UK Sport

Calder opens eyes to sports' vision

Wilkinson one to benefit from Calder
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Matthew Crawcour 18 November 2004

Dr Sherylle Calder, often quoted as one of the key factors in England's World Cup Rugby success, today outlined the difference that visual skills can make, to some of British sport's leading coaches.

Calder's work is based on the premise that nothing happens in sport until the eye tells the body what to do. All of which makes the eye one of the key muscles in sport, yet probably the one that receives the least training. Some of the world's most successful sporting teams have been the ones that have been quick both to spot this imbalance and engage the use of an expert like Calder, who, in addition to Woodward's World Cup winners, has worked with the All Blacks and the Australian and Pakistani cricket teams.

"We know that margins of performance are becoming ever more critical in elite sport and UK Sport's role is ensure that best practice is shared in support of our leading sportsmen and women. People like Sherylle can bring an added dimension to even our most successful teams and individuals and can them find the small percentage performance improvements that can keep them at the forefront of their sport", said Mike Whittingham, UK Sport's Performance Manager.

The sportsmen and women with the best visual skills are typified by those whose reactions are both quick and, more often than not, successful, and by players who appear to have time to play shots or make a pass. They are also the ones who appear to read a game well and are usually in the right place at the right time. At the other end of the spectrum, players with poor balance, timing and slow reactions are often those with below par visual skills.

Typically, Calder's work focuses on development and maintenance of visual skills, which results demonstrate can be trained in as little as 4 or 5 weeks, as opposed to looking at eyesight issues, which are ultimately a subject for correction. The training work starts by ensuring that what an athlete 'sees' is accurate and then increases the eye muscles' endurance, with either computerised or training ground exercises. She will then work on making the brain's interpretation and response quicker, before finally examining eye-hand coordination.

This is one of a number of new exciting partnerships that UK Sport is forging, as it plans ahead for Beijing 2008. Sherylle Calder will be working closely with other sports in the British system over the coming months on a more specific basis.

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