Getting the most out of athletes isn’t an easy road: discoveries made in biomechanics and nutrition help with development and getting the most out of the body, but are you training athlete’s minds? And are you training the mind and the body together? With sports vision training, you can round out and improve overall human performance, starting from the top down.
There are a number of key vision skills that need to be developed fully for athletes to reach their full potential. We’ve compiled the following list of 10 key vision skills to improve performance and reach new heights:
I never make New Year’s resolutions. Though when 2021 started, I knew I needed to make one change, I vowed to not log onto Strava at all during the year. Like other physical activity trackers, Strava connects humans from around the world through their movement journeys. Strava provides all the details of the activity from the mileage, elevation gain, and even digital maps to allow others to chase the top spot on leaderboards. In the age of GPS (Global Positioning System) watches, one can synchronize their watches to their phone to upload all their fitness data from their watch directly to Strava. In seconds, one can know all the objective details from their run.
In an effort to learn more about the training philosophies of some of the best trail and mountain runners in the world, I thought I would investigate just how much elevation gain said athletes run during an average week. Even though my intention was to use Strava as a tool, the more time I spent on Strava, the more toxic the application became for my wellbeing. I started comparing myself to my competitors. I felt a desire to look at Strava daily even though seeing everyone else’s activities further decreased my confidence in myself. I realized I did not run as much elevation, mileage, or even run on the trails as much during the week as my competitors, which made me question my coach and training philosophy.
The irony was that in 2020 I was the fittest I have ever been. I was spending more time on the trails than ever before and yet my confidence was nonexistent. Through reflection, I believe my newfound obsession with checking and comparing myself on Strava is what caused my confidence to absolutely plummet. I had no reason in the past to question or compare myself but now I was more focused on everyone else’s journey instead of being present for mine.
For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be a professional runner and qualify for the Olympics. I viewed professional athletes’ lifestyles as the quintessential life on repeat: running, eating, running some more, and sleeping; I mean how could one not want to solely focus on the sport they loved? Since I began my post-collegiate running journey, I have always been juggling chaos. From teaching a philosophy of human movement class, helping coach a collegiate cross country and track team, working on my doctorate, sometimes working at a café, and running; life is busy. In the past, my friends and family have asked if I should consider solely focusing on running. Logically, if I had more time to recover, sleep, and reduce the stress in my life, my running might improve. I seriously considered moving back to my hometown in Colorado because living with the Rocky Mountains as my playground would allow me to truly focus on running. I would find a part-time job and run. However, as many people experienced, the COVID-19 pandemic provided the time for reflection to determine what was meaningful in my life.
The pandemic forced many aspects of society to shut down, which meant collegiate sports were not happening and the café I worked at closed temporarily. Due to the situation, I was finally living the professional athlete life I had always envisioned. From March through August of 2020 I was focused solely on running. I was just running, eating, and sleeping on repeat. Initially, I was excited for the extra time to focus on myself and improve some of the areas of my training that are neglected due to the normal chaos of life. My stress was nonexistent, and I was consistently sleeping more than I ever had, even taking naps during the day, which were benefitting my training. I drove to the local mountain weekly and sought out soft surfaces daily, which I was unable to do pre-COVID-19 due to time constraints. I used to solely run from my apartment for easy runs and workouts. I was only able to drive to soft surfaces on the weekends when I had more time.
Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from the story titled, Vision Quest, one of 56 short stories in the new book Let the Wonder Never Cease by educator and outdoor enthusiast, Michael Kinziger.
…“There does come a time when doubt and uncertainty enters the mind. What was I expecting? Whatever it was didn’t materialize. Feeling disappointed, I lay down on my sleeping pad, eyes still wide open and just listened and laid there. It was almost daylight when I suddenly sat bolt upright and it hit me… my vision. It was simple and profound. What I was looking for was what I already had… a good job, loving daughters, a comfortable home, great friends and so much more. That revelation was intense right to my core. Tears streaked down my face. I wanted to scream and tell the world how fortunate I was to live the life that I was living. Most of all, I wanted to be in the company of my daughters and tell them about my experience.
Slightly after daylight, I packed up but before I broke camp, I hiked to the base of a steep rock face and discovered a small pool of water. I bent over to view my reflection and at that moment, I reached into my day pack and pulled out my Swiss Army Knife. With the scissors, I cut off my beard, and with the knife, I hacked off as much as possible of the remaining stubble. I had at that moment removed a beard that I had carried with me for 27 years, ever since I returned from my overseas military assignment during the Vietnam conflict. So many powerful messages encased my mind during that twelve-hour stretch of time.
Research is clear, students with physical disabilities are excluded from physical education (Jespersen & McNamee, 2009; Martin, 2018). Thus, the purpose of this article is threefold: 1) to share a story of the best possibilities of attitudes and resources for students with physical disabilities, 2) to highlight the reality of what is happening in the schools, and 3) to provide a possible solution of perspective-taking for physical educators.
The Best Possible World
Let us start with a story. My name is Dr. Aubrey Shaw and when I was six months old my family and I were in a horrible car accident in Wyoming. From the collision with a double semi-truck, our car was smashed from both sides. Thankfully, no one lost their life that day, but I was surely close to losing mine. I was rushed to the hospital where they found a two-inch tear in my left temporal lobe. I was then airlifted to Denver Children’s Hospital where I underwent brain surgery and two months of a very long recovery. The doctors told my parents I would never walk or talk and was later diagnosed with semi-hemi paralysis due to a traumatic brain injury. After two months in the hospital, my family brought me home to be in a loving environment and daily intense therapy. I beat the doctors’ diagnoses. Moreover, when I turned five years old I was walking and talking and ready to go to preschool. I then began a nineteen-year journey with special services, therapy, and special education. My parents had the attitude and resources to help me be successful.
The fall 2021 Annual Western Society for Kinesiology & Wellness (WSKW) conference will be held October 6th-8th, in Oakland, California. The theme is “Power Up, Leading Through the Challenges.”
It is well documented that now more than ever, getting outside for exercise and fresh air has become critical for the health and well-being of all our students (Louv, 2007; SHAPE AMERICA, 2014; Steffen & Stiehl, 2010; Taylor & Kuo, 2009). This is especially the case for students who may experience varying emotional difficulties like anxiety and depression; or those who have been identified as having other challenges like attention disorders or other barriers to learning. The purpose of our paper is to offer an option for physical education and classroom teachers to provide an outside activity opportunity for students who have been identified as having Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The activity itself involves using an application called PuzzleWalk that can be accessed on a smartphone or other device (Lee, Frey, Min, Cothran, Bellini, Han, & Shih, 2020). Being teachers ourselves, we do not simply look at providing Developmental Adapted Physical Education (DAPE) (Kelly, 2019) opportunities for our students as merely a necessary formality. We also view fully inclusive access to opportunities for a fulfilling, active lifestyle as a social justice issue for all our students. Equal opportunities being provided to all our students is key. We are well aware of the negative effects that technology overload is having on all our students and teachers (Mustafaoglu, Zirek, Yasaci, & Ozdincler, 2018), especially during the past year. So, we are also not coming from the standpoint of simply promoting technology use. Rather, we are embracing the notion that students who have been identified as having ASD tend to respond well to interactive technologies including human/computer interaction.
Screenshot from App Advice (https://appadvice.com/app/puzzlewalk/1450986746)
Additional aspects of our rationale are that using mobile technology as a physical activity intervention for students with ASD is their attraction to technology use due to its predictability and relatively low social requirements compared to traditional face-to-face social interactions (Kuo, Orsmond, Coster, & Cohn, 2014). Also, it is known that students with ASD possess particular strengths in visuospatial learning such as block design and image-based problem solving; this is why they are visual learners. A mobile application like PuzzleWalk allows students with ASD to be self-directed learners in their communities.
Screenshot from App Advice (https://appadvice.com/app/puzzlewalk/1450986746)
Beyond working with students with ASD, recent research in various professional fields has shown that, depending on the game type and purpose, certain video games can lead to positive effects for participants (Franceschini, Trevisan, Ronconi, Bertoni, Colmar, Double, Facoetti &, Gori, 2017; Granic, Lobel., & Engels, 2014; Zayeni, Raynaud, & Revet, 2020; Uttal, Meadow, Tipton, Hand, Alden, Warren, & Newcombe, 2013). For example, the use of electronic and video games as a therapeutic intervention has shown success in the prevention and reduction of childhood anxiety and depression (Zayeni, Raynaud, & Revet, 2020). In cognitive psychology (Keilani & Delvenne, 2020), the use of electronic and video games has been shown to help patients manage social and emotional issues as well as improve focus, multitasking, and working memory (Keilani & Delvenne, 2020). Furthermore, children with other learning disabilities, such as dyslexia, have shown improved focused visuospatial attention, phonological short-term memory and ability to interpret and blend multiple sounds, all of which can positively enhance reading skills after training with action video games (Franceschini et al., 2017).
