Enhancing Sports Performance with Eye Glasses

For most people, wearing eye glasses is an essential part of their lives. This also rings true for many athletes and sports enthusiasts out there. There are eye glasses that are designed to improve sport performance and that can aid athletes who want to have an edge over their field. In order for you to excel in the sport that you love most, you need to have your eye sight, as well as your body, in good shape.

Tennis players need to have great vision in order to play well.

Geraint Griffiths, a British optometrist, assessed the effects of slightly blurred sight on Wimbledon tennis players' performance, as well as on pigeon clay shooting finals in the UK. The athletes being studied were asked to wear specialized goggles that altered their vision to make it mildly blurry. The subjects playing tennis were told to hit the ball back at a certain target, and the marksmen were evaluated in terms of accuracy when shooting clay pigeons. The results were as follows:

• While the tennis players were wearing the blurry goggles, they had a 62% off-target ball return, with bulls-eyes reduced by 47%.
• Both marksmen and tennis players were able to demonstrate a worsening of 25% on their performance when they had their visions slightly blurred due to the goggles.

Additionally, Griffiths said that he and his research team believe that the mental ability of athletes to predict the ball’s direction is more crucial than the slightly blurred aspect of the ball. Because of this study, many researchers of sports vision have verified the necessity of the right vision correction as well as vision skills in sports performance improvement. Today, there are ongoing studies which have noted necessary features that should be added in sports eye wear.

Ski goggles should be made from impact resistant materials like polycarbonate, Trivex or Xirm.

Eyewear for Sports: Goggles and Eyeglasses

According to experts, many eye injuries related to sports could have been prevented if protective eye wear, like safety goggles that come with lenses made of impact resistant material, were worn by athletes. For example, it is highly advisable for skiers to wear ski goggles while on the ski slopes, and softball or baseball catchers should wear face shields. The Safety Commission for Consumer Products stated that more that 42,000 eye injuries caused by sports in the US necessitate emergency room attention every year. 72 percent of such injuries happen to those younger than 25 years of age, and 43 percent happen to children as young as 15 years old.

Children may resist wearing such safety eyewear while playing their favorite sports, but it is crucial for coaches and parents to insist on them wearing the glasses. Junior baseball has insisted that children not be allowed to play unless they are wearing the appropriate protective eye gear.

Protective eye gear is recommended especially for sports like racquetball and squash.

However, protective sports eye wear is not only for little tikes. Anyone playing sports should wear protective eye gear. As a reminder, it is not advisable for you to wear your regular daily eyewear during sports since they are not designed for such activity. The material of your office or street glasses is not created with a protective standard in mind, whereas proper safety eye wear is. Your normal eyeglass lenses could shatter upon impact and cause severe eye injuries. Similarly, regular eye glass frames do not qualify as safe eyewear for sports because they may shatter during impact or allow the lenses to loosen thereby endangering your face and eyes.

Another dangerous aspect about outdoor sports, especially during winter, is UV radiation. Harmful UV rays are linked to diseases like cataracts and macular degeneration. Athletes engaged in outdoors sports need to have the right protection from the dangers of the sun’s rays. This is why athletes, like skiers and snowboarders, need to wear sunglasses or tinted goggles with 100 percent UV protection. UV rays bounce of the snow even when the weather is cloudy. This aspect also rings true for sailors and boaters who are exposed to the sun’s reflection in the water.

Snow can reflect up to 80% of UV rays, so adequate protection in your sports glasses is important.

Sports Eyewear with Personalized Fittings

In order for you to get maximum comfort and effects of your eye glasses during sports performance your need to begin with your prescription. This is why, as an athlete, you need to regularly visit your optician for updates concerning your prescription. Visio-Rx offers different types of both sports sunglasses and sports goggles. These glasses need to be fitted with polycarbonate, Trivex or Xirm lenses in order to get the most protections out of your sports glasses. All glasses are supplied with 100% UV protection.

Achieving your personal best as an athlete is not an easy task. Clear vision is one of the keys towards exemplary athletic performance.