Abstract
Purpose: In order to develop an evidence-based, sport-specific minimum impairment criteria (MIC) for the sport of vision-impaired (VI) shooting, this study aimed to determine the relative influence of losses in visual acuity (VA) and contrast sensitivity (CS) on shooting performance. Presently, VA but not CS is used to determine eligibility to compete in VI shooting.Methods: Elite able-sighted athletes (n = 27) shot under standard conditions with their habitual vision, and with their vision impaired by the use of simulation spectacles (filters which reduce both VA and CS) and refractive blur (lenses which reduce VA with less effect on CS). Habitual shooting scores were used to establish a cut-off in order to determine when shooting performance was ‘below expected’ in the presence of vision impairment. Logistic regression and decision tree analyses were then used to assess the relationship between visual function and shooting performance.Results: Mild reductions in VA and/or CS did not alter shooting performance, with greater reductions required for shooting performance to fall below habitual levels (below 87% of normalized performance). Stepwise logistic regression selected CS as the most significant predictor of shooting performance, with VA subsequently improving the validity of the model. In an unconstrained decision tree analysis, CS was selected as the sole criterion (80%) for predicting ‘below expected’ shooting score.Conclusion: Shooting performance is better predicted by losses in CS than by VA. Given that it is not presently tested during classification, the results suggest that CS is an important measure to include in testing for the classification of vision impairment for athletes competing in VI shooting.
Highlights
Classification is a process in which athletes with impairment are tested to determine whether they are eligible to compete in Paralympic sport events, and if so, which ‘class’ they should compete in
Shooting is a sport that is attractive to athletes with vision impairment because, in the VI-adapted form of the sport, competitors can rely on sound rather than vision to guide the direction of the gun barrel toward the target
The air rifle is fitted with an acoustic mechanism that allows the athlete to ‘sight’ via an audio signal: the closer the gun barrel is directed toward the center of the target, the higher will be the pitch of the tone
Summary
Classification is a process in which athletes with impairment are tested to determine whether they are eligible to compete in Paralympic sport events, and if so, which ‘class’ they should compete in. The system should be developed on the basis of scientific evidence which demonstrates the relationship between the degree of impairment and performance in that sport This process has for some time been underway for athletes with physical or intellectual impairments, at this stage there has been minimal change to the classification systems for athletes with vision impairment (VI) (Ravensbergen et al, 2016). The air rifle is fitted with an acoustic mechanism that allows the athlete to ‘sight’ via an audio signal: the closer the gun barrel is directed toward the center of the target, the higher will be the pitch of the tone This aiming mechanism is mounted on the air rifle, with the athlete able to listen to the signal through headphones.
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