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Vision Therapy for Improving Sports Performance

Our visual skills play a vital role in our ability to play sports. Many of our patients find that their sports performance improves, even though they came to us for help with their difficulty with reading. The same types of vision disorders which can make reading and learning difficult can often interfere with sports performance.

For example, we have seen children who do well with T-ball, fall apart when it comes to baseball because the size of the ball is significantly smaller and harder for them to see. Once their vision problem is corrected, baseball becomes much easier.

Vision problems that impact sports performance can occur in children and adults. Therefore it becomes important that you know the signs to watch for.

Signs a vision problem may be interfering with your sports performance:

Eye-hand coordination seems to decrease throughout the game
Visual judgment (such as depth perception) seems to be less accurate after you get tired and have played for a while
You tend to drift in and out of “the zone”
Double vision, blurred vision, excessive blinking or watery eyes occur periodically throughout the game
You find it harder to follow a moving object than your teammates
Your squint a lot more often for near or far visual tasks
During a game, you turn your head to use one eye rather than the other
More practice doesn’t improve performance
Sports which require the ability to aim at a target are harder
You perform better in sports with larger balls, no balls or hockey pucks at all

Sometimes sports professionals reach a ceiling in their performance, and they want that extra edge to outperform their competition. For example, Larry Fitzgerald, a wide receiver for the Arizona Cardinals, attributes his ability to catch the ball with his eyes closed to having received vision therapy as a child.

Vision & Learning Connection

VISION THERAPYSuccess Stories

Las Vegas Vision Therapy is rated 5 out of 5 based on 6 success stories.

Vision therapy has helped me to focus more. It has helped me see things far away and up close. I can now read better because I’m not skipping words or lines. I am more aware of what my eyes are doing when I focus. I like vision because it’s cool and Kareen is really nice.

Trevor, Age 10
The reasons that I started vision therapy were to help my eyes become stronger and better. I wanted to improve my handwriting and hopefully not wear glasses when I grew up. During the time I was in vision therapy, I got better grades in writing. My concentration improved. I am happy with vision testing results because I did better each time. My favorite activity was the Dr. Rosner’s dots. I really liked Dr. Landerville because she is nice, kind and likes to do fun things.

Ethan, Age 8
I really enjoyed my vision therapy. My favorite part was the blocks and the trampoline. I noticed that I accomplished a lot of things like handwriting, not losing my place, and tracking. I liked Dr. Landerville because she is pretty, nice, sweet, kind, encouraging, and smart. Thank you for helping me.

Kathleen, Age 9
[Vision therapy] helped me see the board at school, it helped me see things at Sunday school, and it helped me with school performance. I had 2 performances, one for Halloween and one for the parents to show them what we know for the semester (for music). I don’t get headaches anymore, and I don’t get sleepy eyes during class. I don’t often skip when I read anymore. My handwriting is better! And I’ve finished all of my books.

Jack, Age 7½
Before I started with Dr. L, I used to lose my place while reading, but now I don’t have to use my finger to read. I used to get frustrated and I used to read slowly. Now I like to read and I read faster. Dr. L is nice and fun. I am so happy that she helped me. I love vision therapy.

Katie, Age 7
Dr. Landerville has been an amazing help in trying to fix my eyes. She has helped me to be able to use my left eye in conjunction with my right eye. She has helped me with the reduction of getting headaches with near work. I have gotten a lot better at sports and being able to catch a ball. I no longer avoid sports games. I no longer have motion sickness problems. My handwriting has become a lot better. I have gotten better about falling over things. I have become a lot less clumsy. I am very thankful that Dr. Landerville was able to help me with my eyes and improving my eyes.

Kylee, Age 13

Vision Therapy Success Stories...