Stroboscopic Vision Training in Softball

Sports Performance Clinical Trial

Official title:

Effect of Stroboscopic Vision Training in a Softball Season: A Randomized Controlled Trial Pilot Study

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Active, not recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT04309188
• Other study ID #: L20-095
• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: April 1, 2021
• Est. completion date: December 29, 2024

Study information

• Verified date: February 2024
• Source: Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Enhanced sports performance, in our current world, is being pushed at the professional level and down to school-age children as well. Money is being spent on lessons and equipment to enhance performance. One new method to enhance performance is stroboscopic vision goggles. The glasses lenses flicker removing visual information for a brief moment. The claim is that they train connections between the eyes, brain, and body. We want to see if this product truly does enhance visual performance during a softball season for high school girls.

Description:

In today's sports world, every strategy to perform at the highest level is needed. Current literature is demonstrating enhanced sports performance using stroboscopic vision training.1,2,5 The objective of this randomized controlled trial is to measure the effect of a stroboscopic visual training in a high school softball season in comparison to controls. Athletes in the control group will go through normal practice drills for hitting and fielding. The stroboscopic training (experimental group) will use the strobe glasses during hitting and fielding drills two times a week in practice. The brand of strobe glasses is Senaptec Strobe. Athletes in both the experimental and control groups will have their vision assessed at the beginning of the season and end by The West Texas Vision Center. Measurements for vision will include developmental eye movement, vergence ranges, Randot stereopsis test, accommodative ranges, acuity, and stereo scores. On-field performance measurements will be collected for batting statistics including on-base percentage, batting average, slugging percentage, and hard-hit ball percentage in both the experimental and control groups. The current year batting statistics will be compared with the prior year statistics if enough at-bats occurred. In addition, to the vision and on-field hitting performance proprioception balance using the Balance Error Scoring System (BESS) will be measured at the beginning of the season and end for both groups. Our data will provide quantified information for coaches, athletes, and health care providers concerning the benefits of the strobe glasses warrant buying to enhance sports performance. Additionally, we wish to determine whether visual-motor and proprioception balance changes occur after the training.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Enrollment: 34
• Est. completion date: December 29, 2024
• Est. primary completion date: October 29, 2024
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: Female
• Age group: 14 Years to 18 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• 1) Age 14-18 years 2) females; 3) high school softball

Exclusion Criteria:

• 1) Prior use of stroboscopic vision training; 2) History of seizures; 3) History of vestibular impairments

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Sports Performance
• Vision, Ocular

Intervention

Device:
• Senaptec Strobe Glasses
The glasses use liquid crystal technology that causes a flicker from clear to opaque to enhance vision.

Other:
• Standard softball drills
Control group, which will perform normal hitting and fielding drills without stroboscopic training

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center	Lubbock	Texas

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

References & Publications (6)

Appelbaum LG, Cain MS, Schroeder JE, Darling EF, Mitroff SR. Stroboscopic visual training improves information encoding in short-term memory. Atten Percept Psychophys. 2012 Nov;74(8):1681-91. doi: 10.3758/s13414-012-0344-6. — View Citation

Ballester R, Huertas F, Uji M, Bennett SJ. Stroboscopic vision and sustained attention during coincidence-anticipation. Sci Rep. 2017 Dec 20;7(1):17898. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-18092-5. — View Citation

Grooms DR, Chaudhari A, Page SJ, Nichols-Larsen DS, Onate JA. Visual-Motor Control of Drop Landing After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction. J Athl Train. 2018 May;53(5):486-496. doi: 10.4085/1062-6050-178-16. Epub 2018 May 11. — View Citation

Hays JB, Korba BE. DNA from recombinogenic lambda bacteriophages generated by arl mutant of Escherichia coli is cleaved by single-strand-specific endonuclease S1. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1979 Dec;76(12):6066-70. doi: 10.1073/pnas.76.12.6066. — View Citation

Mitroff SR, Friesen P, Bennett D, Yoo H, Reichow AW. Enhancing ice hockey: Skills through stroboscopic visual training: A Pilot Study. Athl Train Sports Health Care. 2013;5(6):261-264

Wilkins L, Nelson C, Tweddle S. Stroboscopic visual training: A pilot study with three elite youth football goalkeepers. J Cogn Enhanc. 2018;2:3-11.

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Vergence ranges	Vergence ranges measured how many prism diopters the subject can turn their eyes in (base out) and how far they can relax them out (base in). This score is also a good measure of how much peripheral fusion a person has.	8 weeks
Secondary	Developmental eye movement	Developmental eye movement will measure how fast the subject can track numbers vertically and horizontally.	8 weeks
Secondary	Randot stereopsis test	Randot stereopsis test will measures how many ARC seconds of stereo the subject has. This test measures the subject's magno and parvocellular stereo tracking their peripheral or central fusion.	8 weeks
Secondary	Accommodative ranges	Accommodative ranges will measure how many times the subject can clear an image looking through a plus and minus accommodation flipper in thirty seconds.	8 weeks
Secondary	Acuity	Acuity will measure the clarity of vision at a distance of twenty feet.	8 weeks
Secondary	Stereo Scores	Stereo Scores will measure how quickly the athlete recognizes depth perception	8 weeks
Secondary	Batting statistics	Batting statistics including on-base percentage, batting average, slugging percentage, hard-hit ball percentage will be provided by the coach at the end of the season for the current year and prior year. Subjects will need a minimum of 20 at-bats in a season for collection of these statistics.	8 weeks
Secondary	Balance Error Scoring System (BESS)	Balance Error Scoring System (BESS) measures the total number of postural errors committed in a 30-second trial standing on flat surface and foam pad. It provides a measure of balance and proprioceptive ability.	8 weeks