School of Optometry & Vision Science (Life Sciences), University of Bradford, United Kingdom



PhD Studentship to explore the link between vision and elite sporting performance.



Closing date: 5pm, Wednesday, 10th July, 2013   {with interviews to be held on August 1st or 2nd, 2013}



The

studentship value is set at RCUK rates, currently 13,726 UK-pounds per

annum*, for three years (subject to satisfactory progress) + University

of Bradford PhD registration fees



Following the award in 2013

of a UK Research Council (BBSRC) grant entitled "Linking Perception to

Action in Sport: Does superior visual perception explain why good

players make it look easy?" we wish to appoint a highly-motivated PhD

student to our project team. There are many factors which contribute to

elite sporting performance.   The aim of our project is to examine the

extent to which excellent vision contributes to elite sporting

performance. We will examine the link between vision and elite

performance by testing vision and ball catching performance in elite and

non-elite cricketers. We have links with the England and Wales Cricket

Board's (ECB) 'National Cricket Performance Centre' at Loughborough

University. Further details are contained in the project summary below.





The

successful applicant could have an undergraduate training in a wide

variety of disciplines including Optometry, Psychology, Sports Science,

Biomechanics, Medical Engineering, Motor Control or in another, related

discipline. Please note that a first-class, upper second-class honours

degree or Masters degree is required. There is scope for flexibility in

the direction that the PhD research could take. For example, those with

an Optometry (or another vision-related) background may choose to

concentrate on the visual processing aspects while those with an

interest or experience in movement science (e.g. Sport Science, Medical

Engineering) could concentrate more on the kinematics of ball catching

in elites versus non-elites.







Applicants should submit:



.   A covering letter outlining your interest in the proposed research and your suitability to undertake it





.   A University of Bradford MPhil/PhD application form at:



http://www.bradford.ac.uk/life-sciences/research/PhD-studentships/how-to-apply/



[Please click the "Online application" form link and then the "new user" button].







.   A curriculum vitae (2 pages max.)







.   A transcript of marks from previous degree(s)







.   Letters from 2 referees (these should be sent/e-mailed directly to the address shown below)















The closing date is 5pm, Wednesday, 10th July, 2013.











Interviews

for the post will be held on August 1st or 2nd, 2013 and it is

anticipated that the successful applicant will start in

September/October, 2013.















Informal enquiries prior to application may be made to Dr. Brendan T.



Barrett (Principal Investigator, Reader in Vision Science) on (44-(0)1274-235589), or to:   [email protected]







School of Optometry & Vision Science, Richmond Road, Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD7 1DP, United Kingdom.















Please

note that we do not have sufficient funding available to be able to

offer the studentship to non-UK/EU based students, so only students from

the UK/EU should apply.







*Optometrist applicants who are

GOC-registered may qualify for a slightly higher studentship award

subject to carrying out some clinical teaching.











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Project summary follows....



============================







It

seems obvious that good vision is a pre-requisite for the exceptional

visuomotor skills needed in many sports. For example, to catch a cricket

ball requires anticipation of the speed and direction of travel of the

ball.



But do elite cricketers have superior vision than sub-elites?

Does having 'excellent' vision go hand-in-hand with elite sporting

ability? And if elites do have superior vision than non-elites, is this

the cause or a consequence of their exceptional ability?   These are the

questions that are of interest to us in this research project.







From

a review of 'popular' sports literature, it appears that two beliefs

are commonly held, first, that athletes have superior use of their

vision than non-athletes and second that vision therapy improves

sporting performance. Our research will establish whether elite sporting

performance is linked to visual abilities determined by brain

functioning in vision-specific brain areas, and, if the two are linked,

to examine how they are linked. Previous research in another elite

population (pilots) shows that some laboratory measures of vision are

linked to flying performance whereas clinical visual measures do not.







We

will assess vision and visuo-motor skills in elite- and club-level

cricketers and in novices. We have selected cricket because of the

complexity of its visual demands.   However, our results will generalise

to other sports, particularly those with a fast-moving ball (e.g.

tennis). We have established links with the England & Wales Cricket

Board and with a centre of cricketing excellence and both will provide

access to elite players for testing.







We will develop and run

behavioural tests designed specifically to measure visual brain

function. Studies of brain imaging tell us about brain functioning and

connections between processing networks, but it is only feasible to

study a small number of elite athletes using this approach. Our proposed

behavioural studies thus offer a more practical approach to studying

visual and fine-motor control abilities in elite athletes.







We

will measure visual abilities in situations that mimic the sporting

environment; for example, we will test the ability to see and

discriminate motion and depth, and test the ability to anticipate the

future location of a moving object. We will relate these vision measures

to performance on a cricket task (catching) and to a more general

hand-eye co-ordination task (pointing). We have infra-red motion-capture

camera systems that allow limb and body movements to be carefully

measured and monitored when a real-world task (e.g. catching a ball

ejected from a machine) is undertaken. Thus, in addition to measuring

visuo-motor task success (e.g. proportion of balls



caught) we will establish the movement control parameters for individual sportspeople as they perform these tasks.







To

ensure that we fully reveal the extent of the links between visual

ability and the fine-motor control required in sport we will examine

individual differences in vision between good and poor ball catchers

under optimal visual conditions and when vision is degraded (e.g. low

light



levels) because it is here where the impact of vision-related differences may emerge or be exaggerated.







Although

the focus here is to understand the link between visual and motor

abilities in high-performance sport our results will hold direct

relevance to everyday scenarios where visual perceptual skills limit

motor control as we interact with the environment around us. Thus we aim

to identify the nature of the relationship between visual and motor

capabilities using elite sport as a vehicle for understanding how

perception and action are linked in more everyday tasks.