Alan W. Reichow

Enhancing Ice Hockey Skills Through Stroboscopic Visual Training: A Pilot Study

Recent research has suggested that a new sport training tool may enhance vision, attention, and response timing. The tool, stroboscopic eyewear, includes lenses that alternate between transparent and opaque states to produce stroboscopic visual conditions. Previous research has demonstrated that stroboscopic training can improve visual abilities, but can stroboscopic training aff ect sport performance directly? The current pilot study explored this question by assessing athletic skill in professional ice hockey players. Participants trained either with stroboscopic eyewear (strobe group) or with no eyewear (control group). The strobe group averaged an 18% improvement in on-ice skill performance from pretraining to posttraining, whereas the control group’s performance did not improve. The current results demonstrate improvement in the athletic skill of professional athletes with training that added one new component—wearing stroboscopic eyewear—to their normal routines. [Athletic Training & Sports Health Care. 2013;5(x):xxx-xxx.]