Visual acuity in young elite motorsport athletes: A preliminary report
Received 11 November 2009; received in revised form 6 January 2010; accepted 13 January 2010. published online 08 February 2010.
Abstract
Objectives
To determine whether elite motorsport athletes demonstrate superior levels of Visual Acuity than age and sex-matched controls.
Design
A cross-sectional observational study.
Setting
A University vision and balance laboratory.
Participants
Young male motorsport athletes from the New Zealand Elite Motorsport Academy and healthy age and sex-matched controls.
Main outcome measures
Vision performance tests comprising; Static Visual Acuity (SVA), Dynamic Visual Acuity (DVA), Gaze Stabilization Test (GST), and the Perception Time Test (PTT).
Results
Motorsport athletes demonstrated superior visual acuity compared to age and sex-matched controls for all measures, and while this was not statistically significant for SVA, GST and DVA, it reached statistical significance for the PTT (p≤0.05).
Conclusions
This preliminary investigation into the visual ability of motorsport athletes demonstrated that they may have superior visual performance when compared to controls. Increased visual acuity and perception time may not only act to increase performance, but may also reduce the risk of potential injury. This study highlights the need for further research into the area of visual performance, particularly in motorsport and other high-speed sports, where such skills might be integral to performance and injury reduction.
ABSTRACT