Differences in dynamic visual acuity between athletes and nonathletes.

We surveyed the dynamic visual acuity of 53 university athletes and 46 nonathlete university students, using a Landolt C ring as a target. The target moved from left to right on screen initially at the maximum angular velocity of 300 degrees/sec. and then gradually decreased in velocity until the subject recognized the direction of the gap in the Landolt C ring. The angular velocities at which the subject correctly recognized the direction of the gap were used as the parameters of the acuity measure. When the sizes of the gap in the Landolt C ring were 42' and 28', there were no differences in the performances of the athletes and nonathletes. However, when the gap sizes were 14' and 8', athletes could recognize the gap at significantly higher velocities than the nonathletes. In this case the dynamic visual acuity of athletes was superior to that of the nonathletes.