Sports Vision includes:

• Basic optometric care
• Correction of any visual defects
• Glasses/Sports Eyewear
• Contact Lenses
• Refractive surgery including laser eye surgery
• Specific Vision Training
• Improving reaction time
• Improving speed of acquisition of 3D
• Improving visual perceptual skills
• Improving consistency of fixation
• Improving consistency and accuracy of eye movements
• Improving Eye-to-hand and eye-to-body accuracy
• Expanding peripheral awareness

The Wellington Eye Clinic are delighted to be one of the sponsors of the TopGolfer Tour for Ireland's best golfers. 30 events have been scheduled across the country for golfers with handicaps of 9 and lower. At the end of the tour, the 30 winners from each event play off to determine Ireland's Top Golfer at a 2-day event at Carton House. Improved eyesight always leads to improved sporting performance and we endorse all activities that lead to a better quality of life. See www.topgolfer.ie for more information.

Vision Performance Assessment

The laws of SportsVision propose that the primary visual skills for sport are aiming and anticipation, and based on this a formal programme of diagnostic and analytical tests has been developed.

A Sports Vision assessment can help remove barriers to further improvement at all levels of sporting achievement. This is a holistic understanding of the visual process which goes far beyond the scope of a normal eye test.

A full performance assessment will discuss any parts of the game that the athlete finds difficult or frustrating. This is followed by a number of tests that assess all aspects of vision. The results are discussed and advice given. Correction (contact lenses/sport spex/glare tints/Laser) and vision training may be prescribed. Full reports are provided for the athlete and coach if required.

This information is combined with tests for binocular vision (how the eyes work together), fixation disparity (how well the two images are processed in the brain) and a measure of refraction (short sight, long sight, astigmatism or a difference between the eyes).

A series of analytical tests may then be conducted to measure, for example, reaction time or hand/eye co-ordination, as appropriate for the athlete and/or sport. In some cases these may be carried out as team assessments to allow comparisons of individuals against the norm.

The diagnostic elements of visual performance evaluation are:

Clarity of Sight (Visual Acuity)
What you see and how clear it (stationary target) is.
Many athletes are able to see well beyond the bottom line of a standard optician’s chart (20/20 vision).

Dynamic Visual Acuity
Clarity of a moving target.

Accommodative Function
How accurately you focus on what you are looking at, how well you maintain this focus and how quickly you can change your focus as the target moves.

Binocular Vision
How well the eyes work together as a team and how well they continue to work when the system is stressed. Has an effect on performance consistency, spatial location of the ball/target.

Ocular Movement Skills
How accurately the eyes move. Includes pursuit tracking and convergence (eyes moving inward as a ball approaches). Inefficiencies will lead to mistiming (early or late). ‘Keep your eye on the ball’.

Glare Sensitivity
Ability to cope with glare (low sun/stadium lights). Glare sensitivity is often caused by (correctable) problems with the focussing or binocular vision systems.

Depth Perception
3D judgement, spatial sensitivity. Dramatically affected by binocular vision inefficiencies.

Eye Dominance
Unstable eye dominance will affect balance and aiming. Its relationship to body dominance will have a dramatic effect on how well a player will perform.

Certain eye-body dominances will give an advantage to many sports.

Visual Field and Peripheral Awareness.
The vision around you and how you integrate information in it with your central vision.

Fusional Reserves
Eye Muscle strength and flexibility.

Colour Vision and Contrast Sensitivity
Ability to see subtle differences in colour and grey tones in a range of lighting levels.