An overview of important vision skills for Racing

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Racing

Racing is a sport which is done at extremely high speeds, so being able to react immediately to any new visual stimuli can be the difference between winning and losing--and, in some cases, the difference between successfully continuing the drive and crashing and risking potential injury. Improving vision skills is potentially extremely valuable for a professional racer.

Core Visual Skills For Racing

While there are a number of vision skills that are important for racers, some are more crucial to performance than others.

Core vision skills for racers include:

Speed of Visual Processing: Especially in a high speed sport like racing, the ability to recognize and react to visual stimuli quickly is vital. Improving this skill enhances a driver’s reflexes, enabling faster reaction time.
Hand-eye coordination: Hand-eye coordination is an obviously important skill for driving, and it is all the more so for the high speed nature of racing. Improved hand-eye coordination will give drivers a better ability to make the necessary directional adjustment based on what they see.
Dynamic visual acuity: Dynamic visual acuity is the skill which enables a person to see, quickly process, and quickly react to moving objects while also being in motion. This is a skill which is extremely important for racers for the entirety of the race.
Depth perception and distance estimation: This skill allows one to more quickly and accurately assess the speed and distance of moving objects. It is especially important for high speed races, to both know how fast and how far away other cars are for purposes of catching and passing them, and avoiding collisions.

Secondary Visual Skills For Racing

Secondary visual skills for racers aren’t necessarily any less important than core visual skills, though they are not quite as central to what is needed for a racer to be successful.

Secondary visual skills for racers include

Enhanced Peripheral Awareness: This is the skill which enhances a driver’s ability to be aware of what is happening around him during the race while still maintaining focus on what is occurring in front of him. This is especially important to both prevent other racers from passing, and for avoiding collisions.
Eye tracking and movement precision: Eye tracking is another visual skill which enhances a driver’s ability to follow the flow of the race.
Focusing: In a high-speed race, the ability to rapidly shift focus between near and far objects is especially important, as due to the nature of racing, an opposing car which was some distance away moments ago can suddenly be right near you in a matter of moments.

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Dr. Zurcher

Originally from Arizona, Levi received his Bachelor’s of Science in Zoology from Northern Arizona University and his Doctorate in Optometry from Pacific University in Oregon. He is board certified in developmental vision and vision therapy by COVD. He purchased the practice from the Inversos in 2012. He likes spending time with his family (wife and two children,) mountain biking, and undertaking creative projects. He wrote the vision therapy software used by the clinic, retinal camera software, and the computerized eye-chart used for exams.

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