About the use of visual training of elite Belgian junio tennis players: Visual training was introduced at our national training centre in 1988. In 1990, research conducted at the University of Louvain showed that the effect of visual training was rather dubious and that specific visual skillsare acquired only by sport specific situational training: i.e. visual skills improve in line with the standard of play. We therefore started tennis-specific research in Belgium, and an analysis of international research results. Visual skills are learned in three steps: 1. Learn to analyse the opponent`s movements by anticipating ball trajectories and velocities. This must be done by providing the typical visual information the player will need to analyse the different strokes. 2. Accelerate anticipation by analysing the opponent`s movements faster. Learn to anticipate the point of contact. Learn to read the ball trajectory in fast strokes with fewer rapid eye movements that are faster than the speed of the ball. 3. Reduce anticipation time under time pressure. Improve assessment of the ball trajectory before the point of contact. Learn to anticipate on the basis of positioning on the court and knowledge of the opponent. The study population was divided into four groups. Group A received visual training in the lab only. Group B received sport-specific visual information only. Group C received visual training in the lab and sport-specific visual information. Group D served as a control group, which received no visual training in the lab and no sport-specific visual information. No significant differences were observed between the groups. The coaches, before the results were known, were fairly positive about visual training. Visual skills acquired before the age of 12 were stored in the brain, while players starting visual training at the age of 12 or over have to practise visual training throughout their tennis career. In my view, this is not easy to achieve. Some players were able to avoid wearing glasses, but only if they practised on a regular basis which again, is not easily realisable. Despite these results, visual training was continued for some years, until the point where we discovered - after a period of no visual training in the lab - that the visual skills of our players had nevertheless improved. Today, we only provide sport-specific visual training incorporated in tennis training. In my view, this is an area too often neglected by coaches.
© Copyright 2000 All rights reserved.