OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Recently, I have incorporated Visual Perception Training into my Coaching Program using Vima Strobe Glasses. Here is the link to an article with video about the training process.
https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Table-Tennis/Features/2019/March/15/Visual-Perception-Training-for-Table-Tennis-Athletes

Coach McAfee

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Coach McAfee
Denver, CO, USA
Re-Impact Custom Blade
Joola Badman OX
Joola Ultra Express 2.0

Very interesting.as an optician table tennis player in Scotland I find this fascinating.i will have a closer look and perhaps ask some questions if that’s ok?Interestingly it tends to be psychologists who get more involved in vision training as opposed to optometrists/opticians/ophthalmologists.
Where did this idea come from originally?By all means send me a PM if you would rather not discuss publicly.
Look forward to hearing from you.
GRAEME

Visual training has been a normal element for high level training for a long time. However, this technology is somewhat new. Many sports have been using strobe glasses and you can find a lot of videos on youtube showing their use. If you do a quick "google" you can find a number of published studies on the science involved.

_________________
Coach McAfee
Denver, CO, USA
Re-Impact Custom Blade
Joola Badman OX
Joola Ultra Express 2.0

Yes vision training has been used for some time as a branch of sports psychology. Not much used in the mainstream sports in the UK with only cricket and rugby being strong advocates of the method. A number of soccer teams have done some research but have never really adapted it for their first teams preferring to experiment with the youth teams. I will have a look at the academic papers and will certainly consider trying this for some of our top players. Like a lot of sports psychology results vary considerably from person to person often depending upon how much the athlete "buys into" the training.
Would be interesting to hear from others who have embrace such training?

Is there any work done to determine whether this technique trains the nervous system to respond faster, improves prediction ability, or perhaps a bit of both?

Or is it purely psychologigal, e.g. to make the player focus better?

Thank you, Coach! For me, this is the most useful thread that I've seen in a long time. Will be monitoring with keen interest!

The concept is that by depriving the brain of some of the input it visually receives, the brain is forced to learn how to process the available information more efficiently and make decisions quicker to achieve the goal of the athlete. If you do a google search you can find some research studies that have been done. Time will tell how effective the technology is but in my limited testing so far, the results appear promising. I am conducting a 10-day High Performance Camp in India in May and plan to use the strobe glasses on a daily basis during the camp. Having a larger study group should help in conducting some more meaningful testing. This piece of equipment is not something that I would suggest for use for recreational players but I believe it will have value to athletes that are in a serious training program. I certainly am not presenting myself here as an expert in how the brain functions. However, visual training is a well-accepted part of athlete training and this tool seems to have some good practical applications. As a professional coach, I am always looking for new ideas and training methods to bring to my students. One pair of glasses can be used by a number of students as they only need to be worn for a short time to be effective.

Coach McAfee

_________________
Coach McAfee
Denver, CO, USA
Re-Impact Custom Blade
Joola Badman OX
Joola Ultra Express 2.0

chrome://dino

The best exercizer to enhance your eye-hand coordination. The target mark is 600 point.
I only reached to 400, so far.

Be happy.

Hello Coach McAfee, Any news to report on your use of the Vima Strobe Glasses?