A comparison of the visual skills in male and female students
- Authors: Langhout, Wouter
- Date: 2012-03-14
- Subjects: Sports ophthalmology , Vision , Sports
- Type: Thesis
- Identifier: uj:2166 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/4539
- Description: M.Phil. , Vision is the most dominant of the five senses and plays an important role in our daily lives. The sensory information obtained through vision is of utmost importance in the way we perceive and respond to the world around us. Vision has often been neglected when evaluating the performance of athletes. Would you be able to catch a ball with your eyes closed, more than likely not? This example indicates the necessity of vision to perform specific motor tasks, such as is required in sports. Anatomically there are differences between the male and female body and therefore a variance in performance should be expected. The fact that visual skills can be leamed or even taught brings about the question of what effect age, gender and experience have on the performance of an athlete on these specific visual skills. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the variations between male and female visual skills measured during a sports vision evaluation. A protocol was devised to create a set of norms for the athletes tested and these norms were then compared to previous norms set out for elite athletes. In this study 209 female and 251 male non-elite athletes were tested. The subjects varied between the age of 18 and 19 and were in their first year of study at the then Rand Afrikaans University, now known as the University of Johannesburg. The study indicated that a significant difference in performance between the gender groups does exist and that separate norms should indeed be used when evaluating male and female athletes. The female athletes performed better on the Visual Acuity and Colour vision tests, with the male athletes performing better on the Contrast Sensitivity Row E, Fusion Flexibility, Eye-Hand Coordination Pro and Re Action, Eye-Body Coordination, Visual Reaction Time Right and Left hand, Visual Adjustability Left and Right Base positions and Visualization tests. Equal performance was achieved in the Contrast Sensitivity Row A; B, C and D, Stereopsis and Visual Adjustability Up and Down Base position tests. It is thus clear that the males performed better on most of the tests done.
- Full Text:
A comparison of the visual skills of two different age group high school rugby players
- Authors: Venter, Susanna Catharina
- Date: 2008-10-27T07:44:23Z
- Subjects: Vision , Rugby football players , Sports psychology , Vision testing
- Type: Thesis
- Identifier: uj:13464 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/1349
- Description: M.Phil. , Previously, not much attention was given to vision and visual skills in the everyday sport setting. The attention that it did get was not from optometry and ophthalmology, these two were late comers on this subject, but more and more athletes and coaches are realizing the importance of vision in their sport performance, although vision training were done inadvertently in the past. Sport performance involves motor and vision aspects. If the motor section does not work efficiently, the vision section will be hampered; in return, if the vision section does not work efficiently, the motor section will also be hampered. For this reason, vision was investigated. In this study an investigation was done on 17-year old (n = 35) and 15-year old (n = 28) rugby players. The aim of this study was to determine whether the visual skills of the 17-year-old boys would be better than that of the 15-year-old boys. Both groups were subjected to a battery of eleven rugby related visual tests. The results obtained, show that in some of the software skills such as eye-hand coordination, eye-body coordination and visual reaction time the 17-year-old group performed statistically better (p<0.05) than the 15-year-old group. The latter group only performed statistically better (p<0.05) in skills classified as hardware skills such as static visual acuity, contrast sensitivity and stereopsis. The results showed a general lack of visual skills. Sport specific visual training programmes will be needed to motor performance training if these athletes are going to develop in elite performers. , Professor Jannie Ferreira
- Full Text:
The development of norms and protocols in sports vision evaluations
- Authors: Buys, Hendri
- Date: 2008-10-27T07:44:39Z
- Subjects: Sports psychological aspects , Vision , Vision testing
- Type: Thesis
- Identifier: uj:13476 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/1350
- Description: M.Phil. , Sports vision has been a part of sport for a long time, probably since an athlete was first told to: ‘keep his eye on the ball’. It is only recently that athletes are beginning to realize the advantages of using their eyes to their full potential, and the difference it can make in an athlete’s performance. This is more prevalent today, where athletes can become instant hero’s and earn huge salaries. For a number of years specific instruments were used to test specific visual skills and norms were calculated for these skills. A few questions arises though when the norms for these visual skills are carefully studied. The purpose of this study was to evaluate previous norms and to develop norms and protocols for sports vision evaluations. Various visual skills were examined and previously used results evaluated. Key performance indicators in the evaluation of an athletes, as well as the cornerstones of sport vision were also discussed. Only elite athletes were used in this study. , Prof. J.T. Ferreira
- Full Text:
The role of vision and visual skills in rhythmic gymnastics
- Authors: Potgieter, Karin
- Date: 2012-04-16
- Subjects: Sports ophthalmology , Rhythmic gymnastics , Vision , Sports
- Type: Thesis
- Identifier: uj:2219 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/4611
- Description: M.Phil. , The sport of rhythmic gymnastics combines vision with eye-hand/body coordination and balance in a dynamic setting. Sports vision may give rhythmic gymnasts the visual edge they need for top performance. The sample of 62 rhythmic gymnasts was randomly divided into two comparable groups of 32 gymnasts (experimental group) and 30 gymnasts (control group) each. The goals of this study were to identify the visual skills important to rhythmic gymnasts, to explore whether these skills could be improved by means of an intervention programme and to investigate whether improved skills would lead to improved performance. The software skills of the visual system and fusion flexibility were identified as being important and were trained by the intervention programme. Only these skills were then re-tested. Questionnaires regarding the programme were handed out to the experimental group. The results are separated into three sections. Section A deals with the hardware skills of the visual system and section B with the software skills. Section C a questionnaire filled in by the experimental group. The discussion is also separated into the three sections. Section A explains the data found in the results of the hardware measurements. It also explains the results in terms of the norms determined by Buys30 in 2002. In Section B the results of the software skills are discussed for pre- and post measurements, and are compared between the experimental and control groups. The comparison between the levels of gymnasts and the norms of the skills as determined by Buys.30 are also discussed. Section C explains the answers found for the questionnaire filled in by the gymnasts who formed part of the experimental group.
- Full Text:
The visual skills of professional and amateur rugby players
- Authors: Ludeke, Alida Anelia
- Date: 2008-10-27T07:45:05Z
- Subjects: Rugby football players , Vision , Visual training , Sports psychology
- Type: Thesis
- Identifier: uj:13487 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/1351
- Description: M.Phil. , This study consists of three separate publications. The first article attempts to evaluate the difference in the visual skill level of professional versus non-professional rugby players. The software visual skills, involving skills such as eye-hand coordination, eye-body coordination, central-peripheral awareness, and reaction time, were examined. The results indicate that the professional players did out perform the non-professional players on all these skills except for visual concentration. Not all the results were however statistically significant. The importance of the above skills in the game of rugby is discussed and recommendations as to the implementation of vision enhancement programmes are made. The second study explores the importance of the ‘hardware’ factors of the visual system in the game of rugby. A group of professional and club rugby players were tested and the results compared. The results were also compared with the established norms for elite athletes. The findings indicate no significant difference in hardware skills between professional and club players. Compared with the norms for elite athletes, performance of most of the rugby players were average or even worse. This suggests that in the game of rugby the hardware skills may be of lesser importance and that visual enhancement programmes should focus more on improving the players’ software skills. The hardware visual skills should not be neglected though because these provide a base from where the software skills can develop. Thirdly we wanted to determine whether there are a statistically significantly difference between the visual skill levels of forward and back line players in rugby and whether they performed visually according to the norms established for elite athletes. The results indicates that there is much room for improvement for both forward and back line players in eye-hand coordination, visual concentration and central-peripheral awareness because these skills, play an important role in a sport like rugby and because the players under performed according to the established norms. Thus attention should be given to develop the hardware visual skills like accommodation and fusion to an average level of performance, to eliminate any potential limits on the software visual skills. Consistent, position specific visual training should be incorporated in the daily training routine of these players to develop the software visual skills to their full potential. , Prof. Jannie Ferreira
- Full Text: