Hand-Eye Coordination: Increases Success in Sports and More

by Lahne Mattas

Photo: YouthSCORETraining

Have you ever wondered what makes exceptional athletes exceptional? Many great athletes also have good genetics – their size, their speed and their ability to play the game are just part of their genetic makeup. Still, when you get to the professional level where those good genetics abound, what makes one athlete stand out from the rest? Mastering any game happens on two levels: the physical and the mental.

When superstar wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, Jr of the Arizona Cardinals seemingly grabs any ball out of the air, it’s not just his physical attributes, such as height, at work. Starting at the age of seven, Fitzgerald worked on a variety of distraction drills. His grandfather, an optometrist in Chicago, helped him with visual eye training drills to increase his hand-eye coordination. “I did a lot of drills such as catching balls with one hand, one-eye covered and merging pennies,” said Fitzgerald.

Just what is hand-eye coordination? It’s the ability of the vision system to gather the information received through the eyes to control, guide and direct the hands in the accomplishment of a task. That could be anything from picking up a book from the table, building a Lego castle, or Fitzgerald’s case, make a game-winning catch. Hand-eye coordination is a core strength of good athletes. Many studies even show that spending time on these activities improves a child’s ability to read and write. Anything from puzzles and matching games to Legos and playing catch will ultimately help your child do better in school and in sports.

What are some exercises that can help your child be a star athlete and a star scholar?
According to Robert Rousseau at Bodynomics.com, the following exercises can improve hand eye coordination:

• Connect Four – while this game doesn’t give you a physical workout, it does help guide visual planning and organization – giving your eyes a total workout.
• Focus near and far – choose one object far away and another close to you, go back and forth focusing on each object over and over. This is another exercise to give your eyes a workout.
• 2-person catch – grab a friend and get a large light-colored whiffle ball or softball, write letters all over it with black marker. As each of you is about to catch the ball, call out the last letter you see.
• 1-person catch – there’s something to be said for playing alone – grab a ball, any ball, and repeatedly throw it in the air and catch it. This also improves your hand-eye coordination.
• Video games – before you yell at your child for how much time they spend on the xBox or Playstation, remember the visual perception and motor skills training they are receiving is invaluable.

Overall, hand-eye coordination is one skill that can help set your child apart from the rest of the crowd. The key is to start early and to keep exercising. The benefits go beyond sports and into the classroom.

To hear Larry Fitzgerald discuss his drills, check out the Sideline Pass interview with Larry and Dr. Condoleezza Rice: Interview