Assessment of Visual Skills Impact on Motor Performance of Soccer Players in Ethiopian Youth Sport Academy

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to assess the impact of visual skills on motor performance of soccer players in Ethiopian youth sport academy.Cross-sectional study design was employed and 62 subjects (28 male and 34 female) were participated using purposive and availabilitysampling methods. The primary sources of data such as demographic characteristics, the visual skill tests and motor performance weremeasured. The results presented as mean ± SD, and Frequency proportions were used to show the visual skill status. A Multivariate Roy’sLargest Root Tests was used to examine the impacts of visual skills on motor performance and one way ANOVA was used to show thedifference of visual skills and motor performance in playing positions. Whereas, Pearson product moment correlation coefficient was used totest the relationship between visual skills and motor performances. SPSS version 20 software was used to analyze the data and thesignificance values set at p-value 0.05 levels to all statistical analysis. The result indicates that 26(42%) of players had no color blindness,32(52%) had some degree of color blindness and 4(6%) of them had weak color blindness status. There was significant differences of eye footcoordination test between playing position in score of F = 3.669, P < 0.05 (0.017). Color blindness has a positive significant correlation withmotor performance in reaction time (r = 0.343, r2 = 0.1176, P < 0.01). Based on the result the researcher concluded that there was significantdifference in eye foot coordination between playing positions. Color blindness significantly and positively correlated with motor performanceto reaction time. And also visual acuity significantly and positively correlated with motor performance to eye hand coordination.