Are you having trouble with your jump shot? Can’t seem to make that putt anymore? Dropping the ball during a game of catch? It might be time to visit Dr. Rick Graebe FCOVD, an optometrist based in Versailles, Kentucky, who specializes in Vision Therapy to help athletes enhance their performance.
What Does Vision Have to Do With Sports?
You may be wondering how an optometrist can help with sports performance. Dr. Graebe’s expertise in Vision Therapy, a specialized form of eye training, is designed to improve critical visual skills like eye-hand coordination, peripheral vision, and depth perception. These are essential not only in the classroom but also on the playing field.
Dr. Graebe has extensive experience in sports vision, including training with Dr. Don Teig, the team optometrist for the New York Yankees and numerous NBA and Olympic athletes. With a background as a track athlete himself at Indiana University, where he trained alongside Olympic Gold Medalist Bruce Jenner, Dr. Graebe is passionate about improving sports performance through vision training.
How Vision Therapy Enhances Athletic Performance
Vision Therapy works by improving visual skills that are crucial for athletes in all sports. For sports like football, basketball, and soccer, athletes need dynamic acuity to track fast-moving objects and visual adaptation to keep their balance and spatial awareness.
For baseball and softball players, Vision Therapy focuses on eye-hand coordination. A hitter needs to rapidly switch from a soft focus on the pitcher to a hard focus on the ball as it’s pitched. Dr. Graebe’s techniques train athletes to make these quick visual adjustments for better timing and precision.
In gymnastics, cheerleading, and dancing, athletes need similar improvements in depth perception and dynamic acuity, while golfers benefit from better eye dominance awareness, as seen in PGA champion Nick Faldo’s dramatic putting improvement after working with a sports vision optometrist.
Vision Training Can Make the Difference
The goal of Vision Therapy isn’t to turn every athlete into a world champion but to ensure that their vision isn’t holding them back. Whether it’s securing a spot on a team, getting off the bench, or winning a scholarship, Dr. Graebe’s Vision Therapy can be the difference.
At Neuro-Visual Performance Institute, we help athletes of all ages and skill levels improve their visual skills, whether they are from the greater Lexington area, Frankfort, or even Somerset. Vision Therapy can make a significant impact on sports performance by focusing on these crucial skills that are often overlooked in regular sports training.
Schedule a Sports Vision Evaluation Today
If you believe that your vision may be limiting your athletic performance, it’s time to explore the benefits of Vision Therapy. Dr. Rick Graebe and the Neuro-Visual Performance Institute are ready to help athletes from across Central and Southern Kentucky enhance their performance through specialized vision training.
Call us today at 859-879-0089 to schedule your Vision Therapy consultation at our Versailles or Somerset locations.
Credit:
This blog is based on information from Dr. Rick Graebe as compiled and written by John Lynch.