TRI DUC ENGLISH - Peripheral Vision in Sports TRI DUC ENGLISH Reading Practice: Peripheral Vision in Sports Focus in on something as small as a pin. Notice that everything else that fills your whole area of possible sight is indistinct, lacking in detail. We tolerate this large outlying field of blur, this peripheral view, without taking note. We unconsciously accept it. Sometimes we take charge of how we process all that blur surrounding the tiny center that our vision is focused on. Athletes best demonstrate just how much we can use the entire range of our vision, fanning out to the periphery. An athlete’s performance, necessitating high levels of coordination and reaction time, depends on training visual abilities, not just tuning muscles. Detecting and keeping track of as much motion as possible while performing physical maneuvers is quite a feat. Peripheral visual information is processed quickly. The office worker might notice the tiny distracting insect moving beside the computer, but the fast-moving athlete must detect all kinds of motion from every angle and never lose concentration. Each peripherally viewed movement must be immediately processed as more and varied movements from different sources and directions keep coming rapidly. Good footwork and body positioning will help the athlete gain viewing time in this intense environment, improving the opportunity to anticipate what will happen next. The athlete’s view, full of movement, requires rapid scanning with visual focus changing rapidly among various distances. Tracking fast objects is often complicated by the need for the athlete’s body to move in response to other aspects of the activity, and head motion must coordinate with eye movement to assist in balance. A volleyball player, for example, must pay attention to body positioning in relation to the speed and angle of the moving ball as well as to the court boundaries, all the while scanning the movement of the other players. Athletes need as much peripheral range as possible. The environment contributes to a...