This article is by Grant van Velden (@gvanvelden) who is a Sports Vision and Decision Making Specialist
working out of the Centre for Human Performance Sciences at Stellenbosch University. He has worked
with Australian rugby stars James O’Connor and Quade Cooper, Springbok’s Juan de Jongh, Gio Aplon,
Elton Jantjies, Morne Steyn & Pat Lambie,, the Springbok Sevens team, the Maties Referees Academy,
Varsity Cup and Young Guns teams, Alan Zondagh’s Rugby Performance Centre (RPC), as well as
South African kicking guru’s Braam van Straaten, Louis Koen and Vlok Cilliers. He is also the technical
spokesperson for Nike Vision South Africa.
With the Super 15 heading into a crucial part of
the season, I thought that it was fitting to highlight
some of the visual skills that the players in the top
teams of the tournament would possess. This
will be the beginning of a number of articles that
highlight these visual skills.
Today’s article will look at the visual skills of
Dynamic Visual Acuity (DVA) and Visual Alignment,
two visual skills that any rugby player needs to
master in order to perform successfully at the
elite level.
Dynamic Visual Acuity, also known as kinetic
visual acuity, refers to the athlete’s clarity of vision
while the athlete is in movement or while the
athlete is tracking a moving object – in rugby
this would relate to how clearly and precisely the
player can send visual information to the brain for
interpretation so that the correct motor response
can be initiated. The more clear and precise
the visual information, the more accurate is the
information that is sent to the brain and the faster
the brain is able to process that information. So
a lock forward with good DVA will be able to give
clear and precise visual information to his brain
regarding the flight of the ball from a kick off, so
that his brain can interpret the information an
initiate the correct timing of the jump in order to
secure the ball for his team successfully. Eben
Etzebeth, one of the top lock forwards in the
world, would more than likely excel at DVA task.
This visual skill would also be particularly
beneficial for a fullback, such as Willie le Roux,
who is tasked with successfully catching aerial
bombs while under immense pressure from the
opposition.
Visual Alignment is the ability to accurately
aim the two eyes at a target, whether stationary
or moving. Most people’s eyes are slightly
misaligned, which is normal. Some athletes
with an eye condition (such as lazy eye, turned
eye, or crossed eyes) will have a more serious
eye alignment problem requiring a doctor’s
intervention. Eye alignment affects the athlete’s
perception of the position of the target, as well
as the speed and the distance of the target. As a
result, any misalignment can be responsible for
errors in aiming, timing, as well as eye-hand or
eye-foot coordination.
In addition, misalignment of the eyes can
cause the athlete to adopt a poor posture and
technique in order to compensate for the visual
problem. Morne Steyn is a prolific goal kicker and
is currently one of the leading point scoreres in
this years Super 15 – it would not surprise me to
find that Morne has a very good visual alignment.
Misalignment could be a huge hindrance if you
are a flyhalf wanting to better your goal kicking
performance for example, but you just cannot
seem to improve beyond a certain point. If your
eyes are misaligned, it could be affecting your
kicking technique so much so that you are not
consistently striking the ball correctly.
Remember, keep your body fit and your eyes
fitter!!
The next article in this series will discuss how to
train these visual skills….
Part 1
The visual
skills