SPORTS VISION DONE THE RIGHT WAY PART 1 (INDIVIDUAL)

image: summitstc.com

I'm going to write a handful of posts on the best way to implement sports vision based on different circumstances for an athlete. I'll break them down on a personal level, doctor level, training facility level and professional or elite level. This particular post is for those individuals looking to do sports vision on their own without the help of professionals in the field. They research and figure a penny saved (in training) is a penny earned. These types of athletes are the truly educated and self disciplined athlete that doesn't need someone yelling in their ear to get better. We had a college baseball player in recently that fit this mold perfectly. He had even built his own version of sports vision training drills that he was doing at his house (a little extreme, but I appreciated the effort).

The impetus for most people practicing this version of sports vision training is cost. On a personal note, I would have probably fallen into this category when I was younger simply because money was tight. The funny thing about doing this on your own is that no matter how hard you try you're still going to have to pay for product, software, doctor's visits, etc. Just off the top of my head, I would estimate at spending $500-1000 for the first year of getting started doing vision training on your own and then another $150-250/year for each subsequent year depending on how often you go in for a sports vision eye exam.

The cons to this particular type of training is having a baseline and measuring the results throughout the training. We practice an ATA method (Assess, Train, Adjust), where we are constantly evaluating, measuring, training, adjusting, assessing, etc. It's a constant fluid type of training. So it is true; someone, if discipline enough (key factor), can practice sports vision training on their own but they have to spend hours upon hours of researching sensory training and sports vision training, while still shelling out some money for equipment and software needed. Another factor to take into consideration is the fact that this information is not going to be easy to come by. Just Google sports vision training and try to find someone freely giving their trade secrets away, not gonna happen. My opinion, only fall into this category if money is an issue.