INTRODUCTION: Sports vision is a growing area of interest with increasing numbers of high performing teams dedicating time to test and train their visual system to improve competitive performance. However, the visual system consists of several components, or "visual skills," each of varying importance for sports and activities. Currently, there is no systematic way to determine which visual skills are most relevant for each sport. In a previous study, elite air rifle shooters demonstrated higher levels of accommodation than non-elite shooters, and all shooters had better visual acuity than non-athletes [1]. Yet, the study did not explain why the visual capabilities that they tested were considered crucial for shooting. This study aimed to design and use a questionnaire to identify which visual skills those involved in biathlon perceive to be important for sport`s shooting element and to test whether these identified visual skills correlate with key shooting technical components [2] and shooting performance in biathletes. METHODS: Fifty-six participants (36 athletes, 18 coaches, 2 others) completed the questionnaire, and the visual skills rated most important by athletes and coaches were selected for phase two of the study. The six visual skills identified by the athletes/coaches (Static Visual Acuity, Eye-Hand Co-ordination, Attention, Visual Reaction Time, Visual Concentration, Central Peripheral Awareness) plus two identified as potentially important by the researcher ZLW (Gaze Stability and Saccadic Eye Movements) were tested in a group of 27 biathletes. Without physical stress, athletes also undertook tests of biathlon prone shooting performance (Hitdist: the hit point`s distance from the centre of the target) and shooting technical components, including Aiming Accuracy (COGdist: the distance between the aiming point`s mean location and the target 0.6-0.0 s before triggering), Stability of Hold (R MV02: mean resultant velocity 0.2-0.0 s before triggering; Y SD: vertical standard deviation 0.6-0.0 s before triggering), Cleanness of Triggering (COG2Hit: the distance between the hit point and the aiming point`s mean location 0.6-0.0 s before triggering), and Timing of Triggering (TIRE6: an index score, from 1 to 6, based on 0.1-second time intervals from 0.6 to 0.0 seconds before triggering, where a smaller distance between the aiming point and the target is represented by a higher score). Pearson (Rp) and Spearman (Rs) correlations were used for normally and non-normally distributed variables, respectively. RESULTS: Saccadic Eye-Movements correlated with Hitdist (Rp = .54, P = .004), COGdist (Rp = -.41, P = .033), R MV02 (Rp = -.43, P = .026), Y SD (Rp = -.38, P = .048) and COG2Hit (Rs = -.47, P = .014). In the Peripheral Awareness test, errors correlated with COG2Hit (Rs = .51, P = .006) and TIRE6 (Rs = .46, P = .015). In the Concentration test, missed reactions correlated with R MV02 (Rp = .40, P = .039) and Y SD (Rp = .43, P = .024). In the Gaze Stability test, time to first fixation correlated with R MV02 (Rs = -.50, P = .011) and TIRE6 (Rs = .51, P = .008). CONCLUSIONS: Clear links exist between some visual skills and shooting performance. However, the questionnaire may not be the best method of discovering which visual skills are important to a given sport, as the coaches and athletes did not identify the most relevant skills. Future recommendations include follow-up training studies including also fatigue aspect using Saccadic Eye Movement training as a tool to enhance shooting performance in biathletes.
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