Stroboscopic Vision Training in Softball

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

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.

Study Overview

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Conditions: Sports Performance; Vision, Ocular
• Intervention / Treatment: Device: Senaptec Strobe Glasses; Other: Standard softball drills

Detailed 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.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 34
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Texas
    • Lubbock, Texas, United States, 79430
      • Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 14 years to 18 years (Child, Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

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

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Stroboscopic Training Group; Treatment group, which will receive stroboscopic training during hitting and fielding drills. The glasses look like sunglasses but have liquid crystal technology that causes a flicker from clear to opaque. The glasses flickering will be controlled on the side of the glasses by the researcher. When the athlete can complete a skill proficiently by catching or hitting during training the level of flickering will be increased to challenge the visual system more.	Device: Senaptec Strobe Glasses; The glasses use liquid crystal technology that causes a flicker from clear to opaque to enhance vision.
Active Comparator: Standard softball drills; Control group, which will perform normal hitting and fielding drills without stroboscopic training	Other: Standard softball drills; Control group, which will perform normal hitting and fielding drills without stroboscopic training

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
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 Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Developmental eye movement	Developmental eye movement will measure how fast the subject can track numbers vertically and horizontally.	8 weeks
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
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
Acuity	Acuity will measure the clarity of vision at a distance of twenty feet.	8 weeks
Stereo Scores	Stereo Scores will measure how quickly the athlete recognizes depth perception	8 weeks
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
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

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): April 1, 2021
• Primary Completion (Estimated): October 29, 2024
• Study Completion (Estimated): December 29, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 12, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 12, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): March 16, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): February 13, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 9, 2024
• Last Verified: February 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Stroboscopic; Vision Training; Softball; On-field performance
• Other Study ID Numbers: L20-095

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No