Stroboscopic Visual Training: a Pilot Study with Three Elite Youth Football Goalkeepers

Stroboscopic visual training (SVT) is a recent tool aimed at improving visual and perceptual performance by having .individuals perform activities under conditions of intermittent vision. Research has shown it to improve skills such as visual memory (Appelbaum et al. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics 74 1681–1691, 2012), anticipation (Smith and Mitroff International Journal of Exercise Sciences 5 344–353, 2012), and dynamic acuity (Holliday All Graduate Plan B and Other Reports 262, 2013), whilst the anecdotal evidence for its benefits is even greater (Athletic Republic NFL Players SEE SPORT BETTER with the Nike SPARQ Vapor Strobe [video file], 2011). The present pilot study is novel in SVT research in its inclusion of qualitative data collection methods and its use of participants. Three elite, youth football goalkeepers (EG) took part in a 7-week SVT programme, and their performance on 10 measures of visual and perceptual skills was compared with three matched control participants (CG). Individual, semi-structured interviews were also conducted with the EG participants prior to the post-test. In general, there were no differences in the changes from pre-test to post-test and retention test between EG and CG participants in 9 of the 10 measures. EG participants did, however, show consistent improvements in visual response time at post-test and retention test, whilst the CG participants did not. Thematic analysis of the interview data identified three themes: (1) the belief that SVT improved visual and perceptual skills, notably “reactions”, “judgement”, and “focus”, (2) the belief that SVT improved on-field goalkeeping performance, and (3) that SVT was both effortful and enjoyable. The present study provides preliminary work with implications for coaching in football goalkeeping and should be expanded with future studies that utilise larger samples and measures of motor/sporting performance.