March Madness-a great month for ball, make sure your athlete is game ready!

March Madness means basketball, baseball

March Madness-The month of balls galore-basketballs and baseballs.  Make sure your athlete is seeing the ball!


March is an amazing month for sports.  The NCAA tournament is in full force.  Major League Baseball begins Spring Training and all levels of school baseball begins their Spring Season.


The vision …is on the ball; whether it is a baseball or basketball you want to be seeing the ball.


To prepare for their season, most athletes incorporate a conditioning protocol that involves aerobic exercise and weight training but little thought goes into an examination of the eyes. 


Hidden vision problems can be holding your athlete back.


  Your athlete may see 20/20 but may not be seeing the ball.  The term 20/20 is a standard term for seeing contrasting black numbers/letters on a white background at a distance of 20 feet away.

The problem with the standard 20/20 in an examination room is that it doesn’t take in affect the subtle contrast of a ball in an arena or outdoor stadium with very little contrast to the sun.  It also does not take into account “functional vision”, such as focusing muscles of the eye and eye tracking.  An athlete with focusing issues and eye tracking issues can have depth perception problems.


Along with this, an athlete can be 20/20 and also have nearsightedness and/or farsightedness.  A player with farsightedness tends to hit the ball late and is not able to hit the ball dead on and loose his power to the bat.  An athlete that has slight nearsightedness, has eyes that tend to turn in and they get to close to the ball and tends to get ahead of the ball at the plate.  The ball seems closer than it actually is and he reacts to the ball to soon at the plate.  Even with 20/20 vision it can be difficult to correct your vision without proper eyeglasses to assist.


As a parent you buy your athlete the proper equipment to field the ball well and hit the ball well.  Your athletes body is a part of his equipment, you make sure he is in top physical shape, but do you make sure you are doing everything so your athlete can see the ball, have proper depth perception on the basket, proper depth perception in the field and at bat.  All the equipment in the world is not going to help if your athlete is not seeing the ball correctly.  Make it apart of your athletes conditioning to get an eye exam inclusive of focusing test and eye tracking test.


March is about seeing the ball-the basketball, the baseball, give your athlete the best chance, schedule your eye examination today.