Effect of a sport vision training programme on the batting performance and predictive judgment of high school level cricketers

Abstract: Vision plays a crucial role in sport as it is the primary source of external information and provides 85 – 90% of the sensory input during athletic performance (Vickers, 2007; Kluka & Knudson, 1997). The study aimed to investigate the effect of sports vision training on the batting performance and predictive judgement on high school cricket players. The sample included male, high school level cricketers ranging in ages 13 – 18 (14.8 ± 1.2) with at least two years playing experience in cricket. Three high schools were invited to participate in the study. The participants were non-randomly assigned to two groups, 15 participants to a sports vision training group (n=15) and 15 participants to a regular practice group (n=15). Each group was assessed according to the tasks of visual skills, fitness, batting performance, predictive judgement and fitness. The visual skills testing included eye hand coordination, central peripheral awareness and visual response. The fitness assessment was a multistage fitness test. The batting performance test assessed the quality of interception and the predictive judgment assessed the ability to judge the length bowled. The results showed that the intervention group showed significant improvement within the visual skills, batting performance and judgment test conducted (p 0.05). Although there were improvements in certain parameters tested, a larger sample may produce better results