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E-mail StoryVisual training program a helpful tool for BCHS athletes
| Tuesday, May 1 2007 11:05 PM
Last Updated: Tuesday, May 1 2007 11:11 PM
With a little help from Dr. Barry Seiller, Bakersfield Christian High is doing some heavy lifting.
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Just not like you might think.
Dr. Seiller, an ophthalmologist from Illinois, is starting a workout revolution. Not with stretching or lifting weights or taking extra batting practice, but by taking a look at improving athletes' visual ability.
The program is called Vizual Edge, and it puts athletes in front of a computer, where they work on visually responsive drills rather than working on the physical side of athletics.
The program has been used, Seiller said, by college football players Robert Meachum, Brady Quinn and Calvin Johnson, who were first-round NFL draft picks Saturday.
The emphasis is on eye-hand coordination and improving an athlete's visual ability as well as "visual confidence."
BCHS, Seiller said, is one of the first high schools in the country to work with the program. It was an idea he developed 20 years ago, and implemented first for Olympic athletes. During the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia Tech began using the system. Now high schools are starting to use it.
Former North High and Cal State Fullerton athlete Heidi Robertson, a teacher and physical fitness coach at BCHS, introduced the school to Vizual Edge.
Robertson started working at BCHS before this school year after an abdominal injury ended her bid to be on the Olympic bobsled team. She's also worked with athletes at Kentucky and Florida University.
"The first thing I did was sit down with (athletic director Doug Barnett) and (president Daniel Cole) and tell them about this program," she said.
During her time working with athletes at Kentucky, Florida University, Robertson was surprised at, not only the impact on the playing field, but the impact on reading comprehension.
"I would ask athletes who went through the program, and they all said, 'I love to read now,'" Robertson said. "To me that was an absolute light bulb, knowing that it has a purpose."
BCHS sophomore Curtis Doyle, who has been using Vizual Edge for a number of weeks, said, "it's helped me a lot, especially in baseball."
Doyle said the different practices and drills have helped him see the ball, even the seams in rotation, better.
The program, manipulated with a game controller on a computer screen, uses different visual aspects to enhance the way users see and respond.
One drill, tracking, consists of arrows that will appear pointed in a direction. The user has a limited amount of time to respond by pushing a button to indicate that direction.
Another, recognition, uses memorization skills to replicate patterns. Still another, flexibility, asks the user to wear 3D glasses and recognize the positioning of figures on the screen.
Seiller said the program is being used by the Milwaukee Brewers and Kansas City Royals, as well as the universities of Tennessee and Iowa and Vanderbilt University, and Olympic teams and athletes.
Robertson gets a front row view of how this is affecting BCHS students and athletes, and there's already enthusiasm on campus.
"Two weeks ago, I heard a student say, 'I thought this was going to be hokey,'" Robertson said, "'but this really works.'"