Eye Tracking and Sports Performance

At Posturepro, we use eye tracking as a tool in sports research to optimize athletic performance by detecting flaws linked to attentional focus, trajectory estimations, visual search strategies and eye-hand-foot coordination. Convergence disorders is a condition when one eye tracking is misaligned compared to the other eye.

Misalignment of the eyes is not detectable by looking in the mirror at yourself. This condition may affect as many as two out of three athletes. If this condition is not detected and then corrected, it can cause extreme problems throughout life and with sports performance and sports injuries. With sponsorship deals for professional athletes reaching massive proportions, the stakes are higher and every aspect of a player’s game is scrutinized. Scientific studies indicate that an athlete’s ability to read the movements of a ball is important to the outcome of a play. The sports research conducted at our  Posturology Institute used convergence testing as one standard methodology to understand fundamental technique flaws linked to eye-hand-foot coordination and to optimize performance.

Eye tracking has been used as a tool to optimize sports such as:

Football	Baseball	Tennis
Table Tennis	Basketball	Track Running
Dressage Riding	American Football	Mountain Biking
Hockey	Fencing	Golf

It is important to understand the relationship between the eye and posture. The eye can be divided into 2 folds: exteroception and proprioception.

Exteroception is responsible for vision via the optical nerve.

The optical nerve then relays the information to the thalamus (Lateral geniculate nucleus) and visual cortex, allowing you to see.

 Proprioception is responsible for how the muscles of your eyes (extra ocular muscles) move inside the orbit.

  The eye muscles also have the highest amount of muscle spindles than any other muscle in the body. So if muscle receptors (muscles spindles) are related to sense of self, wouldn’t you think that there is a whole lot of proprioception coming from your eye muscles? To prove this theory, two masterful experiments have unequivocally demonstrated the importance of the eye and posture:

1. The first experiment (LACOUR) concluded that visual information reaches the vesibular nuclei, explaining conditions such as functional vertigo.
2. The second experiment (Jean Pierre ROLL) concluded that an illusion of movement could be induced by the application of vibration to a muscle.

To prove this theory:

1. Testing was done on a subject eyes closed and trunk mobilized, vibration to the rectus lateralis of the right eye induced the sensation of rotation of the head to the left side.
2. Testing was done on a subject with head immobilized by system of restraints, the same stimulation generated an illusory rotation of the trunk in the same direction.

These two experiments irrefutably show the role of the eye in posture and make it clear that the slightest asymmetry tension will have a repercussion on posture. Experienced athletes have a better ability to predetermine how a ball will bounce, which in turn makes them better at judging the optimal time to strike a ball in baseball, or strategically plan the trajectory in games like squash or basketball. Convergence disorders can be attributed to : 1) Cranial traumas 2) Cervical sprains 3) Increased intracranial pressure ( convulsions, meningitic syndrome, cerebrovascular disease, cerebral abscess, meningitis) 4) Epilepsy 5) Certain auto immune diseases 6) Fetal distress 8) A number of seemingly congenital hereditary disorders     A convergence disorder never corrects itself. It integrates into the body image, which works along the defect and the postural imbalance that accompanies it. An asymmetry of the extraocular muscle leads to strain and fatigue and postural compensation which may cause many other symptoms. Although refraction (exteroception) disorders are generally detected and corrected (myopia, astigmatism, hypermetropia), in contrast, convergence disorders are rarely detected and rarely treated. There are 2 reasons for this:

• GPs and pediatricians have never been trained in this type of diagnosis
• Ophtamologists are only interested in binocular vision

As far as sports performance, the picture above shows an asymmetry with the right eye impacting the frontal plane. At this point, we have seen more than 2,000 patients with convergence disorders. What these cases have in common is a complex group of symptoms and minimal improvement to multiple treatment modalities. These cases also share one other thing: successful treatment with posturology.  Click on the image below to take our convergence quiz.

 

The Posturepro Team Superior Performance For Life