Training your gaze could help you master sports – and your own attention

3 days ago

Professional sports performance isn't solely determined by physical attributes; cognitive skills like the 'quiet eye' technique play a crucial role.
Joan Vickers discovered the 'quiet eye'—a prolonged, focused gaze elite athletes use before performing an action, which significantly enhances performance.
The quiet eye technique involves fixating on a target for at least 100 milliseconds, improving accuracy and motor response in sports like basketball, soccer, and hockey.
Training the quiet eye has been shown to improve performance in various sports, such as increasing volleyball players' passing accuracy by 7% and basketball players' free-throw accuracy from 54% to 76%.
The benefits of quiet eye training extend beyond sports, aiding surgical residents in high-stress scenarios and potentially helping children with ADHD focus better.
Matthew Robison is researching how quiet eye training can improve general attention control, offering a potential solution to modern distractions and shrinking attention spans.
Mastering attention through techniques like the quiet eye can enhance happiness and well-being by giving individuals greater control over their focus and lives.

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