Visual has always been recognized as one of the most important sensory systems involved in the implementation of many athletic skills because of the close and necessary relationship with performing the movements, and it is considered particularly important by specialists in learning and motor control. Today, in addition to assessing the key indices in athletic performance (physical, medical, psychological and nutritional evaluations), visual skills assessment is also held in great importance. In this regard, the present study aims to answer the question of whether the difference between the visual skills of athletes (team and individual) and non-athletes is significant. For this purpose, 85 subjects (44 non-athletes, 22 athletes in team sports, and 19 athletes in individual sports) participated in this study and were selected using purposive sampling. The research instrument was "sports vision tests of Wilson and Falkel (2004)". The psychometric properties of this test were studied and confirmed through the correlation between the referees and retest method. The results of the statistical analyses showed that there were significant differences between focusing (P=0.001), tracking (P=0.0001), sequencing (p=0.009), eye-hand coordination (P=0.0001), and vergence (P=0.015) of all-girl teams and individual sports athletes with non-athletes. Just as female individual and team sports athletes were better in focusing and tracking than non-athletes, individual sports athletes were better in sequencing than team sports athletes and non-athletes, and non-athletes were better in eye-hand coordination and vergence. However, in regards to visualization, no significant difference was observed between the three groups. According to the results, participation in sports activities, regardless of the type of activity, helps an individual to obtain better abilities in the visual system and its skills. Additionally, the role of visual skills in individual and team fields is different; therefore, due to the importance of vision, it is recommended that coaches consider special planning along with other motor capabilities.

Enhanced expectancies are an important component of OPTIMAL theory and are thought to contribute to motor performance and learning. There is limited information, however, on the generalizability of OPTIMAL theory to highly skilled individuals. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of visual illusions, specifically an Ebbinghaus illusion, on the performance and learning of an aiming task using highly skilled 10-m rifle and pistol shooters. Two groups of shooters with international experience were recruited and practiced with perceived larger and smaller targets. Our results indicated that participants who perceived the target larger reported higher self-efficacy immediately after practice. In addition, these participants had higher shooting performance during practice. Our retention test (24 hours later), however, did not produce differences in self-efficacy or shooting performance. Our data suggests that visual illusions are beneficial for motor performance in highly skilled shooters, but may not affect learning in those who are in the latter stages of learning. Further studies should continue examining the role of visual illusions for enhancing expectancies in highly skilled and experienced performers.

Background. Although some research showed the benefits of a systematic increase in contextual interference (CI), it is not completely proved in young children and novices. Objectives. On the other hand, considering the recommendation of researchers about the advantages and the use of the mental practice, the aim of the present study was to combine mental practice with CI to improve motor performance in a kata skill. This study investigates the simultaneous effects of these two types of practice. Methods. One school in Shiraz city was chosen randomly. Among the entire group of students in this school, 36 sixth-grade elementary school students of age 12 were chosen randomly to participate in this study. After filling out MIQ questionnaire, participants took part in initial instruction sessions and then participated in the pretest. In the next stage, they were randomly placed in three groups: blocked physical practice (B), physical practice with a systematic increase in CI and mental practice + physical practice with a systematic increase in CI (M-CI). The participants practised for five sessions and five trials in each session. In the last training session, an acquisition test, a subsequent retention test (48 hours later), and transfer test in a completion condition were conducted. Results. The results showed a significant difference in the acquisition test in the CI and B contexts, and in the retention test and transfer tests, in the CI and M-CI contexts. Conclusion. Considering the results, it can be deduced that the systematic increase in the CI has the highest effectiveness. After that, the combined practice (M-CI) has long-term positive effects on performance and learning a kata skill.

Background and Aims: Visual perception skills are essential skills for performing daily activities of life. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of eight-week Wii-Fit training on visual perception in children aged 6 to 10 years with developmental coordination disorder Materials and Methods: The research method was semi-experimental with pre-test and post-test with control group. The statistical population included all children aged 6 to 10 years in Rafsanjan in the academic year of 1397-98. Of these children, 40 children with developmental coordination disorder were selected by multi-stage available sampling method and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Research instruments were Wilson's Developmental Coordination Disorders Questionnaire, Movement Assessment Buttery for Children (MABC) and Gardner's Visual Perception Test. Subjects in the experimental group performed the individual Wii fit training for 16 sessions (8 weeks and 2 sessions per week). Shapiro-Wilk ، Levin test and covariance with 95% confidence level were used for data analysis. Results: The results showed that timely interventions based on active video games had a significant effect on visual perception of children with developmental coordination disorder (P˂0.05). Conclusion: According to the results, It seems that the emphasis on identifying and performing appropriate interventions such as Wii Fit training may be effective in the treatment and development of children with developmental coordination disorder.

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Background: Nowadays researches find that athlete's performance is affected not only by physical fitness, technical and tactical factors, but also mental and emotional features can affect sport performance. Objective: Hence, the aim of this study is examined the dimensions of emotional intelligence and mental toughness visually impaired male and female athletes. Methodology: This was a causal-comparative study, where the statistical population included 300 visually impaired male and female athletes taking part in the First National Cultural-Sports Festival featuring goalball, tug-of-war, track and field, swimming, and powerlifting. Using a smaple of convenience, 70 participants completed the Sheard, Golby, and van Wersch-questionnaire on mental toughness in three dimensions of "confidence" " control" and "constancy", and the Petrides and Furnham's questionnaire in four dimensions of " understanding emotions", " social skills" " controlling emotions" and " optimism". Results: Analysis of variables using an independent t-test showed significant differences in the dimensions of controlling emotions, understanding emotions, and social skills in favor of visually impaired sportswomen. However, there were no significant differences between the genders for optimism in the emotional intelligence questionnaire, and in mental toughness questionnaire. Conclusions: Visually impaired individuals pass through stages of emotional intelligence in a different way compared to those with normal vision. Moreover, motor skills and sports for the visually impaired are of a different kind. Moreover, our results showed that women benefited more from participating in physical and sporting activities than men did. Therefore, we recommend that authorities and people involved in sports for the visually impaired should make more use of exercises in psychological skills, along with technical and tactical ones, for visually impaired male athletes.

Like bodily, physiological, and psychological skills which are commonly assessed in professional sport, assessment of visual skills is also of high importance. In this regard, and in order to organize teams efficiently, the skills of each player, considering his/her post in the pitch, should be developed for superiority over the opponent. The present study attempts to clarify if there is a meaningful difference between visual skills of players, by considering their posts, age groups and sport records. A group of 100 professional footballers with average age of 25.09±4.47, average height of 178.66±6.53 cm, and average weight of 74.80±7.03 were selected, using an available sampling method. Wilson and Falkel's Sports Vision Test (2004), widely used in many researches, was the assessment tool of visual skills in this research, and is comprised of six skills of accommodation or focusing, tracking, vergence, sequencing, eye-hand coordination and visualization. The results indicated a meaningful difference which existed only in terms of tracking (p≤0.04) between adults and the youth, of which the superiority was shown by the first group. No meaningful difference was observed between post in the pitch (goalkeeper, defender, midfielder and forward) and sport record in terms of visual skills (including accommodation / focusing, tracking, vergence, sequencing, eye-hand coordination and visualization). The results of this study demonstrated a similarity between the exercise programs of team members. Coaches should notice that every post has different characteristics and the fact that in addition to specific physiological needs and skills, each post requires visual skills, and this marks the necessity for specialized planning for every post during the training sessions.

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