In collaboration with partners at University of Rennes (France), we used VR to study the impact of computer-generated (e.g., Gaussian filter) manipulations of spatial frequency on the ability to dodge and counter-attack in boxing.
As per previous studies on tasks such as cricket batting, we found across a series of studies that there was a general resilience to the presence of blur, irrespective of level and location in the visual field, as well as participant skill level.
The effects were mirrored in the eye gaze data (i.e., 3D ellipse Volume, fixation rate). We concluded that gaze-contingent manipulations of spatial frequency may facilitate learning by orienting attention to specific locations (e.g. head, trunk and the upper limb extremities).
Importantly, we also found that the VR boxing task used in the latter studies was received positively by the boxers and coaches. The boxers reported feeling immersed in the task and commented that it represented a real boxing situation.
Therefore, the realistic and representative VR boxing tool could offer an alternative, safe practice environment, which could also be used with injured boxers as they prepare to return to fight.
It seems obvious that good vision is a pre-requisite for the exceptional visuo-motor skills needed in many sports. For example, to catch a cricket ball requires anticipation of the speed and direction of travel of the ball.
Clearly, vision plays a crucially important role in this and other sporting tasks but do elite sports people have superior vision to non-elites? Is excellent vision a marker for sporting ability, and can visual performance affect our ability to acquire and/or retain visuo-motor skills?
In collaboration with partners at University of Bradford and St Andrews University, we completed a BBSRC-funded project aimed to answer these questions by characterising the nature of the relationship between visual and visuo-motor ability in a cohort of sports players (from novice to elite).
Key to this project was to conceptualize visual function according to clinical/laboratory assessment (i.e., static vision) and its role in visuo-motor skills (i.e., dynamic vision).
Findings indicated that most participants had undergone a clinical eye examination within the past two years, although a notable minority had not been tested for five years or more. Overall, aside from enhanced stereoacuity in elite cricketers, basic visual abilities were not superior to those of non‑athletes, and 20–25% showed sub‑optimal vision.
This suggests that perfect vision may not be essential for competing at the highest levels, though the performance impact of correcting mild refractive errors remains unclear.
