Awareness of sports vision among the coaches of cricket and badminton.

Abstract

Clinical relevance: Coaches are vital in assessing the abilities of athletes to hone the appropriate skills for best results. Visual skills play an important role in player performance and can be emphasised by coaches because the players physical, mental, and visual health condition is considered an essential element for improving performance in sports.

Background: It is believed that if a coach has expertise in a particular sport in all aspects, he will be more successful in meeting the needs of the player. Several studies show that the physical and mental health of players is of great importance in their sports performance which can be achieved through the knowledge of a coach of health and expertise along with sports training.

Methodology: The study was conducted by using a self-structured questionnaire and distributed to 52 coaches along with the information sheet.

Result: The coaches had a mean age of 37.94 ± 8.76 years, with 16(30.8%) females and 36(69.2%) males. The coaches had 6.54 ± 3.25 years of experience. National-level training was more prevalent, representing 26(50%) of occurrences, followed by state-level training with 15(28.8%) of occurrences and district-level training with only 11(21.2%) of occurrences. Only 25% of the coaches had heard of the term 'visual skills' and the remaining 75% were unaware of this term. A comparison test was applied and found that there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups regarding their level of awareness. The p-value in the analysis was found to be greater than 0.05 (p > 0.05) throughout the questionnaire responses.

Conclusion: The current study concludes that there is a need for educational and awareness programs for coaches of the role of visual skills in sports and how they can enhance athlete performance and safety.