Golf is not the only sport where optimal vision plays a huge role in success.  I have worked with many athletes in a variety of different sports on how learning to better use your visual system can give you an advantage no matter what the sport.

Over the last several weeks I have talked about how to test your eye dominancy and how to use it to your advantage on the golf course, but it can also help you a great deal with your swing in baseball or your backhand in tennis.

If you happen to be right-handed and left-eye dominant you have what is called cross-dominancy. This can be an advantage in many sports such as baseball and golf.

Check back next week for examples on how dominancy can play a roll what kind of sports you will be most successful.

Last week I talked about a simple test you can do to discover which is your dominant eye, this week I would like to share with you how you can use that knowledge to your advantage when you putt.

Line of sight from your dominant eye helps you determine the exact position of the ball. When you align yourself to putt you should always position your dominant eye directly over the back tip of the golf ball. Positioning yourself this way aids alignment and allows for proper impact on your putt.

I want to thank all of you for taking time to read these postings and I want to wish you all a Happy Holiday Season and a great New Year!

One of the first things a young athlete learns when they start playing sports is if they are right- or left-handed.  Discovering your dominant hand helps you to position yourself correctly in a variety of different sports.  However, many athletes don’t know they have another kind of dominance that can further enhance their athletic performance: eye dominance.

Your dominant eye processes information 14 to 21 milliseconds faster than the non-dominant eye and helps to locate points and objects in your visual field. Finding out whether you are right- or left-eye dominant can give you a distinct advantage in your sport.

Once you have learned which of your eyes is dominant, you can better position yourself for success.

To test your eye dominancy, hold your arms and hands extended forward with your palms away from you, then bring your hands together to form a small hole with your thumbs. Find an object or spot on the wall, look at the spot and raise your hands (with the small hole between your thumbs) and find the spot on the wall. Once you have found the spot, close one eye and then the other. The eye that finds the spot is your dominant eye. If you can still see the spot, make the hole between your thumbs small and continue until just one eye finds the spot.

Next week, I will share how to use your eye dominance to your advantage when lining up a putt in golf.

As always, please feel free to write in with your questions.

Throughout my career I’ve had the opportunity to work with athletes from the PGA TOUR, LPGA TOUR, Major League Baseball, the NFL, professional tennis and many in the collegiate and high school ranks. Whenever I work with an athlete, they are always looking to have their vision give them an extra edge and help them perform better at their sport.

Sports vision training allows athletes to use their vision to enhance their performance. This week, I’d like to share my model for sports vision training so people can begin to understand how improving their vision truly does improve their game.

The first part of my model for sports vision training is gaining an awareness of your own visual system.  In order to gain a greater understanding of your visual system, there are several questions you need to answer: Are you left-or right-eye dominant? How well do your eyes work as a team? Are you right-or left-handed? These questions help to reveal important aspects about how your visual system works and what you can do to improve your vision.

Once you have an understanding of your own visual system, there are many tips that can help you better use your system to benefit your performance. If you are right-eye dominant you will do a variety of activities in sports very differently than if you are left-eye dominant. It affects how you line up your eyes over a putt in golf, how you hit a backhand in tennis and how you position yourself in the batter’s box for baseball or softball.

The final step is training and developing your visual skills. Once you have learned about your vision, there are many different drills and exercises you can do to enhance your vision.

Over the next few weeks I will share how you can test out your own visual system, as well as drills and exercises to help develop your own personal visual cues.  Please continue checking back each week as we begin to discuss how to optimize your vision for success on and off the field.

Please feel free to ask any specific questions you have.