills and movements.
Some sports scientists believe visualization of needed
skills is more efficient than coaching "pep talks".
[4-6 with certain activities]
3) Peripheral Vision-is critical to awareness of other
important things while watching the ball such as your
teammates, boundaries, or opponents. [2-4]
4) Depth Perception—is the ability to quickly
and accurately judge the distance between yourself and
your opponent, teammates, targets, and boundary lines
while judging the speed, rotation, and flight path of
the ball. [4-6]
Billy J King rates this above court speed and eye-hand
coordination for junior tennis players. Quickly diminished
by those who stare during the day-students, programmers,
and executives may play poorer tennis during the week
than week end for this reason.
5) Visual Pursuit—is the ability to use the eyes
to follow a moving object smoothly and accurately. This
critical skill is based on good eye teaming and eye
muscle balance but it cannot track a ball smoothly at
high speeds where Saccadic Movement takes over. [8-10]
6) Saccadic Movement-is the ability of the eyes to
"jump" from one point to another when speeds
exceed those of visual pursuit. This skill is used in
reading to jump from one word to the next. If this skill
is poor, reading ability is affected!
Quick, accurate saccades are used to survey rapidly
with as little head movement as necessary. Head movement
is a less efficient method of eye tracking and can confuse
balance. Unnecessary head movements and eyelid reflexes
to flinch must overcome with training. [8-10]
7) Visual Concentration-describes the cooperation between
Visual Pursuit, Saccadic Movement, and Visualization
in the "minds eye" or imagination. This skill
is not scientifically well defined yet, but is exemplified
by tennis players who must switch concentration rapidly
from target, to ball, to processes of planning and prediction
which are critical to performance. [7-9]
8) Speed Of Focusing-is the ability to shift focus
from near, intermediate, and far distance. This eye
muscle skill is subject to the same fatigue which affects
other muscles over the course of exercise. [5-7]
9) Glare Recovery Speed-is the ability to see clearly
after looking toward intense light. Focusing near sun
and at tennis court lights causes "dazzle"
to the retina. [5-7]
10) Sight in dim illumination. [5-8]
11) Eye Muscle Stamina-is the ability to withstand
fatigue without decreased performance in a variety of
eye tasks. [6-8]
12) Color Perception—is not critical but may play
a role in yellow against white line calls. [0-1]
13) Eye Dominance—is the ability of the sight
in one eye to dominate images from the other. Tennis
players generally prefer strokes on the same side as
the dominant eye which is usually the right for right
handers over 80% of the time. [8-10 with manipulation]
14) Fixation Ability-is the skill of preventing eye
fatigue which conies from staring at objects too long.
Receivers with poor fixation skills fatigue within a
few seconds of staring at the server. Other players
do not, but staring should be avoided. [5-7]
15) Visual Memory—is the accumulation of past
experiences such as the number of proper swings logged
in a players "motor program file". This combined
with visualization for future swings is probably a major
factor in consistency during competition. Visual memory
fades with time. [5-7]
16) Spatial Localization-Knowing your position relative
to other objects especially while you, ball, and opponent
are moving. [4-6]
Esophoria—players who see the world CLOSER than
reality, tend to hit/throw shorter. Exophoria-player
who see the world FARTHER than reality, tend to hit/throw
longer.
17) Speed of Recognition Time-is how fast can you identify
images. [7-9] 17b) How fast can you react to those images
18) Eyes to Body Coordination-is the ability to integrate
what you see into an appropriate and coordinated response
from your body parts (aka: Visual/Motor Integration).
[8-10]
19) Contrast Sensitivity—the ability to pick out
an important object against a field of other objects.
[5-7]
20) Visual Attention-is the skill used to prepare the
eyes and brain which heightens its readiness for an
upcoming task. This is a precursor to Visual/Motor Organization.
[5-7)
21) Figure/Ground-is the ability to pick out an object
in the foreground against a variety of background fields;
to discriminate the figure to be attended to and to
see the interrelationships to its background information.
(4-8)
22) Visual/Motor Organization-is the ordering and organization
of motor skills; to choose from a "catalog"
of motor programs for meaningful and productive action.
(5-7)
23) Jump Duction-the ability to move from visual tasks
that require convergence to divergence of the eyes and
back. Jump Duction deals with vergence; the activity
of the extraocular muscles to diverge for distance,
and converge for near objects rapidly and efficiently.
(5-7)
24) Auditory/Tachistoscopic Skills— are those
which help sound and sight skills complement each other
during visual processing. It is the auditory/visual
integration ability of an individual which coordinates
inputs into a meaningful perception and to shift priority
and attention from one to the other when necessary.
Auditory specialists can better assess the ability
to discern background from foreground sounds similar
to the way we will assess background to foreground objects.
This is an area worthy of much more study. There is
much potential to design audio triggers, cues, and scoring
tones for future Sportwall games here. [6-9]
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List 1-24 is Copyright (c) Jonathan Bailin. Ph.0.
1997 reproduction by author's permission only
* Hoflinan, L., Polan, G., Powell, J. The relationship
of contrast sensitivity functions to sports vision"
Journal of the American Ootometric Association 55:10,747-752,
Oct 1984.
** Laby, Rosenbaum, Kirschen, Davidson, Rosenbaum, Strasser,
Mellman "the visual Function of professional baseball
players" American Journal of Qpthalmologv 122:4,476-485.
Oct. 1996.
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