Vision is the signal that starts the muscles of the body to respond. All sports involving a puck, ball or quick body movements require excellent eye-mind-body coordination. When you miss a pass or whiff on a shot, what could be happening? It’s not necessarily “bad hands” but inaccurate visual input to your body. To help develop eye-mind-body coordination, try this Arrow Jump activity.
- Draw a series of arrows as shown.
- Standing, move your arms in the direction of the first arrow and call out that direction.
- Then move your fixation to the next arrow on the right. Again, move your hands in the direction of the arrow and call out that direction.
- Continue through the entire sheet.
To add difficulty, repeat the activity above, but also jump in the direction of the arrow instead of moving your arms. For arrows pointing up, jump forward. For arrows pointing down, jump backwards. To add more challenge:
- Use a metronome (a musical tool that helps keep the beat and rhythm) and move your arms or jump to the beat. You can get a metronome at a music store or look online for free downloads of metronomes.
- Change the direction you read the arrows. Instead of left to right, read top to bottom.
- Act in the opposite direction of the arrow. For example, say/move/jump right for a left arrow while saying “left.”
- Do the activity on a mini-trampoline.
Editor’s Note: Thank you to optometrist Dr. Lynn Hellerstein, O.D., FCOVD, FAAO, for this excerpt from her latest book: See It. Say It. Do It! 50 Tips to Improve Your Sports Performance. Dr. Hellerstein has been a pioneer in vision therapy for more than 30 years. http://www.LynnHellerstein.com