Author(s): STEWART, T., DALTON, K., CINELLI, M., Institution: WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY, Country: CANADA, Abstract-ID: 1478

INTRODUCTION:
Sports Vision Training (SVT) is an emerging field in athlete development with the goal of improving visual abilities in athletes to improve sport performance. Athletes exhibit heightened visual abilities such as dynamic visual acuity (DVA) [1], multiple object tracking (MOT), and peripheral awareness [2] when compared to non-athletes. These visual abilities are also found to be correlated with sports performance [3]. Visual abilities such as choice reaction time, go/no-go, and visual memory can also be enhanced through SVT, with improvements observed in strategic sports (i.e., hockey) [4,5]. Training using SVT modalities has led to improvements in on-field decision making [6], however, this is not the consensus, as other research found no improvements in visual abilities or in-game statistics [7]. Previous findings suggest that the influence of SVT on enhancing the visual system is still not fully understood. Therefore, the aim of this study is to evaluate the influence of a novel SVT intervention on visual perception in strategic sport athletes.
METHODS:
Strategic sport athletes (n=3 completed; n=9 in progress) completed 10 sessions of visual software (i.e., visual perception) SVT, with visual abilities being assessed at pre- and post-training. The one-hour training sessions consisted of various SVT modalities including Neurotracker, Senaptec Strobe Glasses, SwitchedOn, and Fitlights, with the goal of enhancing visual perception and utilization of vision for action. The visual assessment consisted of three measurement tools to assess 13 visual and sensorimotor abilities, including DVA, MOT, anticipation timing, and go/no-go. The tools included are: DVA task (moV& V&MP Vision Suite), Bassin Anticipation Timer, and Senaptec Sensory Station. Athletes were assessed pre- and post-training and the data were analyzed using a paired-samples t-test, with significance set at p<.05.
RESULTS:
Following the training, there was a significant improvement in the go/no-go task (total score) (mean diff. = -5.00, t =-8.660, p=.013), MOT (composite score) (mean diff. = -0.1579 t=-15.830, p=.004), and absolute error of anticipation timing (msec) at 40mph (mean diff. = 6.67, t=6.995, p=.02). No significant changes in the scores from pre- to post-training were found in the other visual abilities, however many approached significance and data collection is ongoing.
CONCLUSION:
The findings suggest that the novel visual software SVT program can lead to improvements in visual abilities including go/no-go, multiple object tracking, and a reduction in anticipation timing error. Overall, a visual software-specific SVT program can improve some measures of visual perception in strategic sport athletes that are known to be correlated with sports performance.

1. Yee et al. (2021) 2. Faubert (2013) 3. Poltavski & Biberdorf (2015) 4. Poltavski et al. (2021) 5. Schwab & Memmert (2012) 6. Romeas et al. (2016) 7. Liu et al. (2020)