EYE ON THE BALL VISION CAN MAKE THE DIFFERENCE FOR ATHLETES - AND IT CAN BE IMPROVED WITH THE RIGHT THERAPY.

Byline: Mariko Thompson Staff Writer

FOR ELITE athletes, mastery of the game is not only physical but visual.

Lakers star Shaquille O'Neal makes a no-look pass to a cutting teammate. Tennis great Andre Agassi catches the ball on the rise and blisters opponents with his ground strokes. Home run king Barry Bonds pinpoints where a pitch will be before it reaches the plate.

Eye experts say vision is just as integral to sports as speed, strength and technique. In basketball, the no-look pass requires peripheral vision. In tennis and baseball, players anticipate the ball by tracking and reacting to its movement.

``You need both physical abilities and visual abilities to perform at a peak level,'' said Donald Getz, a Van Nuys optometrist and former chairman of the American Optometric Association sports vision section. ``By the time athletes are 31 years old, they're considered too old. What goes is not the legs so much as the ability to keep their eye on the ball.''

When it comes to vision, athletes tend to start with an advantage. A 1996 UCLA study found that professional baseball players have exceptional eyesight compared to the general population. Researchers looked at major and minor league players for the Los Angeles Dodgers and found that 77 percent had 20/15 vision or better. Normal visual acuity is 20/20. Fifty-eight percent had superior depth perception, compared to 18 percent in the general population.

Whether a person plays sports competitively or for recreation, their visual skills can be sharpened through specific exercises, Getz said.

Matt Hirsh, 18, who just finished his freshman year at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, pitches for the college baseball team. In high school, between his junior and senior years, the Burbank native did sports vision therapy to improve his hitting.

In Hirsh's case, his eyes didn't work as a team, which interfered with his ability to track the ball. In addition to office visits, Hirsh also had homework. For one exercise, his father would hold a string of beads and call out a color. Hirsh would have to find and focus on that bead.

``It boosted my (batting) average,'' Hirsh said. ``From junior to senior year, it went up 100 points.''

Norman Camp, 63, of La Crescenta went through general vision therapy to help him read. Camp suffered a heart attack six years ago and found he had difficulty processing words on the page. The vision therapy improved his reading and also had an unexpected side benefit - he knocked 10 shots off his golf score.

``My golf game has really improved,'' he said. ``I'm able to hit the ball straight and long. I also play tennis, and I can see the ball coming to me a lot better.''

Athletes looking to enhance their visual skills first undergo an evaluation by an optometrist. Exercises are tailored to the player's needs and the sport's demands. A hockey player needs good peripheral vision and quick reaction time. A tennis player needs to be able to track the ball by moving his eyes and not his head.

Vision therapy doesn't strengthen the eye muscles. The exercises quicken the brain's response time to the information sent by the eyes, said Elise Brisco, an optometrist at the Hollywood Vision Center.

``The eyes guide the hands,'' said Brisco, who has worked with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, the Los Angeles Galaxy and the Long Beach Ice Dogs. ``An athlete will shift body weight and make adjustments according to the input from the visual system. It's like the speed and coordination of any other muscle group in the body. There's no voodoo to it.''

Inconsistent performance can be one sign a player needs to get his eyes checked. For a football player, that might mean dropped passes. For a tennis player, that might mean missing serves by the same distance. Play becomes erratic because the body tries to compensate for the eye problem. The player's success at overcoming the problem depends on how energized or fatigued he feels on that particular day, Getz said.

``You can learn to compensate, but no amount of practice will get you to your potential,'' Getz said. ``When baseball players go into a slump, one of the first things that should be checked is their vision.''

Exercise your eyes

The following eye exercises can improve athletic performance.

Dynamic visual acuity: The ability to see an object while the player and/or the object is moving. Cut letters of different sizes out of a magazine and place them on a stereo turntable. Standing at about arm's length, try to identify the letters at 33, 45 and 78 rpm. As it gets easier, use smaller letters.

Visual concentration: The ability to screen out distractions and stay focused on the ball or the target. Practice your sport while a friend stands nearby, waving his arms and moving at erratic intervals.

Eye tracking: Following objects with little head motion. Balance a book on your head while following the flight of a ball or object that is thrown or hit.

Eye-hand-body coordination: How hands, feet and other muscles respond to the information gathered through your eyes. Jump up and down on a springy surface (an old mattress or a small trampoline) while someone tosses a tennis ball to you from a variety of angles.

Visual memory: Ability to remember a moving, complex picture of people and things. Page through a magazine, glancing briefly at each ad or illustration. Turn the page and try to reconstruct the images from memory. As this becomes easier, increase by five-second intervals the time that you wait before reconstructing the image.

Peripheral vision: Ability to see action to the side without having to turn your head. Watching TV with your head turned to one side and then the other. If watching a game live, turn your head to one side and see if you can still follow the action.

Visual reaction time: The speed with which your brain interprets and reacts to your opponent's action. Stand with your back to a friend. Have that person toss a ball and yell ``now.'' Turn around, find the ball and try to catch it.

Focus flexibility: Amount of time required to change focus from an object far away to one nearby. Post a newspaper page on a wall at eye level about 15 feet away. Hold another newspaper page in your hand about 15 inches from your face, at the same height but slightly to one side, so that you can see both pages. Focus on a headline on the page on the wall and then quickly change focus to the page in your hand. Keep changing focus back and forth.

Source: American Optometric Association

CAPTION(S):

4 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) FIELD OF VISION

Athletes learn to improve their eyesight to better their game

(2) Do athletes see better than the rest of us? A 1996 UCLA study found 77 percent of pro baseball players had 20-15 vision or better - making Dodgers pitcher Darren Dreifort's job a tough one.

Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Staff Photographer

(3) In Andre Agassi's sport, the ability to track and strike a moving target requires excellent eyesight.

Plinio Lepri/Associated Press

(4) Lakers center Shaquille O'Neal has been on both the giving and receiving ends of the no-look pass, a move that requires above-average peripheral vision, doctors say.

David J. Phillip/Associated Press

Box:

Exercise your eyes (see text)