Just as exercises and drills can improve speed and strength, it can also improve the athlete's visual fitness and visual accuracy ( 3). Vision is much more than seeing clearly, it is interconnected visual skills which affects performance. It is important for the visual system to function at a high level because athletic performance is one of the most demanding activities for the visual system ( 2). Athletic Performance may suffer if the vision system does not receive the message correctly or quickly enough. Vision is the signal that guides the body to respond and provides information to athletes on when and where to act ( 1). Furthermore, in identifying the visual skills essential for soccer, it allows for the effective training and testing of these skills, as well as for talent identification.

This review's evidence suggests that, while current research still tends to focus on visual skills as a whole, there is a need to streamline this focus to the necessities of a particular sport. This is the first attempt to summarize and compile the necessary visual skills for soccer. However, vision in sport, and focusing on the specific visual skills required to be successful in a particular sport has largely been a practice ignored by experts and coaches as being an essential component of athletic performance.

In ball sports such as soccer, the visual system is critical in guiding a player's search for crucial information that underpins skillful behavior, which requires the incorporation of all of the relevant information in the environment in order to make successful decisions under pressure.

2School of Sport, Rehabilitation and Exercise Sciences, University of Essex, Colchester, United Kingdom.

1Department of Human Movement Science, University of Zululand, KwaDlangezwa, South Africa.

Lourens Millard 1 *, Gerrit Jan Breukelman 1, Nonkululeko Mathe 1, Ina Shaw 2 and Brandon S.

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