Tinted Contact Lenses for Sports
Many professional and amateur athletes wear sport tint contact lenses to enhance their visual performance. The use of sport tint lenses is growing - especially baseball (football & soccer) players, golfers, runners and tennis players. CBS Evening News recently had a feature on tinted contacts for sports.
Baseball/Football/Soccer: An amber lens blocks out blue light which is called "visual noise" by vision experts while the red colors, such as a baseball's seams, are accentuated. They block high amounts of blue light to heighten contrast and visual acuity. They are particularly useful to improve contrast on grass and against blue skies. Professional baseball players Chipper Jones (Atlanta Braves) and Mark McGuire (Cardinals - retired) are big proponents of these sport lenses. Professional football players Marques Colston (Saints), Charles Tillman (Bears), Jason Hill (Broncos) and Brandon Jones (Ravens) and also very happy wearers.
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| Amber "Pupil Only" Sports Vision Tint |
Available in Full Iris tint and Pupil Only tint.
Golf: The gray-green lenses allow golfers to better differentiate distance on a golf course. They heighten contrast (mildly) while preserving color balance and reduces brightness. Professional golfer Justin Leonard has commented that with the gray-green lenses he is able to separate out every blade of grass.
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| Gray-Green Sports Vision Tint |
Runners: The Sun Tac lens reduces overall brightness while preserving 100 percent normal color recognition. These are great on bright days in order to avoid dripping sweat on sunglasses.
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| Sun Tac Sports Vision Tint |
Tennis: The Bolle Blue lens blocks blue light to heighten contrast and visual acuity. The tennis ball is much easier to see with this lens.
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| Bolle Blue "Pupil Only" Sports Vision Tint |
--James B. Mayer, OD, FCOVD
Agape Learning & Optometry Center
Thousand Oaks, CA
