Improve Your Game: Become a Better Football Player with Vision Training

Watching football has become the ubiquitous American pastime. Whether you’re enjoying Friday Night Lights in the fall or dialed in to the NFL Red Zone throughout the professional season, it’s a sport that people across the country love watching. It’s also one of the most popular sports to pursue as a young athlete. In fact, it’s estimated that over one million teens across the country play high school football. But even though it is so popular, football is a complex and competitive sport. It requires athletes to be not only physically capable but also mentally prepared. This goes for vision, too, which is why athletes at any stage, from beginner to professional, might want to consider football vision training.

Football is unique from other sports in that there are so many different positions, and there are many different skills players need to be good at. Some need to focus on passing, while others need to improve their catching. Still others need to be good at tackling. And, there’s always the kicker to think about, too. Not all players need the same skillset, but they all do need one thing in common: good vision.

Why Better Vision for Football Players Is Important

Eyesight is so important for football players because it not only makes the player more competitive by being able to know what is going on across a very large field,  but it also helps in the prevention of injuries. Good vision on the football field can be the difference between sustaining a game-changing tackle and dodging it. A player can improve their vision skills by doing eye exercises, but different exercises help their eyes in different ways.

As stated before, different positions require different skills, including vision skills. Vision training for athletes, and in fact, vision training for football players, is going to look a little different from your standard vision training exercises. Luckily, there are many football vision training drills that can help athletes of any age improve their football vision naturally. Let’s take a look at the different skills that are needed across different positions and what you can do to improve them.

Depth Perception

Depth perception is the ability to judge the location of an object in relation to its distance from other objects. For a football player, depth perception is crucial because it helps them to determine where a ball is going to land after it is thrown, or where they need to throw it themselves. To improve depth perception, a player can try bouncing small balls (like ping pong balls) into cups spread out at different distances over the floor. This may seem extremely simple, but it really works. Plus, it’s a fun game that you can turn into a competition between teammates!

Another exercise you can try to improve depth perception is the penny drop. You’ll need a partner for this exercise, so grab a teammate to get started!

To begin, your partner stands a couple of feet in front of you and holds a penny between their index finger and thumb. They hold it out in front of them over a cup that has been placed on the floor. They move their hand randomly over the cup, sometimes slowly and other times quickly. Your job is to tell them when to drop the penny so that it lands in the cup. This tests your depth perception by assessing where the cup is in relation to the penny.

By adding either of these exercises to your pre-practice routine, you’ll improve your ability to both catch and throw accurately. Your natural vision improvement will, in turn, improve your game.

Tracking

Improving tracking is one of the best things you can do in relation to vision training in sports. No matter what you play, tracking allows a player to follow the movements of both the ball and other players. An effective football player knows where the ball is at all times in relation to himself and other players. By using football vision training to improve this specific skill, a player can vastly improve their game.

An exercise you can do to make your tracking better is to sit in a dark room and have a friend shine a flashlight on the wall. Have your friend move the flashlight beam across the wall in different patterns. You should keep your head still and follow the beam of light only with your eyes. A laser pointer would work for this exercise as well, but be careful not to look directly into the light or laser beam.

This exercise will vastly improve your in-game scanning habits, helping both your eyes and your body to perform better under pressure. It’s an easy way to improve awareness while you’re out on the field and to improve results for you and your team.

Hand-Eye Coordination

Another skill that is important for any sport, but especially football, is hand-eye coordination. This skill is what allows you to match your body’s movements to what you are seeing.

To improve your hand-eye coordination, you may want to switch sports for a minute and pick up a tennis racket or a ping pong paddle. Hold the racquet perpendicular to the floor and work on bouncing the ball about 12 inches up into the air. Your goal is to increase the number of times you can bounce the ball that high without letting it hit the floor.

This exercise is great for both hand-eye coordination and reaction time. And, since it’s so fun, it’s a great form of vision training for kids.

Peripheral Awareness

Perhaps one of the most important vision skills a football player needs is peripheral vision. Peripheral awareness is the ability to see action that is not in your direct line of sight. This is what allows players to see opponents coming at them from the sides. Having good peripheral vision can be the difference between getting tackled (and maybe injured) or not.

It is easier to avoid tackles or lessen the blow of a tackle if you can prepare your body for the blow. Peripheral awareness is key to seeing a tackle coming your way. If you’re a parent worried about your child’s body as a football player, improving peripheral awareness should be the most important form of vision training for young athletes you pursue.

To increase your level of peripheral awareness, try the exercise Two Ball Juggle. It will require that you (or your child) know how to juggle first! The object of the exercise is to look straight ahead at a wall while juggling the two balls back and forth between your hands. You will have to use your peripheral vision (and your hand-eye coordination!) to prevent yourself from dropping the balls.

Other Ways To Improve Football Vision

The best thing about football vision training is that it works. NFL vision training has been proven to be very successful. In fact, former Arizona Cardinal Larry Fitzgerald largely credits his football success to getting vision training from his grandfather (who was an optometrist) as a child.

One way you definitely do not want to go about trying to improve your vision as an athlete is through any sort of surgery. LASIK for athletes just has too many horror stories. This is largely due to the risk of LASIK complications that anyone who goes under the knife must face.

Beyond these eye exercises, the best thing you can do to improve your vision naturally is to think about your diet. There are several specific vitamins and minerals you should be eating to help strengthen your eyes. There are essential herbs, vitamins, and minerals for healthy eyesight. Eye vitamins for athletes are much the same as eye vitamins for the general population. If you feel like you can’t get enough of these vitamins and minerals in your natural diet, consider adding a supplement made specifically for the eyes, like our Ocu-Plus Formula.

By adding any of these exercises to your football practice routine, you’ll substantially strengthen your eyes in a way that will make you a better football player. And, you’ll also enjoy better vision for the rest of your life.