Visio-spatial skills in athletes: comparison of rugby players and non-athletes

Millard, Lourens; Shaw, Ina; Breukelman, Gerrit Jan; Shaw, Brandon S.

doi:10.1007/s11332-020-00663-1

Cited by 10 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Procedures. All participants undertook a general optometric assessment using the Spectrum Eyecare software (Version 6.0.0, Digital Optometry, Republic of South Africa) to conclude whether any limitations existed in any of the participants' vision and thus suitability for the study (5). All participants included in the study presented with normal vision.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Testing was performed on weekday mornings between 07:00 and 12:00 in the post-absorptive state following a 9-to 12-hour fast to minimize the influence of any dietary or supplemental factors (5). In an attempt to avoid any physical and mental influences, participants were tested only after at least 48 hours following any physical exercise.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Both groups performed the same visio-spatial skills (VSS) test battery and tests were performed in the following sequence to ensure prior tests did not influence later tests: 1) accommodation facility; 2) saccadic eye movements; 3) speed of recognition; 4) hand/eye coordination; 5) peripheral awareness and 6) visual memory. A five-minute rest period was observed between each trial to ensure adequate recovery (5).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Hart Near Far Rock Test was utilized to assess visual accommodation (5). The Hart Near Far Rock chart was placed at head height and 3m away from each participant.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is especially true in rugby in that to perform optimally in a ball sport such as rugby, experts suggest that player's in these sports require a "great eye", superb vision or excellent peripheral vision (4). Visual skills are particularly important in rugby as players need to perform skills catching, passing and kicking to allow for the ball to be advanced up the field beyond the opposing team's defensive line (5).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Visual Abilities Distinguish Level of Play in Rugby

Millard¹,

Shaw²,

Breukelman³

et al. 2020

Ann Appl Sport Sci

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Background. Novices in sport possesses similar visual skills to that of experts, however there may be major differences in magnitude of performance in these skills, with expert athletes only demonstrating superiority in specific vision skills and not all aspects of vision. Objectives. In this vain, the aim of this study was to discern whether Premier League rugby players has enhanced visio-spatial skills in comparison to First Division rugby players. Methods. Thus, the present study compared the performance of Premier League rugby players (n = 40) and First Division rugby players (n = 40) on six specific components of vision, namely; accommodation facility, saccadic eye movement, speed of recognition, peripheral awareness, visual memory, and hand-eye coordination. Results. Premier League rugby players performed significantly (p = 0.001) better than the First Division rugby players in five of the six tests. but were found to be similar in visual memory performance (p = 0.810). Conclusion. While this study substantiates the proposal that expert athletes, and specifically rugby players, have superior visual expertise to novice athletes, this study also found that this is not the case with all vision skills. The present study's findings suggest that sport-specific vision testing batteries may be required to distinguish high performers from low performers in the same vein as physical tests are utilised in the selection and recruitment of athletes.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Hart Near Far Rock Test was utilized to assess visual accommodation (5). The Hart Near Far Rock chart was placed at head height and 3m away from each participant.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Visual Abilities Distinguish Level of Play in Rugby

Millard¹,

Shaw²,

Breukelman³

et al. 2020

Ann Appl Sport Sci

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Differences in visio-spatial expertise between 1st division rugby players and non-athletes

Millard

Shaw

Breukelman

et al. 2021

Heliyon

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The present study aimed to compare the visual expertise of non-athletes (n ¼ 40; 19-35 years old; age: 22.13 AE 2.37 years) to amateur, non-professional South-African Rugby Union (SARU) first-division club rugby players (n ¼ 40; 19-35 years old; age: 23.88 AE 4.36 years; training age mean: 9.0 AE 1.5 years). Research suggests that athletes have enhanced visio-spatial expertise in comparison to non-athletes. However, conflicting research suggests that this is not always the case as non-athletes possess similar visio-spatial expertise in certain visual skills. Participants underwent an optometric assessment after which the following 6 visio-spatial intelligence (VSI) components were measured; accommodation facility, saccadic eye movement, speed of recognition, peripheral awareness, visual memory and hand-eye coordination using the following tests; hart near far rock, saccadic eye movement, evasion, accumulator, flash memory and ball wall toss tests. Results indicated that first-division rugby players performed significantly better (p 0.05) in five of the six tests performed, except for visual memory (p ¼ 0.893). While this study substantiates the notion that athletes, in this case first-division rugby players, performs significantly better in most VSI components, this is not the case for all, as with visual memory in this study. To more accurately distinguish between athletes and non-athletes, research should move away from tests that focus on basic visual function and develop sport specific testing methods that can be used by a variety of sports.

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