With most sports being such a large part of society, have you ever wondered how we ensure our athletes have the best vision possible? Enjoy this explanation of sports vision tests.

Throughout most cultures there is one consistent tradition that seems to always take precedent: sports. For many people, the sports arenas are their temples, and the athletes: their idols. All athletes require serious conditioning when it comes to physical training for their respective sport. They are always pushed to the edge of fitness and agility, and must perform to the masses with these tasks. Throughout all of the difficult conditioning that they endure, performance tests help determine whether the athlete is healthy enough. One of the most important tests they must complete are sports vision tests because of the direct correlation between their vision and effectiveness in winning. These tests study the athlete’s eye-hand coordination, depth perception, contrast understanding, eye tracking ability, and ocular alignment - just to name a few.

Vision in general is an extremely imperative sense that many take for granted. However, particularly for sports athletes, vision tests help their health professionals to better understand a possible weakness, and use it to train them and improve their overall acuity. Eye-hand coordination is critical to most sports. In order to have workable eye-hand coordination, you must first have a good command of your eyesight. The Snellen Eye Chart is a great example of a vision test that helps us to understand our athletes’ - as well as most of our own - vision needs. Common to the average person, the Snellen Eye Chart is the chart test in which we all have probably taken at some point. Another helpful set of tests are Contrast Sensitivity Tests. These tests determine how well you are able to distinguish similar colors apart by aligning parallel stripes against a gradually matching background. This test is very helpful for golfers as they must use their distance vision against the large, green layout of their field.

In order to understand how well our athletes’ eyes follow moving items, their health professionals use Eye Tracking Devices. This too will ultimately help to improve their visual tracking needs. Eye Tracking tests are primarily done on a computer screen in which the pupil is traced during movement. This type of test can help the athlete understand where their strengths and weaknesses are in their vision. Another important attribute is knowing exactly how well their eyes work together. Ocular Alignment tests distinguish exactly this, and one of the specific tests used to determine ocular alignment is the Hirschberg test. The Hirschberg test examines the way that light reflects off of the cornea.

The athlete-idols of our societies are important figures. They must be fit, strong, and of course, must have adequate vision. Most athletes don’t necessarily need prescription eyeglasses - and certainly not bifocal glasses. However, in order to find out whether they do or not, sports vision tests give them a better understanding. These vision tests are just as important as their everyday fitness conditioning!