Sports vision testing helps athletes determine how well their eyes and vision system perform. These tests go beyond standard eye tests that only evaluate the ability to see letters and objects clearly on a standard eye chart. Sports vision testing takes eyesight evaluation one step further, which is vital to overall athletic training as well as specifically enhancing visual function.

While sports vision testing can vary greatly depending on an athlete’s specific needs, in general, sports vision testing can be beneficial for assessing athletic abilities associated with hand-eye coordination, eye tracking, reaction time, peripheral awareness and depth perception. If you are a local athlete looking to improve your performance, or a professional athlete from across the country Dr. Gordon can help.

Sports Vision Training Enhances Athletic Performance

Dr. Gordon offers several different vision tests for assessing athletic performance and capabilities. The first test is the classic Snellen Eye Chart. Patients are asked to read lettering on a standard eye chart that is placed 20 feet away. You must identify the letters along the lines of increasingly smaller sizes until the letters can no longer be identified. The best athletes often have acuity sharper than 20/20. This basic eye test is very important for identifying an athlete’s visual acuity.

While correcting visual acuity can seem like an obvious step, some athletes are unaware that they suffer from an undetected refractive error. Refractive errors are any number of different size and shape abnormalities that affect the eye’s ability to focus light on the retina, affecting vision. Depending on your athletic goals,


Contrast sensitivity is also important for athletic performance. Standard eyesight tests are high contrast; black letters on a white background or white letters on a black background. During a contrast sensitivity test, you will be asked to identify patterns through various degrees of grey contrast. The backgrounds gradually begin to match the shades of the stripes. Low contrast sensitivity, especially in low-light conditions, will make it more difficult to track objects. In essence the test evaluates how well you see through all of the shades of grey. A variety of solutions can be effective for addressing contrast sensitivity concerns. These solutions include wearing eyeglasses with a special lens tint to increase visibility, depending on your vision needs.

Ocular alignment tests evaluate how well both eyes work together as a team. Alignment problems are detected by analyzing how your eye align to distance and near targets. Dr. Gordon also recommends eye dominance tests. Hand and eye dominance may affect how well you perform in specific sports. For example, a right handed batter has their left eye closest to the pitcher. Assessing Convergence is another important visual skills. This is when one eye diverges or loses focus as a target approaches. If one eye loses focus too soon, you may be suffering from poor binocularity, a condition where both eyes struggle to work together to manage depth perception and visual coordination.

Dr. Gordon also tests reaction time and has sophisticated equipment that measures stability of eye alignment as well as speed and accuracy of eye movements and focusing ability.

Athletic performance is not only enhanced in the gym; it also requires excellent visual processing speed, peripheral awareness and hand-eye coordination. Contact ouroffice to learn more about the benefits of sports vision training and to schedule your sports vision assessment today.

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Monday
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