Sports Vision & Basketball (continued)

A couple of days ago I was fortunate to evaluate an excellent basketball player. 
She is a 9th grader and has been chosen to play on a high school varsity team.  Her reason for the evaluation was because of blurred vision - more at distance than near.  She has some potential thyroid problems that are also being evaluated.  Other than that, she has excellent health and does well in school.

The evaluation indicated she did not have near or far sightedness or astigmatism.  She did not need glasses.  Her eyes were very healthy - no signs of diseases such as cataracts or glaucoma. 

I checked her various visual skills and discovered her eyes did not work as a team regularly.  Sometimes one or the other eye would drift outward.  Other times both eyes would team together well.  When an eye would drift, her sight would decrease as her brain tried to compensate for the problem.  Her sight was good when both eyes teamed together.

She has a binocular dysfunction in which her brain has difficulty in coordinating her eyes (technically called strabismus).  I have started her on a vision therapy program.  Her success should be very good with this.

As her visual skills improve she will notice her basketball ability going to even greater heights. 

--Dr. James Mayer