Skiing vision can be defined as actions performed by our conscious will through eye movements. It is the most important skill we use in skiing since it is considered as our “mind’s eye”.
To have a proper function of the visual system is to have a description of the skiing situation towards slope features, snow properties, and traffic conditions. Most of the information is received by this system which is employed, among other things, in action planning. Skiing requires great visuomotor coordination because eye movements organize our body movements. The eyes pick up information to perform skiing actions, usually discerning in advance what, when, and where to look. We rely on the visual system to choose our path, judge our speed, anticipate the terrain, and avoid obstacles and other people on the slope.
Vision is the visual cortex function to process information that comes through our eyes, constituting the most used sense. Approximately 80% of the information passes through the eyes, providing a vision of depth and peripheral visual surveillance. It is on gaze that we build our skiing reality, but usually we do not develop it as it should. Due to the heavy burden of information we receive and to save energy, our brain uses a mechanism of visual discrimination that consists of processing a novel stimulus rather than a familiar one.
Our visual actions include eyes moving faster than our head, which moves faster than our trunk, and it also involves this one as well (Lappe & Hoffmann, 2000). The movements of our visual system are composed of eye movements only, movements combined by eyes and head, and simultaneous movements of eyes, head, and trunk. Most eye movements are not reactive but proactive by nature, but the beginner skier employs reactive vision usually due to inexperience while the expert utilizes proactive vision persistently.
Although there are different conceptions, it is a common belief that seeing and looking are synonymous. We agree that both terms relate to the way we use our eyes, how we intend to employ this capacity, and how intense it is. We can say that skiers have the ability to see (passive vision), but in learning how to ski we must also learn how to look at (active vision) by developing visual perception or, in other words, interpreting what is being observed. With this purpose in mind, we consider that to see is to possess the sense of sight, a physical capacity, a gaze fixation without information pickup, something which passes through our eyes, a simple visual fixation to a point in space where there is no understanding, judgment or consideration through a passive process. Instead, we can refer lookingas to fixate vision with attention, a cognitive capacity, an intentional conscious act, it is getting information about what we are seeing, something that passes by our mind, orienting gaze towards a certain point and decide what to do in that place, it is noticing and reflecting. Looking is not the simple detection of images in the retina, it is activating cognitive mechanisms such as memory, decision, and attention within an active process. It is observed that we are taught just to “look forward” when skiing, but we should also learn specifically where to look at, when, what to look for and for how long.
When skiing we can extract the essence of a scene through a peek and then focus on certain objects. This look of recognition achieves a global representation of the visual scene giving it a meaning. The expert skier is accustomed to using these initial glimpses of the environment, fixating vision then to specific points. The beginner requires longer glances to perceive all the elements that make up that scene.
Regarding the use of vision at different skill levels:
- The expert skier tends to look further ahead, knows how to use his peripheral vision, and has shorter visual fixations.
- The beginner skier uses less peripheral vision due to the over demand of his central vision.
- The racer uses a central vision to determine his future path towards the next gate, but when approaching it, he applies peripheral vision to control its location, regulating body inclination at the moment of contact with the gate.
- In summary, the expert uses more visual fixations of short duration and the beginner uses fewer fixations but of greater duration.
General characteristics of skiing vision
Actually, we do not see with our eyes but with our brain and use the eyes for information pickup. Our gaze is modified by the eyes or by the combination of head and body movement. While skiing, we detect the environment with the eyes inside the head that is moving on a body in motion. Intracranial eye mobility allows them to move while retaining a fixed head. The fovea is the part of the retina that detects light rays so to see, we have to orient it to the image of what we want to look at.
Vision depends on the optic array, which is the structure of light formation in relation to the observation point. The skiing environment consists of elements limited by surfaces and the light reflected in those surfaces makes visual perception possible.
According to these considerations, you can apply the following recommendations in your own skiing:
- Remember that skiing requires a great visuomotor coordination because your eye movements organize your body movements.
- As your brain uses a mechanism of visual discrimination processing a novel stimulus rather than a familiar one, you should use initial glimpses of the environment, fixating vision then to specific points.
- Everybody looks forward when skiing, but you should also learn specifically where to look at, when, what to look for and for how long.
