GUIDE 03 / 07
How Much Does Dynamic Vision Matter in Sports and Driving?
A straightforward look at research on dynamic vision in baseball, tennis, and martial arts athletes, findings of no difference among elite pros, and studies on driving and accident risk.
A batter hitting a fast pitch, a tennis player returning a ball across the court, and a driver on the road all need to see moving targets. Plenty of research links dynamic vision to this kind of performance, but being related and dynamic vision determining performance are different claims.
Athletes generally have better dynamic vision
- Baseball — College baseball players had better DVA than non-athletes, and the difference came from their ability to track a target with their eyes (Uchida et al., 2012).
- Various ball sports — A review summarizing Japanese KVA research reports that top-level athletes in basketball, volleyball, soccer, and baseball had higher KVA than lower-level athletes, and that people who had played tennis regularly for 7+ years had better KVA than those with no athletic background (Sawaki et al., 2022).
- Martial arts — Judo and karate athletes had better DVA than non-athletes of the same age, and even in groups aged 60 and older, athletes made out targets better than non-athletes under faster speed conditions (Muiños and Ballesteros, 2015).
But no difference among the very top tier
A study comparing 102 Japanese professional baseball players split into three groups — consistently on the top roster, shuttling between top and farm teams, and never on the top roster — found no significant differences between groups in static acuity, KVA, or DVA (Hoshina et al., 2013). Among players already selected at this level, this suggests factors other than dynamic vision — such as anticipation, technique, and judgment — may separate performance.
It's also hard to tell from comparison studies like these whether an athlete's good dynamic vision came naturally and helped them become a good athlete, or improved from years of playing.
Driving and dynamic vision
According to Burg's study comparing vision tests and accident records for tens of thousands of California drivers, and later reviews, dynamic vision showed a somewhat more consistent relationship with accident rates than static acuity, but its power to predict any one person's accidents was very low (Shinar and Schieber, 1991). This means vision alone can't determine driving safety.
In Japan, drivers aged 70 and older take a senior driver's course when renewing their license, and its driving aptitude test uses a dynamic vision tester. Based on the National Police Agency's standard, this device uses the KVA method — moving an optotype toward the driver at a constant speed and calculating a value from the distance at which it's identified — and the result is used for driving guidance rather than a pass/fail judgment.
Using this test for sports or driving
- A screen test differs from a real ball or road in brightness, distance, and depth perception. A high score doesn't mean good athletic performance or driving ability.
- What's useful is change under the same conditions. Use it to see how your score shifts when your condition drops — from fatigue, lack of sleep, or after drinking.
- If you have trouble seeing things clearly while driving, especially at night, get an eye exam first, regardless of your test score.