Sports Vision – Jun 2025
Course Description
Although Optometry has been involved in sports for a long time, it is greatly under-utilized. A lot of ‘Sports vision’ has been more basic in nature (stressing prescribing contact lenses, and protective eye-wear.) The Optometrist practicing from the behavioral perspective has the opportunity to make a big difference in the actual performance of the athlete.
This course is geared toward learning how to help the athlete improve his or her performance and to help those athletes who have suffered concussion or mTBI recover and even exceed their prior levels of performance.
The course builds on the core OEPF Clinical Curriculum and it uses case examples throughout to help the attendees understand exactly how to apply that which they already know in this fascinating and fun population to work with. Athletes are humans, who have put in their 10,000 hours of work in an area they have talent. At their level of performance, even the smallest differences can be the difference between winning and losing. That ability to understand the visual demands of many of the sports we see played and using that understanding to finding the visual chink in their armor so that it can be fixed, is the mark of the sports vision optometrist.
Drs. Lant has a wealth of knowledge that will help you gain the insights you need to make the difference in those you serve. The approach taken with athletes is to deal first with their general visual difficulties, then do activities that are good for athletes in general, finally moving to activities which are sport-position, and/or offense or defense specific. Actual case studies will be used. Specific sports to be covered will include basketball, baseball, tennis, golf, football, soccer, and drag strip racing.
With the increased awareness of concussions, our profession is seeing these patients soon after their medical condition is stabilized. Many new concerns, which were often not present much later in the patient’s care, need to be addressed. This course will give the attendees the tools to understand, diagnose and treat these patients and their visual problems.
Each course participant will receive a manual which includes suggested readings and sports vision screening materials.
Instructor Bio
Dr. Jeffrey J. Lant
Dr. Jeffrey J. Lant, or “Dr. JJ” as many call him, lives in Lake St. Louis with his wife, Heather, and three children, Lucy, Garrett, and Nolan. He grew up in Wyoming and then attended Brigham Young University graduating in 2008 with a Bachelor of Science in Business Management. After undergraduate school, Dr. Lant and his family moved to the Memphis, TN area where he attended Southern College of Optometry. After graduation in 2012, they moved to the St. Louis area to be closer to his family.
After practicing primary eye care for several years and seeing patients that needed to be referred for Vision Therapy, Dr. Lant felt a passion for and saw a need for this service in the greater St. Charles County area. He pursued more education and training through the Optometric Extension Program and completed all their Clinical Curriculum courses. With this and previous experience and training he founded Four Circles Vision Therapy.
Dr. Lant enjoys spending time with family, watching and playing basketball, and mountain biking.
Dr. Jeffrey J. Lant
Courses Details
Length
2 Days
Continuing Education Credits
14 hours
Prerequisite
VT1 or Similar Training on Visual Dysfunctions
For
Optometrists, Therapists and Students
Location
Over the internet
When
June 7th-8th, 2025
Course Description
Although Optometry has been involved in sports for a long time, it is greatly under-utilized. A lot of ‘Sports vision’ has been more basic in nature (stressing prescribing contact lenses, and protective eye-wear.) The Optometrist practicing from the behavioral perspective has the opportunity to make a big difference in the actual performance of the athlete.
This course is geared toward learning how to help the athlete improve his or her performance and to help those athletes who have suffered concussion or mTBI recover and even exceed their prior levels of performance.
The course builds on the core OEPF Clinical Curriculum and it uses case examples throughout to help the attendees understand exactly how to apply that which they already know in this fascinating and fun population to work with. Athletes are humans, who have put in their 10,000 hours of work in an area they have talent. At their level of performance, even the smallest differences can be the difference between winning and losing. That ability to understand the visual demands of many of the sports we see played and using that understanding to finding the visual chink in their armor so that it can be fixed, is the mark of the sports vision optometrist.
Drs. Lant have a wealth of knowledge that will help you gain the insights you need to make the difference in those you serve. The approach taken with athletes is to deal first with their general visual difficulties, then do activities that are good for athletes in general, finally moving to activities which are sport-position, and/or offense or defense specific. Actual case studies will be used. Specific sports to be covered will include basketball, baseball, tennis, golf, football, soccer, and drag strip racing.
With the increased awareness of concussions, our profession is seeing these patients soon after their medical condition is stabilized. Many new concerns, which were often not present much later in the patient’s care, need to be addressed. This course will give the attendees the tools to understand, diagnose and treat these patients and their visual problems.
Each course participant will receive a manual which includes suggested readings and sports vision screening materials.
Course Highlights
Our instructor will share their over 100 years experience in running co-management practices and provide you with the basis to get you started. Case presentation and information on handling insurance.
Each participant receives a complete manual of all VT procedures, homework sheets, procedure grids, explanations and all materials to get you up and running immediately.
Mastering the procedures is not the key. It is the principles stressed by each technique and the ability to help the patient experience the process that is unique to the Clinical Curriculum.
The Visual Dysfunction course is a prerequisite for the Learning Related Visual Problems and the Strabismus & Amblyopia courses. This is often
the first course taken by vision therapists. The Clinical Curriculum faculty has been very successful at making the new therapist comfortable with being in the same class as more experienced therapists, as well as with optometrists. For a therapist to attend a course, the normal procedure is that they may either attend the course with their OD or the OD must have attended a Clinical Curriculum course at a prior date.
Bio
Dr. Jeffrey J. Lant
Dr. Jeffrey J. Lant, or “Dr. JJ” as many call him, lives in Lake St. Louis with his wife, Heather, and three children, Lucy, Garrett, and Nolan. He grew up in Wyoming and then attended Brigham Young University graduating in 2008 with a Bachelor of Science in Business Management. After undergraduate school, Dr. Lant and his family moved to the Memphis, TN area where he attended Southern College of Optometry. After graduation in 2012, they moved to the St. Louis area to be closer to his family.
After practicing primary eye care for several years and seeing patients that needed to be referred for Vision Therapy, Dr. Lant felt a passion for and saw a need for this service in the greater St. Charles County area. He pursued more education and training through the Optometric Extension Program and completed all their Clinical Curriculum courses. With this and previous experience and training he founded Four Circles Vision Therapy.
Dr. Lant enjoys spending time with family, watching and playing basketball, and mountain biking.
Course Schedule
Course will run 11am to 7pm daily and will end at 6pm on last day
For additional detail please call:
410 561 3791
Or email:
sherice.gainey@oepf.org
line.vreven@oepf.org
For additional educational opportunities please
contact:
line.vreven@oepf.org
Course Location
Online Course
Cancellation policy
We are not offering any cancellation fee at this time only voucher towards future courses with a valid cancellation reason.
Pre-Course Readings (All Attendees)
The Evolution of a Model and A Model of Vision (Read The Evolution of a Model first.) are included to introduce you to our approach to teaching. These two papers describe the process for much of what comes in the courses and we hope you understand that we instructors evolve in our thinking much like we hope you will. We hope to take you on a compressed journey through the evolution of our thinking. We will begin an area by showing you where we were at one time in our development. Then we present the unanswered questions that became the foundation for looking at things in a different way. We will then present our understandings now and include new information for where we might go in the future.
The Evolution of a Model was presented at the Skeffington Symposium in Washington DC in the early 1980’s. This paper charts the development of Paul Harris’ model of vision from what he assimilated from his years at SUNY (1975-79) until the time of the writing of the paper. Much of the change came as a result of a presentation by Dr. Robert A. Kraskin and involvement in the Washington DC based OEPF study group, the Institute for Behavioral Optometry. A Model of Vision was initially presented at the Skeffington Symposium in Washington DC and then adapted for the JOVD.
The following articles have been put in the recommended order to be read:
- Harris, Paul, “The Evolution of a Model”, Skeffington Symposium
- This paper was presented at the Skeffington Symposium in Washington DC in the early 1980’s. This paper charts the development of Paul Harris’ model of vision from what he assimilated from his years at SUNY (1975-79) until the time of the writing of the paper. Much of the change came as a result of a presentation by Dr. Robert A. Kraskin and involvement in the Washington DC based OEPF study group, the Institute for Behavioral Optometry.
- Harris, Paul, “Perspectives on Behavioral Optometry — A Model of Vision”, JOVD
- This paper was initially presented at the Skeffington Symposium in Washington DC and then adapted for the JOVD.
- Harris, Paul, “Visual Conditions of Symphony Musicians”, JAOA, Volume 59, Number 12, 12/88
- This paper describes the development of astigmatism based on the relationship between posture and vision. The most important concept in this paper is the relationship between visual conditions and what the person does in life.
- Harris, Paul, “Additional Topics to Original, Visual Conditions of Symphony Musicians”
- When the above article was written it included additional information that was edited out during the pre-publication period. This pre-reading contains this additional material in order to help make the concepts more complete.
- Harris, Paul, “The Prevalence of Visual Conditions in a Population of Juvenile Delinquents”, OEPF, Curriculum II, Volume 61, Number 4, January 1989
- This paper, while dated, is included here because the article includes fundamental discussions of the examination process including specific descriptions of the testing sequence, lighting conditions, targets, and instructional sets. The appendix of this paper was first written as a step-by-step “How-to” guide for the Optometric Center of Maryland. The paper introduces the concepts of the “Visual Virgin” and embeddedness, as well as other new topics covered in the Art and Science course.
- Williams, GJ, Kitchener G, Press LJ, Steele GT, Vision: A Collaboration of Eyes and Brain
- This paper was created jointly by the authors and was adopted by the American Optometric Association as a position paper. It is a well-documented and succinct in showing that their vision is much more than just sight and gives insight into the degree that the eyes and brain are in full partnership in helping the visual process emerge.
2 Comments
Discover an engaging introductory course on Sport Vision that promises to elevate your understanding of the human visual system and unlock its full potential.
Awesome course!