Sunday, May 21, 2006

Visionary sport by Dr Sherylle Calder

I lifted this from http://www.scifest.org.za/calder.html. Some of the statements are dated

Just read the context then.




Ninety percent of decisions made in team sports are based on visual information. A ‘good eye’ is therefore important for motor skills like catching a ball or contacting a ball with a bat, but it also contributes to the rapid succession of decisions that comprise tactical elements such as player movement and shot selection.

Visual eye specialist, Dr Sherylle Calder, believes that many international sport teams don’t play to their full potential, simply because their visual systems aren't fit. But visual abilities can be trained. Every person has six muscles in each eye that can be trained to improve speed, movement and flexibility. The process in the brain can also be speeded up, so hand-eye co-ordination is enhanced, and because players ‘see’ more, each can assess the situation so much quicker and thus exercise their options.

Go to Eye Gym with the Boks and see how Dr Sherylle Calder’s development and improvement of our national rugby team’s peripheral vision, variable depth vision, depth perception, dynamic visual acuity, visual concentration, eye tracking, visual memory, visual reaction time, focus flexibility, depth perception, and scanning skills, has made her an asset to the squad.

Dr Sherylle Calder is a pioneer in visual awareness and is currently contracted to SA Rugby to help our boys catch and pass the ball. She was educated at the University of the Free State and the University of Cape Town where her doctorate thesis and subsequent studies focused on the visual concepts of elite sport (did we mention she earned 50 caps as a Springbok hockey player?), especially the role that visual skills using specific training programmes had in measuring improved on field performance. Sherylle also worked for the Acuvue Sports Vision Centre, Sports Science Institute of South Africa in Cape Town.

Sherylle has worked with the English rugby and Australian cricket teams victorious in the respective 2003 World Cups, and she made “visionaries” of the English cricket team that demolished Australia in the latest Ashes series. The good doctor has also worked with the All Blacks, the Italian team for the prestigious America’s Cup, and the South African cricket team. Rumour has it she is also wanted by the who’s who of golf, hockey, motor-racing, soccer, and squash.

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