ASSESSMENT AND COMPARISON OF VISUAL SKILLS AMONG ATHLETES

Abstract

Vision is a warning that directs muscles of the body to respond and gives information about where and when to move. Visual reaction time amongst athletes is mainly concerned with how fast an athlete reacts to a visual stimulus. However, little information is available on reaction time (RT), hand-eye coordination among athletes from different sport branches. In many sports branches; RT and hand-eye coordination is regarded as a prerequisite for success. For this reason, the aim of the current study was to investigate RT differences for eye-hand coordination of athletes from different sports and sedentary people. Study involved 48 athletes, aged 18-25 from different branches [basketball (n=6), arm wrestling (n=4), boxing (n=6), football (n=13), handball (n=4), rugby (n=8), volleyball (n=7)] and 9 sedentary people. Hand-eye coordination tests were conducted by using reaction development and training system FitLight Trainer™ (Fitlight Sports Corp., Canada). Test protocol consisted of 10 series of simple motor reaction task to visual stimuli; each of the 10 series included 22 reactions. Variables not fitting normal distribution were compared by Kruskal Wallis H test. Mean reaction time (MRT) was found to be different among branches (p=0.009). RT for 10 different trials were found to be different for 3rd(p=0.038), 4th(p=0.047), 5th(p=0.022), 6th(p=0.044), 7th(p=0.041), 8th(p=0.011), 9th(p=0.019), 10th(p=0.023) trials. According to results, it can be said that visual reaction times of field players are very specific and insufficient to distinguish. During trainings, it may be advisable to have reaction time development exercises with specific technical/tactical skills related to branches and positions.