No abstract

Background: Vision is one of the most important qualities required of athletes. It provides players with an ability to perform sport-related drills, as well as applying decision-making skills. In order to accurately measure the visual ability of athletes, it is important to first identify the variety of visual skills involved in the sport, in this case rugby. Objectives: The objectives of the review novelty are to identify the most important visual skills for rugby. To create a referencing point for future studies to be able to add additional visual skills essential to rugby players. Methods: An electronic search was conducted to assess the scientific literature relating to the visual skills required for rugby. Only peer-reviewed articles written in English were included in the search. Data on the relationship with match performance, the problem definition or purpose of the study, and the inclusion of a theoretical definition of tactical behavior were extracted. Discussion: The most important visual skills in rugby are: Visual acuity, Eye tracking, Eye focusing, Depth perception, Hand-eye coordination, Fixation, Fusion flexibility, Visual adjustability and Colour flexibility. Rugby players must pay attention to their teammates' positions, understand the opponent's actions and tactics, handle the ball, analyze the current situation, and predict what will happen.

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.

Background: Millions of South African youths participate in team sports, with netball and rugby being two of the largest worldwide. This increased participation and professionalism has resulted in an increase in the number of musculoskeletal injuries. Objectives: This study examined the extent to which sport coaching knowledge translates to the injuries and prevention of injuries in adolescents participating in netball and rugby. Methods: Thirty-four South African sport coaches participated in the study. Eighteen netball coaches and 16 rugby coaches with varying levels of coaching experience were selected to participate. An adapted version of Nash and Sproule’s questionnaire was used to investigate the coaches’ knowledge with regards to sport specific common injuries, injury prevention, fitness/conditioning, individual technique development, training programs, mental training, and preparation of players. The analysis of data was carried out using a number of different techniques, outlined by Nash and Sproule (2012). These techniques were determined by the type of data. Descriptive data was used to provide statistical analysis. Quantitative data was used to determine the educational framework and knowledge of sport coaches on injury prevention. Numerical data was obtained through questions on sport injuries, as well as coaches’ sport knowledge level. Participants’ knowledge was measured using a standardized scoring system. Results: For the 0-4 years of netball coaching experience, 76.4% of the coaches had knowledge and experience and 33.3% appropriate first aid knowledge, while for the 9-12 years and 13-16 years, 100% of the coaches had knowledge and experience and first aid knowledge. For the 0 - 4 years in rugby coaching experience, 59.1% had knowledge and experience and 71% the appropriate first aid knowledge, for the 17 - 20 years 100% had knowledge and experience and first aid, while for higher or equal to 25 years, 45.5% had knowledge and experience. In netball, 90% of injuries consisted of ankle injuries, followed by 70% for knee, 50% for shoulder, 20% for lower leg, and 15% for finger injuries. In rugby, 81% of the injuries occurred at the knee, followed by 50% for shoulder, 40% for ankle, 31% for head and neck, and 25% for hamstring injuries. Six hours of training resulted in a 13% chance of injuries in netball and a 32% chance in rugby. For 10 hours of training, the injury prevalence was 10% in netball and 17% in rugby, while 15 hours resulted in an injury incidence of 58% in netball players and a 25% chance in rugby players. Conclusions: This study highlights the need for coaches to improve their knowledge in relation to injuries and injury prevention, along with factors that act as a preventative measure and promote players’ well-being.

: Sport has become increasingly competitive, prompting the need to determine, as far as possible, any likely performance advantage. While the focus of athletic research, testing, and training is on the physiological and physical characteristics of the sport, visual abilities not only affect sport performance directly, but also affect the acquisition of motor skills. Vision, and visual-spatial intelligence (VSI), are a relatively new and underexplored area of athletic performance. As with physiological and physical parameters, a range of factors affect vision and VSI in sporting activities. This review of the literature is a first attempt to summarize and compile an overview of the factors affecting vision and VSI in athletes, covering those previously connected with sport, as well as those hitherto not associated with athletic activities, but that could also play a part in sports performance. The evidence from this review suggests that while current research still tends to focus on single factors affecting vision and VSI, a large number of such factors have been identified that could affect vision and VSI. This offers new opportunities for researchers to investigate the effects of a combination of factors, and for conditioning and/or sports vision specialists to explore further possibilities for competitive advantage.