Influence of sports vision techniques on adult male rugby players

Abstract

Sport has become increasingly competitive and this places enormous pressure on sportsmen to perform at their absolute best. For athletes to achieve their greatest potentials, aspects of sport such as reaction time and hand-eye coordination need to be at their peaks. Sports vision aims to enhance performance through a variety of procedures and training techniques that target basic skills. Twenty six (26) rugby players aged 18 to 26 were subjected to three different sports vision tests. The players were exposed to a period of isolated exercises for physical exertion intervention between the pre- and post sports vision tests. The pre-exercise and post-exercise values of the players were pooled to determine the averages and differences. An improvement in performance was observed by players exposed to these exercises. A significant improvement (p<0.05) was observed in the number of successful catches and simultaneous ball throw, while a non significant improvement was seen in the number of successful throws through a ring (accurate passing). From the results, it can be seen that there was an improvement in the visual skill performance of the players who were exposed to the specific physical exercises. Athletes are advised to complete at least 15-30 minutes of sport-specific visual training during each day of practice.

Key words: Hand-eye coordination, performance, rugby, sport, training, vision.