Quiet Eye: Practical Applications in Sport and Physical Education

Abstract

Visual behaviors are often overlooked in sport performance training. The literature suggests that training visual behaviors, such as the quiet eye, can result in better performance across a wide variety of motor skills. The purpose of this article is to provide specific recommendations to physical education teachers and coaches for including quiet-eye training in their practices. Studies have shown that longer quiet-eye durations are associated with improved sport performance, but the location of the quiet eye varies from sport to sport. Studies also indicate that experts, novices and children benefited from quiet-eye training, and the effects of the training applied to experimental, competitive and heightened-anxiety situations involving many sports and skills. It is recommended that physical education teachers and coaches include quiet-eye training for the acquisition and improvement of motor skills.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jacob Digmann

Jacob Digmann is a graduate student; Zachary Prouty, Ashley Klein, Wesley Castro, and Alex Lang are undergraduate students; Fabio Fontana ([email protected]) is an associate professor; and Mick Mack is a full professor, in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, IA.