With the World Series about to start, I have decked myself out in SF Giants orange and black. I have orange nail polish on, and orange and black tights ready to wear tomorrow. My husband has planned which nights we’re going to the neighborhood hot dog stand to grab a dog before we watch the game.
Which is to say, I’m getting excited.
I have had a less than fond relationship with baseball for several years because rather than being a football widow, I am a baseball widow. (Do you know how many baseball games there are each year??)
But, after twelve years, I’ve begun to take more interest in the game. I’ve started watching more games on TV. I have favorite players.
(I still read a book while the game is on, but at least I’m on the same couch.)
But when the Giants games changed to being broadcast on Fox, I was unnerved. It wasn’t my favorite announcers. The same graphics weren’t on the screen. Everything was different! I hate change!
But one Fox graphic is pretty cool. I’m sure it isn’t just Fox that uses it, but the graphic that shows where each pitch went is pretty cool.
Since I still can’t watch quickly enough to tell most balls from most strikes.
So what I should do, if I’m interested in being able to distinguish one from another at the blazing speeds at which those baseballs fly, is to train my vision.
Sports vision is a growing field that could have an impact on how we play and move. Vision training includes visual exercises designed to help athletes improve vision speed, depth perception and peripheral vision; develop proper eye posture; track objects; and improve focus. Basically, vision training works to improve the eye-brain connection.
Woah.
Cool.
Now, sports vision is supposed to help most in dynamic sports that require a high level of visual dexterity and spatial orientation. (Think outfielders.) This includes baseball, football, basketball, skiing, tennis, auto racing, and golf.
Not long distance running.
So there are a number of ways that I could train my vision, if I wanted to. (I bet it’d make me a more confident nighttime driver, too.) I could juggle tennis balls with numbers written on them, and call out the numbers as I juggle. I could have someone stand 4 feet away and gently toss playing cards in my direction and try to call out the suit and catch the card simultaneously. I could get a soccer ball and write different letters on the white spots and work on heading the ball as I say the letter.
Seriously; there are a million ways to train my vision.
For now, I’ll work on listing all the ways I could do it; I don’t think I’m ready to start trying to head a soccer ball anytime soon.
Those World Series players don’t seem quite so overpaid when I think about their abilities to do some of these drills…
GO GIANTS!!!
(Thanks to the ACE FitnessMatters May/June 2006 issue for the interesting article on Sports Vision!)
