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THE ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF VISUAL SKILLS IN FOOTBALL PERFORMANCE BY JOAS R RAMAJA (Student Number: 200520907) DISSERTATION Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree MAGISTER PHILOSOPHIAE in OPTOMETRY in the FACULTY OF HEALTH SCIENCES at the UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG SUPERVISOR: PROF J.T. FERREIRA 2014 1 DECLARATION I declare that The Role and Importance of Visual Skills in Football Performance is my own work and that all the sources that I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references and that this work has not been submitted before for any other degree at any other institution. Student________________________________________________________ Signature______________________________________________________ 2 AKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1. My wife Phildah, for assistance with data 2. My nephew Ishmael (Tala), an engineer, for his help with measurements 3. Professor Ferreira with his undying love for sports vision 4. The football academies for availing their players for measurements 5. The people at the sports vision academy for their availability whenever needed 6. Mr M.V. Netshidzivhani, the statistician, for christening me into statistics 3 ABSTRACT In football, vision is one of the key performance indicators and ingredients of success (Buys, 2002) and it is not uncommon to find a player underperforming in the field of play due to poor vision. Football is the world’s most popular sport, with the Football World Cup finals attracting record estimations of world-wide television audiences in the billions (Clark, 2007). In this sport, players must perform motor skills and control their posture during their game, while using visual information to collaborate with other team members or to oppose the opponent (Paillard & Noe’, 2006). Visual attention plays an important role in football, where players must monitor the activities and positions of multiple players simultaneously (Memmert, Simons & Grimme, 2009). As pointed out by Coopoo, Moss, Fortuin, Freese and Cameron (2012), visual capabilities and skills cannot be assumed as natural attributes but must be tested and subjected to training according to need. In this study quantitative and descriptive research is conducted to assess the visual skills of football players. Inferential statistics are done on the collected data to explain the performance of the players: A battery of twelve (12) vision related procedures were performed on each of sixty three (63) football players from two academies in Gauteng Province. The procedures are divided into ‘hardware’ and ‘software’ visual skills (Ferreira, 2002). Using the existing protocols, a comparison with existing norms is made (Buys, 2002; Buys & Ferreira, 2008). In the present study a majority of the athletes performed better in the ‘hardware’ visual skills like static visual acuity, colour discrimination, stereopsis and fusion flexibility. The athletes did not fare better in other ‘hardware’ skills like contrast sensitivity and focus flexibility. Very few of the athletes were able to score ‘above average’ and better in the ‘software’ visual skills. According to Abernethy (1986), visual performance in sport is the interaction between the ‘hardware’ and ‘software’ visual systems, and it is the ‘software’ visual system that distinguishes experts from non-experts (Ferreira, 2002; Ludeke & Ferreira, 2003; Venter & Ferreira, 2004). The ‘hardware’ of the visual system can set the potential limit to visual performance 4 in sport but once deficiencies have been addressed, it is the ‘software’ skills that will separate experts from novices (Ferreira, 2003). The ability of the sport to divide families, communities and nations along support lines tells us that there is more importance attached to the game of football than we are willing to acknowledge. Attention must therefore be paid to the performance indicators (sports vision, etc.), which have on many occasions influenced the outcomes of games. The SPSS statistical package was used to test for any statistical significance in the correlations test between player age, player position on the field of play, and player years of experience against the players’ visual skills. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER 1 Introduction 15 1.1 History of football 15 1.2 Politics and economics of football 17 1.3 The research problem and the purpose of the present study 19 1.3.1 The research problem 19 1.3.2 The purpose of the study 19 CHAPTER 2 The role of football and the importance of vision 2.1 The role of football in the community 21 2.2 The role and importance of vision in football 22 CHAPTER 3 Literature Review 3.1 Overview of literature 25 3.2 The hardware and software visual systems 29 3.2.1 The hardware visual system 29 3.2.1.1 General ocular health 29 3.2.1.2 Static visual acuity 30 3.2.1.3 Dynamic visual acuity 30 6 3.2.1.4 Stereopsis 31 3.2.1.5 Accommodation 32 3.2.1.6 Fusion flexibility 32 3.2.1.7 Colour vision 33 3.2.1.8 Contrast sensitivity 33 3.2.1.9 Ocular motility 34 3.2.2 Software visual system 34 3.2.2.1 Central peripheral awareness 34 3.2.2.2 Eye-hand coordination 35 3.2.2.3 Eye-body coordination 35 3.2.2.4 Visual reaction time 36 3.2.2.5 Visual adjustability 36 3.2.2.6 Visual concentration 37 3.2.2.7 Visualization 37 3.2.3 Dominance 38 CHAPTER 4 Methodology 4.1 Study population 40 4.2 Methods and testing procedures 40 4.2.1 Sports vision questionnaire 41 4.2.2 Static visual acuity 41 7 4.2.3 Contrast sensitivity 44 4.2.4 Colour discrimination 45 4.2.5 Stereopsis 46 4.2.6 Focus flexibility (Accommodation) 47 4.2.7 Fusion flexibility (Binocularity) 48 4.2.8 Central peripheral awareness 49 4.2.9 Eye-hand coordination 51 4.2.10 Eye-body coordination 52 4.2.11 Visual reaction time 53 4.2.12 Visual adjustability 54 4.2.13 Visualization 55 4.2.14 Dominance 56 4.3 Sampling, data collection and statistical analysis 57 4.3.1 Data collection 58 4.3.2 Data capture 58 4.3.3 Data analysis 58 4.4 Ethics and ethical considerations 60 CHAPTER 5 Results 5.1 Player profile 62 5.1.1 Player age 62 8 5.1.2 Years of experience at present level 63 5.1.3 Positions on the field of play 64 5.2 Sports vision questionnaire 65 5.3 Norms and study percentages 65 5.3.1 Static visual acuity 65 5.3.2 Contrast sensitivity 67 5.3.3 Colour discrimination 69 5.3.4 Stereopsis 70 5.3.5 Accommodation 71 5.3.6 Fusion flexibility 73 5.3.7 Central peripheral awareness 74 5.3.8 Eye-hand coordination 75 5.3.9 Eye-body coordination 77 5.3.10 Visual reaction time 78 5.3.11 Visual adjustability 80 5.3.12 Visualization 82 5.3.13 Dominance 84 5.4 Cross-tabulations and correlations 85 5.4.1 Player age vs hardware visual skills 86 5.4.1.1a Player age vs VA distance (OD) 86 5.4.1.1b Player age vs VA distance (OS) 87 5.4.1.1c Player age vs VA distance (OU) 88 9 5.4.1.2a Player age vs contrast sensitivity A (1.5) 89 5.4.1.2b Player age vs contrast sensitivity B (3) 90 5.4.1.2c Player age vs contrast sensitivity C (6) 91 5.4.1.2d Player age vs contrast sensitivity D (12) 91 5.4.1.2e Player age vs contrast sensitivity E (13) 92 5.4.1.3 Player age vs colour discrimination 93 5.4.1.4 Player age vs stereopsis 94 5.4.1.5 Player age vs accommodation 95 5.4.1.6 Player age vs fusion flexibility 95 5.4.2 Player age vs software visual skills 96 5.4.2.1 Player age vs central peripheral awareness 97 5.4.2.2 Player age vs eye-hand coordination 97 5.4.2.3 Player age vs eye-body coordination 98 5.4.2.4a Player age vs visual reaction time (Right hand) 99 5.4.2.4b Player age vs visual reaction time (Left hand) 100 5.4.2.5a Player age vs visual adjustability (Base up) 100 5.4.2.5b Player age vs visual adjustability (Base down) 101 5.4.2.5c Player age vs visual adjustability (Base left) 102 5.4.2.5d Player age vs visual adjustability (Base right) 103 5.4.2.6 Player age vs visualization 103 5.4.3 Player position vs hardware visual skills 105 5.4.3.1a Player position vs visual acuity distance (OD) 105 10 5.4.3.1b Player position vs visual acuity distance (OS) 106 5.4.3.1c Player position vs visual acuity distance (OU) 106 5.4.3.2a Player position vs contrast sensitivity A (1.5) 107 5.4.3.2b Player position vs contrast sensitivity B (3) 108 5.4.3.2c Player position vs contrast sensitivity C (6) 109 5.4.3.2d Player position vs contrast sensitivity D (12) 110 5.4.3.2e Player position vs contrast sensitivity E (13) 111 5.4.3.3 Player position vs colour discrimination 111 5.4.3.4 Player position vs stereopsis 112 5.4.3.5 Player position vs accommodation 113 5.4.3.6 Player position vs fusion flexibility 114 5.4.4 Player position vs software visual skills 115 5.4.4.1 Player position vs central peripheral awareness 115 5.4.4.2 Player position vs eye-hand coordination 116 5.4.4.3 Player position vs eye-body coordination 116 5.4.4.4a Player position vs visual