Visual Fitness Plays Key Role In Today’s Training Programs players for the Cleveland Indians (NAPSA)—Nearly 2 million peo- ple in the United States will undergo and Milwaukee Brewers. Athletes participating in the VFI laser vision correction or LASIK surgery this year. While most peo- program will undergo tests to assess ing to set aside their cumbersome eyeglasses or hard-to-handle con- visual memory, kinetic acuity, nearto-far focusing and trackingability. Based on the results of the tests, their visual skills, depth perception, ple will turn to this procedure hop- tacts, some people, like athletes, are each athlete is put through an looking to LASIK as a way to improve their sports performance. “Athletes dedicate a lot of time to their nutrition and physical training, but they frequently over- look the way in which poor vision might actually be holding them back competitively,” says ophthalmologist Barry L. Seiller, MD, a specialist in LASIK surgery and Director of the Visual Fitness Institute (VFI). Dr. Seiller points to some impor- tant advances in LASIK surgery that are making the procedure increas- ingly popular and also safer than it has ever been before. “We recently installed the new LADARVision excimer laser, the first and only laser eye surgery system that uses laser radar tracking, originally developed for NASA, which actually locks on to the eye and guides the precise placement of a small laser beam,” Dr. Seiller explains. A person’s eyes are always in intense visual training program designed to improve and sharpen Improving athletes’ visual acuity is a key component of improving overall performance. tem measures eye movements at 4,000 per second, which is much faster than the older lasers that use video trackers. According to Dr. Seiller, using this type of tracking system, along with a smaller laser beam, offers a much better outcome for patients. Accordingto Dr. Seiller, there’s said. “I am confident that visual training will become an integral com- ponentof all athletic training programsin the near future.” The Visual Fitness Institute has recently released a CD for anyone such as depth perception, contrast the sametests used on professional ity to see clear and far. Otherfactors, sensitivity and hand-to-eye coordi- nation, also are very important. “Visual skills can be trained or enhanced,” Dr. Seiller explains. “At the Visual Fitness Institute, we have special programs that can other problems. This newlaser sys- as well as student athletes from Georgia Tech and minor league interfere with the proper placement of the laser beam, possibly resulting in halos, night glare, or are often blamed for near misses and playing the angles poorly,” Seiller looking to improve their sports performance. The CD, namedtheVizual ment during the procedure can and just a slight or subtle eye move- are credited with the ability to “see the field,” while poor visual skills more to good vision than just the abil- help athletes improvethese skills.” Through VFI, Dr. Seiller has worked with many professional and amateur athletes, including motion, even during LASIK surgery, visual skills. “The very best athletes are said to have a great field of vision and members of the U.S. Luge, Bob- sled, Ski and Snowboard teams, Edge Performance Trainer”, features athletes, while providing the con- venience of training at home. The new CD is available through the Vizual Edge Web site at www. vizualedge.com. The site also features an interactive demo of one of the exercises for a sneak peak at this innovative training program. For more information about the Visual Fitness Institute, visit www.visualfitness.com or call 847816-3131. To learn more about LADARVision visit www.ladar vIston.com.
