SOFTBALL%20

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Vision training for netball
Pierre Elmurr BAppSc (Orthoptics) DOBA MAppSc
(ExerSportsSc) Sports Vision Scientist Primary
Eye Care NSW Institute of Sport
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Relationship of vision skilled movement
(Welford 1960 model

• Perceptual mechanism divided into the HARDWARE
  SOFTWARE
• Decision mechanism
• Effector mechanism

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Perceptual Mechanism (Starkes Deakin 1984

• HARDWARE - the reception of visual
  information affected by the ocular
  characteristics of the athletes visual system
• SOFTWARE - Perception of visual information
  influenced by strategies an athlete develops
  includes information processing, use of advanced
  cues, ball flight cues, gaze behavior and the
  use of anticipatory skills

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Hardware examination

• Identifies uncorrected refractive errors,
  contrast sensitivity and Binocular anomalies that
  could influence software decision making

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Netball Specifications

• Post height 3.05m (2.4m modified netball)
• Ring 380mm internal diameter 15mm steel rod
• No rules that govern colour only size and weight

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VISION TRAINING

• "Vision training for sport is the application of
  specific exercises conducted over a period of
  time that leads to neural restructuring of cortex
  and brainstem pathways allowing a person to
  maximise efficiency while performing visual
  perceptual tasks leading to enhanced visual motor
  performance

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ASSUMPTIONS

• Specificity of the vision training programs
• Skill level of the athlete
• No hardware eye problem

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Visual-motor training

• Combining hardware software processing produces
  a motor response
• Eye-hand coordination
• Eye-foot coordination
• Coincidence anticipation
• Peripheral awareness reaction time
• Total reaction time

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Motor Skill

• Defined as skills in which physical movement is
  required to accomplish a goal of a task.
• Classified into 3 groups
• 1. Precision of the movement
• Gross (walking, jumping) vs fine motor skill
  (writing, drawing)
• 2. Defining beginning end point of a skill
• Discrete (hitting a button on a keyboard vs
  continuous motor skill (swimming, running)
• 3. Stability of the environment
• Closed (bowling) vs open motor skill (tennis
  rally)

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Motor performance measures

• Response output Measures time, error and
  magnitude of a response
• Response production Measures include EMG, EEG
  measures describing limbs, joints, muscles
  brain activity during movement
• The most common measure of initiation of movement
  is reaction time
• Response Time is the total time interval
  involving both reaction time movement time

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Motor performance measures

• 3 common types of RT
• Simple RT Only one signal and one response
  required (visual stimuli 180-200ms, auditory
  140-160 ms)
• Go/No- RT Respond to one stimuli and not respond
  to another stimuli
• Choice RT A distinct response for each possible
  stimuli

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Learning

• Perceptual learning ability to improve on a
  specific sensory/perceptual task with practice
• Motor learning process that improves motor
  performance through practice
• Other forms of learning visualization,
  anticipation, visual attention, range of
  cognitive strategies

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Motor learning

• Motor learning the changes associated with
  practice or experience leading to improvements in
  motor performance (observable production of a
  motor skill)
• SVT is the motor learning tool and improvements
  in motor performance is a decrease in reaction
  time on the SVT board and on field improvements
  in hand speed
• Level of motor performance is susceptible to
  fluctuations in temporary factors such as
  motivation, arousal, fatigue

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The perfect netballer!

• Fast, extremely agile, have quick hands, can jump
  high, fake pass, use a variety of moves and shoot
  accurately. Ability at sticking tight on their
  defender and putting extreme pressure on the
  opposition down the court

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Five important skills for netball

• Gaze control
• Peripheral awareness
• Visual search strategies
• Visual coordination
• Visual memory

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Gaze control

• Gaze control is defined as the process of
  directing gaze to objects within a scene in real
  time.
• A fixation occurs when the gaze is held on an
  object or location within 3 degrees of the visual
  angle for 100 milliseconds or longer

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What do athletes see?

• How gaze is controlled in sport falls into 2
  methods of research
• Visual search the eye movements of athletes are
  recorded as they view videotapes, photographs,
  computer simulations, or other simulated content
  from their sport
• Vision-in-action Uses the gaze of the
  participant recorded while they perform in real
  world sport settings

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GOAL SHOOTING

• Get ready to shoot. Stand with the ball inside
  the shooting 'D'semi circle align your body to
  the netball post. place your feet shoulder width
  apart for balance
• Hold the netball with one hand supporting it with
  the other hand
• Stretch your arms above your head
• Bend your knees and elbows, and as you
  straighten, release the ball and push it upwards,
  and give some backspin to make sure it goes in
  the net, not over it
• Keep practicing
• Focus on the ring, in particular the back of the
  ring

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Gaze Control

• In gaze studies in sport, all gaze (fixations,
  pursuit tracking, saccades, blinks) found in a
  task to a location, one gaze has emerged called
  the quiet eye as a significant contributing
  factor to higher levels of sports performance
  (Vickers, 1996a)
• The Quiet eye is defined as a period of time when
  the fixation is stable on spatial information
  critical to effective and consistent motor
  performance

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Gaze Control

• Hold your gaze on one spot on the hoop (front,
  middle or back rim) for about 1.5 seconds
• Regardless of location (all three are effective),
  you must fixate on one spot only

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Gaze Control

• Insulation from choking
• Gaze control can help the athlete from choking
  under pressure
• 2 theories of choking
• Too much self-focus causing normal automatic
  actions to become too conscious deliberate
• Too much external distraction causing athletes
  attention to be diverted from the task
• Directing energy to gaze control during pressure
  situations insulates players from choking

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SHOOTING INFORMATION

• Try to simulate a real netball match during your
  shooting practice (4 times a week)
• Tips
• Mix up the position where youre shooting from -
  try not to stand in the same spot and shoot 20
  shots from the same spot
• Mix up the timing of the shot practice faking
  the defender off the shot
• Team up whether its a shooter or mid-courter
  to help out. Practice driving hard onto the ball,
  receiving the pass and shooting the ball
  successfully in the ring. Incorporate shooter
  moves such as rolls, dodges, double dodges and
  front cuts
• Practice shooting when youre physically
  exhausted
• Leanne Hughes is a former international netballer
  who was written the Up and In netball shooting

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SHOOTING INFORMATION

• Shoot with at least 75 accuracy
• Aim for at least 8 attempts per quarter
• Variables to consider when looking at shooting
  stats, which may effect the number of attempts
  you make each match
• There are two shooters in the circle, are you
  both sharing the shooting role evenly?
• The strength of the opposition , hence the low
  number of attempts
• The pace of the game - Is it a high scoring/low
  scoring match, filled with turnovers?
• You want BOTH quantity quality Shooting 24/36
  goals is MUCH better than shooting 12/12

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Peripheral awareness

• There are physiological limitations to humans
  peripheral vision. binocular field is made up of
  overlapping monocular fields extending to about
  200 degrees horizontally and 130 degrees
  vertically
• Peripheral awareness training does not make an
  athletes peripheral vision larger but merely
  improves the awareness of the surrounding
  environment

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Peripheral awareness

• Offensive and defensive players use peripheral
  awareness to track opponents, teammates, passing
  strategies and developing plays
• Colour recognition of jersey is critical when
  developing drills
• Peripheral awareness is used in
• Directional changes
• Recognition reaction

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Peripheral awareness drillMulti-coloured jerseys

• Equipment Netball
• Duration 3 to 5 minutes
• Description
• 1. Use an area ¼ size of the regular playing
  field
• 2. Divide players into 3 different groups of
  colours
• 3. Start with one netball
• 4. Players only pass to 1 colour can only
  receive from 1 colour. Eg red passes to blue,
  blue passes to yellow and yellow passes to red
• 5. Add 2nd 3rd netball to the drill to increase
  difficultly

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Visual search strategies

• Elite athletes know where to look for the most
  important visual cues information
• Anticipation
• Experienced players fixated on peripheral aspects
  of the play (position and movement of other
  players). Inexperienced players fixated on the
  ball and player passing the ball
• Increase in frequency of fixations an advantage
  for anticipating pass destination during open
  play

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Visual coordination

• Eye foot coordination
• Eye-hand coordination

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Visual memory

• Skilled players can recall recognize patterns
  of play more effectively then less skilled
  players
• Expert players use their knowledge of situational
  probabilities (expectation) to anticipate future
  events
• E.g online game www.tomsgames.com
• SUDOKU - Improves logical thinking skills,
  decision-making, and brain-processing speed

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Decision making process of netball players

• Exercises used to develop anticipation,
  imagination awareness in netball should always
  have 3 objectives in mind
• 1. To develop composure in possession with the
  ball
• 2. Anticipating situations ahead of time
• 3. To decrease the time needed to move the ball
  by having total awareness of the positions of all
  players

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Decision making process of netball players

• Coaches reinforcing these objectives can help
  players progress through the 8 step decision
  making process
• Step 1 Observing how where the ball is coming
  from
• Step 2 Knowing where teammates are on the field
• Step 3 Knowing where the opposition are on the
  field
• Step 4 Deciding what to do with the ball
• Step 5 Knowing your options by observing where
  the ball is to be moved
• Step 6 Deciding when the ball goes
• Step 7 Deciding how the ball goes
• Step 8 Deciding why the ball goes (the tactical
  objective )

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SUMMARY/TIPS

• Hardware examination if you feel its necessary
• Identify specific weaknesses, set preseason goals
• General specific visual motor training twice a
  week on field
• Off field training (SVT online games)
• Specific training for GA GS
• Sportplan.com

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THANK YOU!

• pelmurr_at_sportsvision.com.au