The effect of sport specific exercises on the visual skills of adult rugby players

Vuuren, P. Jansen van; Henning, Eckart; Kleynhans, M.; Terblanche, H.C.; Crafford, D.; Grobbelaar, C.J.; Gray, Shirley; Wood, Paul; Grant, C.C.; Rensburg, Dina Christina Janse van; Krüger, Pieter; Toit, P.J. Du

doi:10.4102/satnt.v33i1.1234

Cited by 1 publication

(3 citation statements)

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“…While research pertaining to vision expertise in rugby players has indicated that rugby players have enhanced skills when compared to non-athletes (6,7), no research exists to determine if rugby players at different levels of play exhibit different levels of visual expertise, which necessitates a study in this vain. At present, it has been suggested that novices in sport may possesses similar visual skills to that of experts playing at a higher level (8). However, there is evidence to suggest that experts only excel in relation to certain visual skills, such as the cognitive aspects of vision, which include visual perception, visual concentration, visual reaction time, central peripheral awareness, and visualization (8).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At present, it has been suggested that novices in sport may possesses similar visual skills to that of experts playing at a higher level (8). However, there is evidence to suggest that experts only excel in relation to certain visual skills, such as the cognitive aspects of vision, which include visual perception, visual concentration, visual reaction time, central peripheral awareness, and visualization (8). Research further suggests that visual skills such as visual acuity, accommodation and fusion remain relatively consistent for both novice and expert rugby players (8).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, there is evidence to suggest that experts only excel in relation to certain visual skills, such as the cognitive aspects of vision, which include visual perception, visual concentration, visual reaction time, central peripheral awareness, and visualization (8). Research further suggests that visual skills such as visual acuity, accommodation and fusion remain relatively consistent for both novice and expert rugby players (8). A further explanation as to why some research demonstrates that there is no difference between experts and novices is due to the generalized tests utilized that only measure the visual reception of information rather than the sport-specific, perceptual interpretation of information (9).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Visual Abilities Distinguish Level of Play in Rugby

Millard¹,

Shaw²,

Breukelman³

et al. 2020

Ann Appl Sport Sci

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Background. Novices in sport possesses similar visual skills to that of experts, however there may be major differences in magnitude of performance in these skills, with expert athletes only demonstrating superiority in specific vision skills and not all aspects of vision. Objectives. In this vain, the aim of this study was to discern whether Premier League rugby players has enhanced visio-spatial skills in comparison to First Division rugby players. Methods. Thus, the present study compared the performance of Premier League rugby players (n = 40) and First Division rugby players (n = 40) on six specific components of vision, namely; accommodation facility, saccadic eye movement, speed of recognition, peripheral awareness, visual memory, and hand-eye coordination. Results. Premier League rugby players performed significantly (p = 0.001) better than the First Division rugby players in five of the six tests. but were found to be similar in visual memory performance (p = 0.810). Conclusion. While this study substantiates the proposal that expert athletes, and specifically rugby players, have superior visual expertise to novice athletes, this study also found that this is not the case with all vision skills. The present study's findings suggest that sport-specific vision testing batteries may be required to distinguish high performers from low performers in the same vein as physical tests are utilised in the selection and recruitment of athletes.

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