Effects of exercise on the visual performance of female rugby players

Abstract

Visual performance is an important factor in sport excellence. Over the past few years, aspects like hand-eye co-ordination, visual reaction time and their relation to eye exercises have been addressed frequently. Theories maintain that visual involvement varies according to the environmental demands, and that athlete's visual characteristics therefore vary according to the sports in which they specialise, have also been covered. It is well known that environmental demands are matched by task-specific motor response. The extension of this theory shows that visual ability can affect both motor learning and performance, and that the nature of the visual involvement will vary according to environmental demands. The purpose of this study was to determine if exercise will improve the visual performance of female rugby players, in order to achieve maximal results on the sports field. Twenty female rugby players aged 19 to 24 were chosen as subjects. In order to evaluate the effect of sport vision specific exercises on hand-eye co-ordination, a pretest - post-test experimental groups design was adopted for the study. The pre-exercise and post-exercise values of the subjects in the control and experimental groups were pooled to determine the averages and differences. From the results, it can be seen that there was an improvement in the performance of the subjects who were exposed to the specific exercises. This study could assist in advocating a theoretical framework and providing an empirical data base to guide and evaluate future research.