How 5 Amazing Sports Can Improve your Hand-Eye Coordination

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, your hands can't hit what your eyes can't see.-Mohammad Ali 

Well, it’s true. Ideally speaking, there should be spontaneity shared between your eyes and hands, state-of-the-art synchronization. While not all people are equipped with angelic skill, it’s still good to possess some amount of dexterity.

So, it wouldn't hurt to sharpen your coordination, would it? If not, then we’ve got in stock for you, 5 sports that can improve your hand-eye coordination. Here they come.

Table Tennis

Table tennis is a game played by use of impulsive force; large amount of force that is produced and made to work for a small range of time. This is what makes table tennis so explosive in nature.

In a rally, players fight speed with speed. So it’s important that you always keep an eye out for the ball. Following the ball rapidly over the table flexes your extra-ocular muscles. These are the same muscles responsible for rotating your eyeballs.

There is also another muscle associated with the eye, the ciliary muscles. They frame your nature lenses and can change their curvature. Iris is basically the colorful part of your eye. At the center of the iris, there is a minute hole, known as the pupil.

The amount of light that enters your eyes is dependent upon the width of the pupil. Ciliary muscles also maintain your focus or, point of near-sight.  

 As the ball travels over the table, your focus is automatically readjusted; your hand shoots out and bats the ball. This is exactly what ciliary muscles do, readjusting.

In the beginning you’ll miss, but that’s nothing to worry about. It’s what reflexes are for. As your reflexes become more instant, your hand-eye coordination grows impulsive. So, just keep practicing folks.

Other than this, table tennis also has more health benefits.

Baseball 

While baseball is not a constant blur of motion like table tennis, it’s also a great way to achieve strong hand-eye coordination. Let’s tell you about it.

A good pitch in baseball can be pretty deceptive since there exists a diversity of throws and pitching styles. Also, as there is a significantly large pitching range- around batter’s height- through which the ball may be tossed; everything is made even more unpredictable.

So, a batter must have good focus and timing. Fastballs are dangerous while curveballs can take some mesmerizing turns. But a well-timed shot can take you all the way through.

As you strike at balls again and again, you gather an insight of the ball’s trajectory; you learn to recognize different types of throws. Your timing improves. Gradually, you get better.

Pitching is also good for coordination. Amount of spin, angle of projection, speed; all these require cooperation between ocular and manual function. If you don’t apply the proper amount of each variable; the batter might miss but so might your catcher. Wouldn’t want to be that deceptive, would you?

Basketball

Passing, stealing, dribbling, shooting; you need your hands and eyes for these aspects of basketball. And that leaves only one skill, running. So we can say that, 80% of basketball is basically hands and eyes even though running is a full-timer. Let’s see how it sums up.

Before a pass, you check if someone’s blocking. Then you select your pass-type. It could be a chest pass, bounce pass, spin-pass or, an over-the-head depending on the situation. There is diversity.

Thing is, you decide that by considering the safest trajectory, one that will not aid interceptors. Now, as simple as it might sound, figuring and executing a certain trajectory; the handiwork is complex, especially in an intense game.

But what if you are on the receiving end? It’s a case of focus and timing. As all passes are not short-distance, it requires a great deal of intuition as to where the ball would land.   

Timing is important too. If you act slow you’ll end up deflecting the ball, act too fast and you will give away your position. That’s where synchronization comes in.

Stealing is an offensive aspect of the game and therefore, very important. In case you are pondering, if looks could kill, that is a very wrong idea. In basketball, when you are not in possession of the ball, it’s your job to watch out.

But (emphasis on but) don’t even think about looking at your counterpart, just the ball. Looking at the opponent will rarely tell you what he’s going to do; looking at the ball will help you prevent a possible exchange. Eyeing the ball helps to snatch at it, a hand-eye linkage.

Dribbling, another full-timer; is at the roots of basketball. Power dribble, cross-over, between the legs, in and out, behind the back; players use all these tactics to prevent a steal.

They always try to dribble the ball away from the opposer/s, so it’s requisite to watch their movement. This requires good coordination between your hands and eyes.

Last of all but in fact the most essential; is shooting. Shots can be orthodox or unorthodox, but what’s common among all shooting systems is target and power.

Some aim at the square and others at the space inside the hoop. While some players prefer set shots, that use both hands to propel the ball; others use only one hand for scoring and the other for balance (orthodox style).

It doesn’t matter which tribe you belong to as long as you get it right and that requires some intuition between your hands and line of vision. Regular practice can help you hone it and thus improve coordination between your hands and eyes.

Archery

Archery is a really old sport. And as they say, old is gold. So let’s see what this golden sport can do for you.

Bow strings are pretty tight. The farther you stretch them, the more potential they gain; the greater distance an arrow traverses. At first, people pull it too hard or, too light. But as time grows old, they figure out exactly how much tension to pack into each arrow.

The other important thing is angle. Theoretically (and practically), if you let an arrow fly at 45 degrees with the horizontal, the arrow will travel the farthest distance possible for the particular amount of force applied.

If you have observed, projectiles are science. Adopting the correct angle, you can get things done saving a lot of strength.

Angle stress on ocular focus with bowstrings tests your arms. Like the earlier sports mentioned in this article, you can see why and how archery puts to work the coordination between your hands and eyes. So, you want to string some bows?

Pool

The idea of pool is similar to archery. You pull the cue back; take a few fake strokes and then push. Now we are going to explore the aiming system and how it helps to improve hand-eye coordination.

First, you have to consider the locus of the cue ball, its path of motion. Shot selection is based upon the cue ball’s trajectory. It could be a spin shot (English), stop shot, draw shot or, even a follow through depending on an assortment of factors.

Next is; precision. Too much brute strength could ruin a stroke better than anything.

Repeated drills will improve your maneuvering the cue and your aim. In this way, pool can help you sharpen hand-eye coordination.

Playing pool includes a lot more health benefits rather than just hand-eye coordination.

Final Words

There you have it. That’s our count on the 5 amazing sports that can improve your hand-eye coordination. It is so important that no athletes can ignore. To know about ten athletes with great hand-eye coordination, click here.  We hope the article was helpful. Thank you.

Author byline:

Tanya Walton is a sport enthusiast and blogger @sportificent.com. When she is blogging you will find her reading novels or playing with her cat, Muffin.