Clean Run Magazine - September 2007 - 44

ILLUSTRATION © CLEAN RUN Help for the Spatially Inept By Roxanne Hawn The first time I attempted a front cross I did a blind cross instead. It took me several tries before I could see the difference. Learning to work my dog from both sides also posed a challenge. And, frankly, reading course maps makes my head hurt. My name is Roxanne, and I am spatially inept. Agility requires more than a good memory and cardio fitness. It also demands excellent vision skills and brain connections to process the spatial input your eyes provide. If you cannot truly see the course, if you consistently mess up crosses, if you feel befuddled by maps, it may be your eyes and brain that fail you, not your body. The good news is that you can train and improve your spatial cognition. Windows to the World:Your Eyes “Your eyes lead your body,” says Sue Lowe, a doctor of optometry and fellow of the College of Optometrists in Vision Development, who specializes in vision training for athletes. “Vision is learned, like walking and talking. It’s an integrated process. You see and say, see and move, see and hear.” When it comes to sports, she adds, “Vision is performance.” Yet, most of us think only about seeing clearly. Lowe explains, “20/20 was developed in 1853, and that’s just where it belongs. What we’re talking about in sports performance is being able to evaluate yourself in space. Sometimes it’s not just a simple pair of glasses. Many times it requires vision enhancement, which retrains your brain to tell your eyes how to look.” Lowe says vision problems go undetected because we compensate. She once worked with a professional golfer, notorious for taking the longest to evaluate putts. It turns out the golfer had lateral distance problems, so she did wacky things with her arms to help her brain see whether the ball was left or right of the hole. In agility, maybe you close one eye while finding your line during walk-throughs because your eyes don’t work well together. 44 Maybe you slow down to avoid crashing into obstacles because of poor peripheral vision. Vision enhancement isn’t merely strengthening the eye muscles, however. Lowe says, “Your eye muscles are the fastest, thinnest, and strongest muscles in your entire body.” Instead, it’s more like learning to speak after a brain injury or stroke. The process usually includes a series of weekly, hour-long rehabilitation sessions and 20-30 minutes of daily homework. Most eye-brain training is done on your feet, while in motion, not sitting in a chair like a typical eye exam. Standing versus sitting makes a difference. Running versus walking makes a difference because input gets lost in translation from slow to fast. Even the distance from an object matters. For example, a jump makes sense at 20' but not at 4'. As you run toward it, something about its angle catches you off-guard. Brain training, like weightlifting, requires gradual increases in difficulty. At first, Lowe might have a client rock on a wobble board and touch flashing lights while wearing five-prism glasses. By the end of training, the same client rocks the wobble board to Clean Run | September 07

Clean Run Magazine - September 2007

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run Magazine - September 2007