Sports Vision Training

Sports vision training at Advanced Vision Therapy Center develops visual skills used during visual input as well as visual processing in order to improve overall visual reaction speed.

Sports Vision Training for Young Athletes

Elevate Your Child’s Game with Specialized Sports Vision Training

In competitive sports, physical strength, speed, and endurance are crucial, but visual processing and reaction speed can make all the difference. Young athletes who excel have the ability to make split-second, game-changing decisions. Sports vision training is designed to give your child that extra edge, helping them rise above the competition.


Our sports vision training program at Advanced Vision Therapy Center is crafted to enhance visual skills essential for athletic performance. By improving how your child processes and reacts to visual information, we help them make faster, more accurate decisions on the field, court, or track.

Unlock Your Child’s Athletic Potential with Sports Vision Training

The exciting news is that any young athlete, regardless of their current skill level, can enhance their visual performance through sports vision training.


Often overlooked, sports vision training is a vital component of athletic performance that many athletes, coaches, and trainers miss. Why? Many are unaware that tailored vision training can significantly boost a young athlete’s visual abilities. Just as personalized training at the gym yields better results than generic workouts, individualized sports vision training with a professional coach provides superior outcomes compared to one-size-fits-all exercises.


Think of sports vision training as the equivalent of working with a personal trainer. Without the right guidance and specialized exercises, the benefits of training may not be fully realized. Our program, overseen by a residency-trained neuro-optometrist, is designed to target and improve specific visual skills that are crucial for athletic success.

Elevate Your Child's Game with Sports Vision Training

Sports vision training is designed to enhance specific visual skills crucial for athletic performance, rather than simply improving visual clarity (visual acuity). This specialized training targets the following key visual skills:

  • Binocular Vision (depth perception)

  • Eye Tracking (following moving objects smoothly)

  • Eye Focusing (adjusting focus quickly and accurately)

  • Visual Attention (both central and peripheral)

  • Visual Processing Speed (reactive agility)


At Advanced Vision Therapy Center, our sports vision experts assess visual performance tailored to the specific sport and position your child plays. This evaluation produces an Athlete Vision Profile, which highlights strengths, weaknesses, and visual performance compared to elite and professional athletes. Based on this profile, we develop a customized, sport-specific vision training program to address any visual system deficits.


Each sports vision training program is conducted one-on-one with a professional vision training coach and is overseen by Dr. Ryan C. Johnson, a residency-trained neuro-optometrist specializing in sports vision. This personalized approach ensures that your child receives the best training to enhance their athletic performance and gain a competitive edge.

Who Can Benefit From Sports Vision Training?

Sports vision training is a valuable tool for young athletes who want to enhance their performance on the field, court, or track. At Advanced Vision Therapy Center, we specialize in helping pediatric athletes improve their visual skills to gain a competitive edge.


Youth Athletes:

For children and teenagers who are serious about their sports, sports vision training can make a significant difference. This includes:

  • Middle School Athletes: Those looking to advance their skills and compete at higher levels in high school.

  • High School Athletes: Young athletes aiming to secure collegiate spots or scholarships.


Sports vision training helps these young competitors enhance their visual processing, reaction speed, and overall performance, providing them with a crucial advantage in their chosen sport.


Whether a child is involved in team sports or individual activities, improving visual skills can significantly impact their success and enjoyment in sports. Our programs are designed to address the specific visual needs of young athletes, ensuring they develop the skills necessary to excel and achieve their goals.

Which Skills are Improved with Sports Vision Training?

At Advanced Vision Therapy Center, sports vision training is designed to enhance the visual skills essential for peak athletic performance. By focusing on both visual input and processing, our training programs help young athletes develop key abilities that improve their reaction speed and overall game performance.


Key Skills Improved Through Sports Vision Training:

  • Binocular Vision: Enhances depth perception and eye coordination, crucial for activities like catching a ball or judging distances.

  • Eye Tracking: Improves the ability to follow moving objects smoothly and accurately, which is essential for activities such as tracking a fast-moving ball.

  • Eye Focusing: Strengthens the ability to switch focus between near and far objects quickly, aiding in tasks such as shifting focus from a coach's instructions to the action on the field.

  • Visual Attention: Enhances both central and peripheral visual attention, allowing athletes to stay aware of the entire playing field or court, while focusing on key targets.

  • Visual Processing Speed: Increases reactive agility, enabling athletes to process visual information rapidly and make split-second decisions with improved timing and accuracy.


How It Works:

Our sports vision training programs use specialized equipment and are guided by a professional vision training coach. Each program is customized based on the results from the Athlete Vision Assessment and the Athlete Vision Profile. This personalized approach ensures that each athlete develops the precise visual skills needed to excel in their sport.


By improving these specific visual skills, athletes can experience their game in "slow motion," allowing them to anticipate plays, react more swiftly, and make game-changing decisions with greater precision.

Accommodation (Eye Focusing)

Quick and accurate changes in eye focusing allow an athlete to maintain clear vision at all times during competition. This is especially important when changing gaze while scanning the field of play or visually tracking an object (such as a ball) that is rapidly approaching.

Depth Perception

Seeing the exact location, distance and speed of an object is critical to athletic performance. Precise depth perception is often the difference between success or failure during competition.

Reactive Agility (Visual Reaction Speed)

Seeing, and reacting to, an ever changing visual environment depends on the visual system's ability to process what is seen, the brain's ability to quickly process the visual input and ultimately initiate physical movement with accuracy and split-second timing.

Scanning and Tracking

Sports vision training improves the speed and accuracy of eye tracking abilities. Combined with activities designed to improve processing speed, athletes are able to scan, track, and react at levels that beat the competition.

Vergence (Binocular Vision)

Vergence describes the coordinated ability of the eyes to follow an object as it moves closer to further away. Training vergence skills improves an athlete's ability to accurately identify the location and speed of another player, ball, puck, or a specific target.

Visual Attention & Processing

While the quality of visual input is important, so is the athlete's ability to think about what they are seeing. Visual attention and processing allows an athlete to “see the game” and make accurate, split-second decisions.

The Advanced Vision Therapy Center Difference

The sports vision training program at Advanced Vision Therapy Center is considered a premiere Pacific Northwest sports vision training program. Our program is recognized for delivering research based sports vision training that is goal oriented and results driven. We provide a comprehensive approach to athlete vision care and visual skill development.

Athlete Vision Assessment

Every athlete undergoes an Athlete Vision Assessment. This allows our doctor to evaluate the visual skills necessary to compete at optimum levels. An Athlete Vision Assessment differs from an eye exam in that sport-specific visual skills are evaluated and compared to those of elite and professional athletes. This allows our doctor to:

  • Prescribe competition specific correction to achieve better than 20/20 visual acuity

  • Determine the precision, speed and accuracy of visual input

  • Evaluate how efficiently the visual system interprets the game

Athlete Vision Profile

The visual abilities evaluated during the Athlete Vision Assessment are analyzed and, in conjunction with the elite and professional athlete performance comparison, are used to develop the Athlete Vision Profile. The Athlete Vision Profile is a sport specific overview of the visual strengths and weaknesses in context to the position played and the desired level of competition. This Athlete Vision Profile is the foundation of our individualized sports vision training program, and allows our doctor and professional vision training coaches to tailor the program to the specific needs of the athlete.

Individualized Vision Training Program

Sports vision training makes good athletes great. The individualized sports vision training programs at Advanced Vision Therapy Center provide targeted vision performance training, with sport and position specificity, to enhance and develop elevated levels of sports performance. All athletes work one-on-one with a professional sports vision training coach to improve visual performance deficits and address areas of weakness identified in the Athlete Vision Profile. The sports vision training programs at Advanced Vision Therapy Center are unique in that they are tailored to meet each athlete at their current level of visual performance, ameliorate visual performance deficits, and elevate the athlete's level of play. All sports vision training programs are under the supervision and direction of residency trained neuro-optometrist Dr. Ryan C. Johnson, who closely monitors progress toward performance goals throughout the sports vision training program.

No Referral Necessary

If your child is an athlete, ready to gain a competitive edge and take performance to the next level – call Advanced Vision Therapy Center (208) 377-1310 to schedule a Sports Vision Assessment.