Visual Skills for Lacrosse

In the last installment we covered methods of making vision clearer, today Optometrist Dr. Robert Buonfiglio discusses with ILGear the types of visual skills that are needed to excel in lacrosse.

By Robert A. Buonfiglio, O.D.

Eye-Hand Coordination

You’ll notice I didn’t say Hand-Eye Coordination, because this skill really starts with the eyes. Your eyes send images to your brain, which decodes those images, and then sends the signals to your muscles to make the play. As you make the play, the system continues to monitor the action, and can make corrections.

Eye-Foot and Eye-Body Coordination

Similar to eye-hand, except that we are talking about moving the feet, or the entire body. The signal for a goalie to get into the proper position to make a save is an example of Eye-Hand, Eye-Foot, and Eye-Body coordination used together. If you’ve ever played the video game Dance Dance Revolution, you’ve been doing eye-foot training.

Eye Movement Skills

There are six muscles attached to each eye produce eye movments. These muscles are connected by nerves to the brain, which coordinates the movements. There are different types of eye movements, and we can measure their speed and accuracy. We can also improve them with training.

Speed of Recognition

This is the ability to identify a target in the shortest possible time. In lacrosse, it could be an opponent moving towards you, and you have to recognize who it is, and whether he or she is carrying the ball, or it could be the ability to recognize a small opening where you can place a shot on net.

Peripheral Awareness

This is perhaps one of the most important skills in all of sports, and lax is no exception. It is the ability to be looking directly at something while still being able to see everything else around you. During a stressful game situation, it’s been shown that many players will develop a form of “tunnel vision” in which they lose attention of everything that’s around them. It can keep you from being blindsided by a body check, and can enable you to see a teammate off to the side who might be in a better position to take a shot than you are.

In the next series of articles, I will take each of these skills, discuss them in greater depth, and describe ways that we can improve them.

Dr. Robert Buonfiglio is an optometrist in the Boston area, working, along with optician and coach Gary Kalloch, in the area of Sports Vision Training – testing and improving the visual skills of athletes, with the goal of improving on-field performance. He can be reached at or The website for Eye on Performance is