The effectiveness of different visual skills training programmes on elite cricket players

Abstract

The effectiveness of visual training interventions for athletes has been questioned over the last few years. Few studies have shown the potential for generic visual skills to improve visual performance in the sport while most interventions seem to be unsuccessful. There is a paucity of studies involving elite performers exposed to visual training programmes, which are becoming popular in the sporting domain. This study aimed to investigate the effect of visual training on visual and cricket skills compared to a control intervention. Twenty-four male county cricket players were pre- and post-tested on 14 visual and 7 cricket tasks. Participants were randomly divided into four groups and underwent a six-week visual training programme consisting of practical drills (P), online training (O), Nintendo Wii games (W), or a control intervention (C). Analysis showed all experimental groups significantly improved from pre- to post-test, whereas the C group showed no significant improvement. The three vision training methods implemented were able to improve visual and cricket skills more than being exposed only to a control intervention. This supports suggestions that visual skills can improve through training. The improvement in cricket skills observed in this study suggests that improvements in visual skills might influence ‘on-field’ improvements in performance