Vision clinic keeps eye on student-athletes

By Zoe Del Rosario

Student-athletes at the University of the Incarnate Word have been getting help maximizing their visual skills nearly five years through a special clinic on campus run by the optometry school.

UIW’s Sports and Vision Enhancement Service makes UIW currently the only NCAA Division I school in the nation with its own sports vision clinic on its main campus, owned and operated by its own optometrists.

Rosenberg School of Optometry operates the services for student-athletes in space on the first floor at Ann Barshop Natatorium.

The clinic is equipped with innovative vision training instruments such as light boards and strobe glasses. With the help of student interns from the optometry school, faculty members work with each student-athlete on visual skills to help improve their performance and prevent injuries in their respective sports.

Dr. Allison Cronin, a clinical assistant professor and chief of the Sports and Vision Enhancement Service, said their training skills include depth perception, reaction times, coordination skills, contrast, and eye movements.

Athletes learn to “track their targets better, be more spatially aware, and more peripherally aware whenever they are playing their sport,” said Cronin.

The service operates Monday through Friday, mainly receiving student-athletes on a walk-in basis. Group training sessions are also available to schedule for UIW teams.

According to the UIW Athletics Department website, the service begins with an assessment to determine a baseline of the student-athlete’s visual skills. If the student-athlete is found to have a visual disorder, they are then referred to the optometry school for a comprehensive eye exam to treat the underlying condition.

Even though the frequency of training sessions varies depending on the request of the student-athlete’s coach, the staff recommends athletes complete 30 to 60 minutes a week for maximum results.

Each student-athlete receives a training sheet specific to his or her sport and position to ensure the clinic’s staff addresses the student-athlete’s individual needs.

“It’s been really outstanding and really remarkable to see how [the athletes] have seen themselves improve,” Cronin said, “They can look at their training sheets, and even just from day one to day 30, they can feel and see a difference.”

Staff members have also contacted coaches over the years to look at their data to identify how players are performing. Cronin said the data collected suggests players undergoing

sports vision training have improved on the court or field.

Since the clinic opened, the staff has worked with almost every NCAA Division I team at UIW and with many summer youth camp attendees.

Although the clinic serves student-athletes at UIW, they are not the only ones on campus who can benefit from the service.

“This is something only for UIW, so it’s not open to the public, but really anyone that’s working at or going to school at UIW has the ability to come in to check it out and try it out,”

Cronin said.

Before the clinic opened, Cronin visited the U.S. Air Force Academy Human Performance Lab alongside a colleague to study their human performance program. UIW’s clinic is modeled after the Air Force lab.

“Sports vision training or vision enhancement training is something that has gained a lot of momentum over the past several years,” said Cronin. “The University of the Incarnate Word

wanted to keep up with that speed.”

Read story at UIW's student newspaper, the Logos.