Vision Training Methods for Sports Concussion Mitigation and Management

The overall goal of these training methods are to improve eye coordination, eye hand coordination, and eye brainin processing of visual information. Improving the processing of visual information from the periphery is often encouraged by coaches, by advising, use your peripheral vision but without a method to improve that performance. However, by implementing training tools like a touch responsive lightboard reaction, time to peripheral events can be improved.

This video demonstrates several such methods and shows how these methods can also be used in sports medical intervention for concussion prevention. So vision training is brain training. 85%of the sensory information that comes into the brain comes from the visual system.

The main advantage of our training method is that we integrate all the main tasks that the eyes do for the brain, such that the brain gets more and better information faster and then can use that information better and more effectively. So visually demonstrating how to do the vision training is critical. cause without seeing how to do this, you'll miss, many people will miss the little nuances of what I discipline is when the eyes are actually engaged and not engaged.

People can call numbers and people can call colors of balls, but are they actually seeing and taking that information in? cause when the eyes are working and you see the eyes are working, then you can take the next step and make sure that the brain is getting that information from the eyes. So demonstrating how to run and perform these tasks.

We have two athletes. We have Carly Hassel Feld, who is a recreational athlete, and we also have Robert Hassel Feld, who is an intercollegiate athlete, a soccer goalie, and they will be performing and demonstrating these vision training tasks. The following program takes about two minutes to complete.

First, stand the subject about 18 inches away from the lightboard. Adjust the height of the lightboard. So the screen in the board is about eye level and the central horizontal row of lights is about shoulder level.

Next, the subject must reach the lights in the outer ring of the lightboard. Move the subject so the subject can reach all of the lights. Now the subject puts their hands at chest level and prepares to hit the lights using either hand as fast as possible.

In one minute, when a light is hit, it will turn off and there will be an accompanying beep. To start the task, select the A star program. With experience, the subjects will be able to start the computer and do the task themselves.

Record the number of hits per minute for each session. The reaction test program consists of six tests, three with the right hand and three for the left. Hand select and start the reaction test.

The program begins with a demonstration that sequentially illuminates which lights to hit, and then a light to the right is illuminated. To begin, the subject holds down the lit light with the right hand stands directly behind the lights that light up and puts their other hand behind their back. Now the subject scans the lights that were just lit up and prepares to press those buttons as they randomly light up as quickly as possible.

After going through the predetermined sequence, usually five times press the green light at the bottom of the inner ring of lights to start the next test. Next the subject is shown the involved lights by a flash sequence. Then when ready, the subject should hold down the lit light on the left side and put their right hand behind their back.

The next two tests use lights along the arc of the middle ring and the last two tests Utilize the light to the left and right of the T scope record the average reaction time for each test, plus the overall reaction time, which is calculated by the computer and shown on the home screen. So concussion programs one through three are a series of multitasking, multifactorial one minute programs that get more complicated. We use these to help diagnose and manage concussion patients.

A normal patient will often get better with the three tasks because there's a practice effect. The concussion patient, however, will often get frustrated, will not be able to multitask and start to do more poorly. As the task progresses and gets more complicated.

That decrease in performance is actually diagnostic and very indicative of a person having a concussion In preparation. The previously described tests should be used for training and making a baseline assessment. Now begin with the concussion.

One program, which is a one minute test that uses only the middle three concentric rings. It is like the A star test, except that the subject sees single digit numbers. Flash for one second at eight second intervals on the center screen, the subject must read the numbers flashed on the screen out loud while also pressing the buttons that are lighting up.

The resultant score is the number of hits per minute and a report of any missed numbers. For concussion two program, the same single digits flash on screen and for each pair of numbers. The second number is added to the first Five 14.

The subject should still hit the lit button as well. For the third program, the task builds from the second program by making 20%of the buttons green. Now the subject must also call out green when hitting a green button.

In addition to calling out the paired summation of the numbers, green nine Green 17 use Brock's string as a training method, not a test. The subject holds one end of the string to the tip of his or her nose while the other end is tied to a fixed point. Initially, the string is straight ahead and can be angled up or down when progressing the exercise.

Meanwhile, the head is kept straight ahead. The steeper the angle, the more challenging the task. Next spread five colored beads that are threaded on the string along the string at least 12 inches apart.

Starting about 10 inches from the nose, instruct the subject to alternate fixation and focus from one bead to the next. While noting the visual input of each eye convergence should occur and be verified by the instructor. This is done for one minute at a time.

Vary the spacing as needed to facilitate the exercise. For combat sports like wrestling, it may require beads less than three feet away. Whereas for field sports space, the beads up to 10 feet away position the subject eight feet from the psychotic eye charts centered between two psychotic charts, eight feet apart.

Each psychotic chart is constructed on an 8.5 by 11 inch sheet of paper. Each chart has a 10 by 10 grid of letters in a 36 point font per vertical line with 10 vertical lines on the chart. Adjust the chart's position so it is legible.

Then let the subject read it for one minute, staying still after a minute. The subject reads aloud the first letter on the first line of the first chart. And then on the second chart, the subject then reads aloud, the second letter on the first chart, and then the second letter on the second chart and so forth.

Record the number of letter pairs the subject can read in one minute. For the next phase, put one chart on the floor and one eight feet high and repeat the training. To progress this training, introduce unstable standing surfaces and continue to vary.

Placement of the charts across the midline data was collected from 63 football players who trained on the lightboard for three or more years. Outer rings were hit more slowly than inner rings. The peripheral vision reaction score is a ratio of the mean reaction time of the outer two rings compared to the inner three rings.

Using data from 10 players who took part in four years of training the time to hit different rings was compared at the start of vision training prior to the pre-season. Across the four years, sustained benefits to the training are apparent By the fourth year, 20 non-football playing volunteers. 10 of each sex participated in concussion program measurement.

With the increased multitasking of the concussion tests, there was no significant decrement in performance. From January of 2011 to May of 2013, the hitters of the Division one baseball team at the University of Cincinnati underwent 20 minute training sessions twice per week on the off season and once per week. In season stereos, a component of depth perception consistently increased from 22 to 25 millimeters to 45 to 50 millimeters over the course of a training season.

Once the methods are mastered where the person doesn't need repeat instructions, they can do this whole series of events in 15 minutes. And that training can be done 15 minutes once or twice a week over about four or six weeks. It shouldn't be done all at once.

You need the time over four to six weeks to actually develop the benefit from the training. After watching this video, you should be able to stand next to an athlete and instruct that person on performing these vision training techniques. You should be able to watch them and make sure that they're doing them correctly and when they are done correctly, they athlete will be able to perform those tests quickly and appropriately and with training their performance on the field or whatever their sport is will improve and their abilities to compete will get better.