Stereopsis in Sports: Visual Skills and Visuomotor Integration Models in Professional and Non-Professional Athletes

Valentina Presta, Costanza Vitale, Luca Ambrosini and Giuliana Gobbi
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Valentina Presta: Department of Medicine & Surgery (DiMeC), University of Parma, 43126 Parma, Italy
Costanza Vitale: TSRM-PSTRP National Federation, 43126 Parma, Italy
Luca Ambrosini: Department of Medicine & Surgery (DiMeC), University of Parma, 43126 Parma, Italy
Giuliana Gobbi: Department of Medicine & Surgery (DiMeC), University of Parma, 43126 Parma, Italy

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 21, 1-10

Abstract: Visual skills in sport are considered relevant variables of athletic performance. However, data on the specific contribution of stereopsis—as the ability to perceive depth—in sport performance are still scarce and scattered in the literature. The aim of this review is therefore to take stock of the effects of stereopsis on the athletic performance, also looking at the training tools to improve visual abilities and potential differences in the visuomotor integration processes of professional and non-professional athletes. Dynamic stereopsis is mainly involved in catching or interceptive actions of ball sports, whereas strategic sports use different visual skills (peripheral and spatial vision) due to the sport-specific requirements. As expected, professional athletes show better visual skills as compared to non-professionals. However, both non-professional and professional athletes should train their visual skills by using sensory stations and light boards systems. Non-professional athletes use the visual inputs as the main method for programming motor gestures. In contrast, professional athletes integrate visual information with sport expertise, thus, they encode the match (or the athletic performance) through a more complex visuomotor integration system. Although studies on visual skills and stereopsis in sports still appear to be in their early stages, they show a large potential for both scientific knowledge and technical development.

Keywords: depth perception; sport vision; sport expertise; athletic performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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