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All medical professionals, including pediatricians, neurologists, eye doctors, other physicians, nurses, and occupational therapists, have a role in co-managing their patients’ eye health. If any of your patients participate in sports, then it is even more critical that you are involved in their primary eye care. Maximizing visual performance can lead to maximizing sports performance, avoiding injuries, and treating and rehabilitating ocular injuries and traumatic brain injuries when they do occur.
Regardless of your specialty, we would like you to know the signs of a vision impairment and ensure that your athletic patients are seen regularly by an eye doctor for a comprehensive eye exam. Since vision impairments can also be symptoms of other health conditions (e.g., concussions and diabetes), referring your patients to an eye doctor is an important step in diagnosing and co-managing your patients’ overall treatment and health.
If your patient experiences any of the following symptoms, and especially if they participate in sports, then immediately refer them to an eye doctor:
Screenings Are Not Enough
Remember, it is important that all your patients regularly see an eye doctor even if they pass a vision screening or do not exhibit signs of vision impairment. Not all vision impairments have obvious warning signs or impact performance right away. It’s better for your patient to see an eye doctor before their vision impairments are obvious and/or already impacting their performance and safety.
Furthermore, your patients’ vision may be “good enough” to pass a basic screening, but their vision may still not be good enough for their chosen sport. Therefore, all your patients should regularly see an eye doctor even if they have passed vision screenings.
Regardless of your specialty, we would like you to know the signs of a vision impairment and ensure that your athletic patients are seen regularly by an eye doctor for a comprehensive eye exam. Since vision impairments can also be symptoms of other health conditions (e.g., concussions and diabetes), referring your patients to an eye doctor is an important step in diagnosing and co-managing your patients’ overall treatment and health.
If your patient experiences any of the following symptoms, and especially if they participate in sports, then immediately refer them to an eye doctor:
- Complaints of lack of clarity in sport
- Difficulties at night (indoors) vs daytime sport environments
- Headaches
- Double vision
- Difficulty tracking targets
- Depth perception concerns, missing catches, shooting balls high or low of targets
- Slowed decision making on the field
- Consistent difficulties effectively running plays designed by the coach
- Irritated eyes during sport
- Light sensitivity
Screenings Are Not Enough
Remember, it is important that all your patients regularly see an eye doctor even if they pass a vision screening or do not exhibit signs of vision impairment. Not all vision impairments have obvious warning signs or impact performance right away. It’s better for your patient to see an eye doctor before their vision impairments are obvious and/or already impacting their performance and safety.
Furthermore, your patients’ vision may be “good enough” to pass a basic screening, but their vision may still not be good enough for their chosen sport. Therefore, all your patients should regularly see an eye doctor even if they have passed vision screenings.
Even if you have no training in sports vision, you are an integral part of the primary eye health of your patients involved in sports. Many of the patients that sit in your chair play golf, tennis, little league, and high school sports.
Your patients depend on you, as eye care experts, to help them understand how to properly protect their eyes in sports, diagnose vision impairments that may impact their performance, and refer them to local sports vision eye doctors to help improve their sports performance and safety.
Furthermore, incorporating basic sports vision services can be an easy way to add value to your services and expand your practice. Developing a relationship with local high school teams, golf clubs, and other sports leagues can help you reach more patients. Athletes, coaches, and athletic trainers always talk to each other about what can best help improve their game. Helping one athlete improve their performance will bring in their teammates, friends, and other athletes.
Sports Vision Pros can be a valuable resource in helping you expand your practice and meet the eye care needs of any and all of your patients that participate in sport.
Your patients depend on you, as eye care experts, to help them understand how to properly protect their eyes in sports, diagnose vision impairments that may impact their performance, and refer them to local sports vision eye doctors to help improve their sports performance and safety.
Furthermore, incorporating basic sports vision services can be an easy way to add value to your services and expand your practice. Developing a relationship with local high school teams, golf clubs, and other sports leagues can help you reach more patients. Athletes, coaches, and athletic trainers always talk to each other about what can best help improve their game. Helping one athlete improve their performance will bring in their teammates, friends, and other athletes.
Sports Vision Pros can be a valuable resource in helping you expand your practice and meet the eye care needs of any and all of your patients that participate in sport.
Sports Vision Clinicians can include athletic trainers, physical therapists, strength and conditioning coaches, and eye doctors.
Sports Vision Pros is a community of experts that help improve our understanding of sports vision. We invite you to become certified in sports and performance vision though sportsvisionpros.com and to join our community, join the discussion, and help us move the field forward. Often, certified athletic trainers are on the front lines of sports teams' medical evaluations, injury management, establishment of performance enhancement, and injury prevention protocols.
Sports Vision Pros is a community of experts that help improve our understanding of sports vision. We invite you to become certified in sports and performance vision though sportsvisionpros.com and to join our community, join the discussion, and help us move the field forward. Often, certified athletic trainers are on the front lines of sports teams' medical evaluations, injury management, establishment of performance enhancement, and injury prevention protocols.
As analytics and biometrics becomes an increasingly relevant and prevalent topic in sports performance, Sports Vision Pros is committed to be a resource to present technology, studies, and resources to help sports science directors appropriately integrate appropriate visual performance testing and training into their overall athletic performance programs.
We discuss various technologies and objectively quantifiable data points that are possible with today’s visual performance testing and training. We additionally provide direction to the specific aspects of visual performance assessed and trained with the various technologies to ensure correct usage of the various technologies per sport and to discuss best practices in implementation and integration within any broad scope athletic performance program.
We discuss various technologies and objectively quantifiable data points that are possible with today’s visual performance testing and training. We additionally provide direction to the specific aspects of visual performance assessed and trained with the various technologies to ensure correct usage of the various technologies per sport and to discuss best practices in implementation and integration within any broad scope athletic performance program.
Coming Soon