2022 Annual Conference Agenda

Establishing a Sports Vision Specialty Workshop: Part 1

Fred Edmunds , OD, FAAO
Jennifer Stewart , OD

COPE Course ID: 75836-FV
Qualified Credit: 3.00 hours

This lecture/workshop will introduce providers to all aspects of starting a sports and performance vision training facility.  Attendees will learn evaluation techniques, training protocols, equipment and technology, marketing, outreach, staffing and operations.  Also covered will be advancements in contact lenses for sports and protective eyewear.  This course is focused on giving practitioners the tools to integrate sports vision into their own practices or develop a separate training facility specializing in sports and performance vision.

In order to ensure that each attendee  has an opportunity to get the most out of this workshop, registration will be limited to the first 50 registrants.

Advanced Sports Specific Workshop

These workshops are designed for those professionals who already have some knowledge of sports vision training.  The purpose of the hands-on workshops is to provide attendees with an understanding of  how vision training applies to each sport, offer examples of sports specific training, and teach them how to develop their own protocol for other sports.  Attendees will cycle through each of the four different workshops throughout the day.

In order to ensure that each attendee  has an opportunity to get the most out of these Sports Specific workshops, registration will be limited to the first 80 registrants (no more than 20 attendees within each session).

Vision, Decision, Action: Elevating Football Performance through cognitive vision training

Paul Brewer, OD
Jarrod Davies, OD, FCOVD

COPE Course ID: 75883-FV
Qualified Credit: 2.00 hour(s)

It is common for football players to work on physical strength, speed and agility, and playmaking skills, but many athletes ignore vision and visual processing.  This workshop will focus on position-specific vision training that will elevate the performance of football players and help them to achieve their maximum potential.  Throughout the workshop you will learn position-specific vision training activities and how to adapt them for different levels of ability.

Visual Training to Elevate Hockey Performance

Nathaniel Cabrera, Sports Vision Trainer/Semi-pro Hockey Goalie
Joshua Watt, OD, FCOVD

COPE Course ID: 75937-FV
Qualified Credit: 2.00 hour(s)

Hockey is a dynamic game that demands visual precision, awareness, and concentration. Where players are moving at high speeds and tracking objects in a constant state of motion. In this presentation, you will learn about the game of hockey and how visual training is critical to improving on-ice performance. For players, this could be making more accurate passes, winning more face-offs, avoiding hits, improved puck deflection abilities, improved shot accuracy, and greater hockey sense. For goalies, this means improved puck and player tracking skills, hand-eye coordination, ability to read and react to the play, increased peripheral vision to read a shooter's cues, and reduced eye fatigue in high-pressure situations, leading to higher save percentages. We will discuss ways specific visual skills transfer to hockey so you can be ready to design, train and implement a position-specific training protocol.

Giving soccer players the edge with vision and neurocognitive training

Alireza Somji, OD
Charles Shidlofsky, OD, FCOVD

COPE Course ID: 75885-FV
Qualified Credit: 2.00 hour(s)

Soccer is the most popular sport in the world, yet the role of vision and neurocognitive training to enhance performance is relatively untapped. In this workshop we will explore the visual skills required by position (goalkeeper, defense, midfield, striker) and how to apply fundamental vision and neurocognitive training techniques that you can implement to help soccer players at all levels of play

Shooting Vision

Walter Potaznick, OD, FAAO

COPE Course ID: 75832-FV
Qualified Credit: 2.00 hour(s)

 Athletes in the shooting sports are extremely conscious of the critical role of vision in their performance success. This hands-on workshop is dedicated to familiarize participants with the actual measuring,  the most appropriate “shooting vision Rx” for presbyopic patients using open sights for target handguns and rifles. We will utilize safe, unloaded, systems that simulate, very closely the procedures recommended in the presentation which will take place during the general conference.

Lunch

Establishing a Sports Vision Specialty Workshop:  Part 2

Alex Andrich, OD, FCOVD
Patti Andrich, OTR/L, COVT, CINPP
Adam Clarin, OD
Fred Edmunds , OD, FAAO
Jennifer Stewart , OD

COPE Course ID: 76442-FV
Qualified Credit: 3.00 hour(s)

Building on the concepts that were taught in the morning lecture, participants will have the opportunity to engage in hands-on sports vision training exercises aimed at optimizing functional vision skills.  Training activities will be performed in groups allowing participants to become familiar with different techniques and equipment used in sports vision training.  Attendees will learn the base concepts of dynamic vision training and methods to modify cognitive load to improve performance.

Advanced Sports Specific Workshops - Continued

See Morning Schedule for descriptions

5:00PM - 7:00PM

Welcome

Gary Esterow, Executive Director

Head and eye movements and gaze tracking in baseball batting

Nicklaus Fogt, OD, Ph.D.

COPE Course ID: 75834-FV
Qualified Credit: 1.00 hour(s)

This talk will review recent studies on eye and head tracking in baseball batters. The tracking behaviors of baseball batters will be compared to those in other sports such as cricket and baseball and opportunities for future studies that may lead to sports vision training protocols directed at gaze tracking will be discussed.

Management of Visual Symptoms from Sports Related Concussion

Graham Erickson, OD, FAAO, FCOVD

COPE Course ID: 75815-FV
Qualified Credit: 1.00 hour

An overview of sports-related concussion (SRC), often considered a sub-type of traumatic brain injury, is presented with an emphasis on the management of visual symptoms. The pathophysiology, assessment and incidence of SRC is reviewed. A summary of SRC management leads into review of treatment options for common visual sequelae, including refractive care, prism options, filter options, binasal occlusion, and neuro-visual rehabilitation.

Break

Nutrition for Vision:  Implications for Performance and Protection

James M. Stringham, Ph.D 

This course is not for COPE credit.  Sponsored by MacuHealth.

In the past decade, there has been an enormous increase in our understanding of how specific micronutrients influence visual performance and can protect the visual system (including the brain).  Far and away, the strongest effects have been found for lutein, zeaxanthin, and meso-zeaxanthin.  Speed of visual processing, contrast sensitivity, and vision in low- and bright-light conditions are all significantly improved with supplementation of these nutrients and commensurate increase of macular pigment density.  Additionally, lutein, zeaxanthin, and meso-zeaxanthin protect the retina and brain from oxidative stress and inflammation.  This lecture will cover these effects in the context of visual performance in athletic competition, and, based on the results of several recent animal model studies, the potential for protection against and recovery from traumatic brain injury will be discussed.

10:30AM - 11:00AM

Talk & Trial

We are very fortunate that we now have access to some incredible technologies that allow us to evaluate and help an athlete enhance his/her visual skills and performance in their sport. Take advantage of this opportunity to spend dedicated time with our exhibitors, learning about and gaining first-hand experience with a vast array of products, programs, and services that can help you build and enhance your sports vision practice.

11:00AM – 1:00PM

Sponsors/Exhibitors

Lunch  (Exhibit Hall will remain open)

The Pros Edge: Vision Training for Golf

Lawrence D. Lampert OD, FCOVD

COPE Course ID: 75814-FV
Qualified Credit: 1.00 hour(s)

According to the National Golf Foundation, 2020 saw the largest percentage increase in beginning golfers and the biggest gain in youth golfers coming to the game since Tiger Woods’ 1997 Masters win. And experts believe that these numbers will continue to grow. Golf is also moving beyond the typical 18-hole course, and more consumers are playing the sport at entertainment venues like TopGolf or on virtual simulators.

This presentation will give attendees a working knowledge of the visual skills needed for golf and the assessment and training of those skills.  Attendees will understand how enhancing visual skills can aid with alignment, distance judgments, reading the greens, and improving consistency, and ultimately scores, as well as learn how to be a better vision coach to the golfer based on some simple tests.

1:00PM - 2:00PM

Break

2:00 PM – 2:30 PM

Perform better, think faster, train wiser

Louisa Nicola

This course is not for COPE credit.  Sponsored by FITLIGHT

In this presentation you will learn the neuroscience behind decision making. By taking responsibility, understanding the reason a decision was made, unpacking the process, and identifying areas for targeted practice, future decisions can be improved. Insight into the decision-making process, coupled with an understanding of how each athlete approaches their options and acts, is the most effective way to help athletes improve in real-time competition.

2:30PM – 3:00PM

How Quiet Eye Training Can Alleviate the YIPS

Joan Vickers, Ph.D.

COPE Course ID: 75887-FV
Qualified Credit: 1.00 hour

One of the most devastating things that can happen to an elite athlete is the YIPS. The YIPS afflicts elite athletes in golf, gymnastics, darts, cricket, tennis and many other sports. They suffer from a loss of fine motor control, extreme anxiety, freezing and the inability to perform well known skills. Golfers can no longer execute short putts, gymnasts like Simone Biles can no longer complete rotations, tennis player can’t execute serves, baseball players can no longer throw the ball accurately. In her presentation D. Vickers will introduce the quiet eye and quiet eye training using examples from well known sports. She will then describe her recent quiet eye training experiences with an LPGA golfer who has been able to overcome the YIPS and continue competing at the highest level. Current research underlying the causes of the YIPS and how establishing a new neural network that includes the use of the quiet eye will be presented.

3:00PM – 4:00PM

Ocular Injuries and Eye Protection for Sports and Recreational Activities

Dale Pfriem
Emmanuel Alabi O.D., PhD., FAAO

COPE Course ID: 75886-FV
Qualified Credit: 1.00 hour

Mr. Pfriem, an internationally recognized expert in the field of protective equipment,  will review the various ASTM Protective Eyewear Standards,  their visual and protective requirements as appropriate for the environment of anticipated sport activity risk, and how protective eyewear is assessed against these standards.  Dr. Alabi will cover mechanisms of ocular injuries likely to be encountered by individuals who do not wear the appropriate sports protective eyewear (e.g., industrial protective eyewear or street wear) on the playing field. The presentation will follow sports related eye injuries affecting different components of the anterior and posterior segment of the eye.

Neural Correlates in Concussion Rehabilitation - “Can we be more specific?”

Joshua Lander, DC, MS, DACNB, CSCS

COPE Course ID: 75889-FV
Qualified Credit: 1.00 hour

This presentation will provide an overview of current concussion rehabilitative best practices and strategies with a perspective on neural substrate localization and focused rehabilitation.

10:00AM - 10:30AM

Topics in Shooting Vision

Walter Potaznick, OD, FAAO

COPE Course ID: 75833-FV
Qualified Credit: 1.00 hour(s)

Many of those who participate in shooting sports are aware of the role of vision and the importance of blocking out their non-sighting eye and providing the best possible focus with their sighting eye. Ultimately, the goal is to maximize visual performance—clarity, contrast, alignment, reaction time—of the competitors. This lecture, presented by an avid sports shooter, will discuss the art and science of shooting. Topics will cover types and demands based on weapon use, prescribing considerations and other issues. Emphasis will be on safety and adaptive optical devices. Practical and current issues will be discussed.

10:30AM - 11:30AM

Keeping the Athlete’s Head in the Game

Solomon Gould, OD, MBA

This course is not for COPE credit.  Sponsored by Cognivue.

We all know that 80% of our brain’s sensory information comes from the visual system and that visual impairment negatively effects cognitive function.  But it’s not only uncorrected refractive error that affects brain function; diplopia, photophobia, oculomotor disfunction, delayed reaction time and visual processing speed among other anomalies can also play a part. This presentation will review how key testing metrics as part of a global performance evaluation can positively enhance a Optometric Sports Medicine Program.

Sponsors/Exhibitors

Research review: A roadmap to build the evidence base for sports vision

Greg Appelbaum, Ph.D.
Nicklaus Fogt, OD, Ph.D.

COPE Course ID: 75835-FV
Qualified Credit: 1.00 hour(s)

In this talk we will review studies that have tested visual assessments and training programs that aim to measure and enhance sport performance.  Challenges and successes in this research will be discussed, as will opportunities for all stakeholders in sports vision to collaborate to move the field forward.

Adding a Sports Training Facility to your Practice

COPE Course ID: 76426-PM
Qualified Credit: 1.00 hour(s)

Panel Discussion

Thinking about adding a sports vision training room(s) at your practice or, perhaps, building one at a separate location?

This type of investment depends on how in-depth and advanced the services, and what services, you want to provide. There are a lot of different factors that go into the planning and building process.  During this panel discussion, practitioners who have added sports training facilities to their practices share their experiences and offer advice on things you should consider before going down this path.

3:00PM - 4:00PM

Q&A, Close Meeting

4:00PM - 4:30PM