Gaze stability in the elite athlete: A normative observational study.

BACKGROUND The ability to clearly perceive an object while the head is in motion is important in athletics, as it relates to performance and potentially to injury prevention. Normative data for healthy adults on measures of gaze stability have been established. However, data for elite athletes is scarce. OBJECTIVE To describe performance of elite athletes on computerized gaze stability testing and establish normative data for reference. METHODS Data were acquired via retrospective chart review. 134 male professional baseball players completed computerized Visual Acuity, Visual Perception Time Test and Gaze Stability Tests as part of a multi-modal baseline testing session. RESULTS Performance of all athletes was superior to general population norms reported in the literature. There were no significant differences between the optimal and suboptimal consistency groups or between English-speaking and non- or limited-English speaking players. CONCLUSIONS Similar to prior studies with smaller samples that have examined GST in athletes, we found high levels of GST performance in professional baseball players relative to normative data for the general population. Normative data for elite athletes was established using this healthy sample. This study underscores the importance of understanding the unique abilities of elite athletes when providing therapy after injury.