Visual Occlusion in Handball

I love using visual occlusion exercises in my handball goalkeeper coaching work.

At first sight, using an eye-patch drill in handball goalkeeper training might seem “weird”, or it might seem like a great idea, if you know exactly when and why you are doing it. 🙂

So if you are someone who came across some of my coaching video or photo materials in which you saw me using eye-patches with my athletes, I decided to take a bit of time to explain in this blog post why am I doing some of the eye-patch drills, and what are they all about.

I enjoy exploring, researching, analyzing, questioning, and investigating everything that I see in the handball coaching world, or in the coaching world overall in any sport. In that process, I find a lot of inspiration for my own coaching work, and I find a lot of really deep and valuable lessons about coaching. I appreciate when coaches find the time to explain exercises, drills, and ideas they share on their social media channels, on their websites, or anywhere else where they share their work.

More than once, I saw different videos on YouTube, Instagram or Facebook, where goalkeepers were reacting on shots or passes with partially or fully blindfolded eyes. And when you wonder about it – you could realize that a goalkeeper will never be in front of the goal with their eyes blindfolded, so you might think that’s a nonsense exercise to be used in a goalkeeper training. Or, on the other hand, you might think that if your goalkeeper is able to save a shot or catch a pass while their eyes are blindfolded – then they will be even better in reacting on shots with their visual field fully available.

Whether you are in the group of the first or the second of above mentioned options, I thought it would be a great idea to “demystify” the use of fully or partially blindfolded exercises, and to explain what are they actually all about.

What is Visual Occlusion?

If we are using an eye-patch, or a blindfold, or a hat that will partially or fully cover a goalkeeper’s vision, that’s called “visual occlusion”.

“Visual occlusion reduces players’ field of vision and directly affects their physical, technical and positional performance.” , as it’s explained in the research titled “Does training with visual occlusion improve technical skills in Under-14 football players?” done by Francesca D’Elia, Tiziana D’Isanto, Gaetano Altavilla, Giovanni Esposito, and Gaetano Raiola in 2023, in Italy.

The main benefit of visual occlusion exercises for handball goalkeepers is the significant improvement of their visual processing and decision-making abilities under pressure. By training with an eye patch and temporarily limiting their visual field, goalkeepers are forced to adapt by sharpening their remaining senses, including their depth perception, spatial awareness, and reaction time to dynamic visual stimuli. This heightened sensory adaptation and cognitive processing enable goalkeepers to better anticipate and react to the fast-paced demands of the game, improving their performance on the court by making them more adept at predicting opponents’ moves, tracking the ball with reduced visual cues, and efficiently making split-second decisions. Essentially, visual occlusion exercises train the brain to fill in the gaps, making goalkeepers more resilient and versatile in high-pressure situations.

The demands of handball goalkeeper role require not just physical agility and strength but also exceptional cognitive abilities, including split-second decision-making, anticipation, and spatial awareness. An innovative training method, known as visual occlusion, is gaining traction for its profound ability to improve these cognitive aspects, which then further elevates the performance of handball goalkeepers.

What Happens in The Brain of an Athlete When You Close Their Eyes?

Closing the eyes of an athlete has a direct impact on their balance system, primarily due to how the brain integrates information from various sensory systems to maintain balance and spatial orientation. This is how it works:

The Role of the Sensory Systems in Balance

The human balance system relies on the coordinated input from three main sources:

• Visual System – Provides information about the body’s position in relation to the surrounding environment. It helps in adjusting posture to maintain balance.
• Vestibular System – Located in the inner ear, this system detects changes in head movements and helps control balance and eye movements.
• Proprioceptive System – Involves sensors in muscles, joints, and skin that provide information about the position and movement of different parts of the body.

Impact of Closing the Eyes on the Brain and Balance

When you close your eyes, you remove the visual input that is crucial for the brain’s ability to accurately perceive spatial orientation and movement.

Whether you’re an athlete or not, having your eyes closed initiates a fascinating series of effects in your brain, impacting your sensory processing, balance, and spatial awareness. Here’s what happens in the absence of visual cues:

Shift in Sensory Reliance

Decreased Visual Input – Closing the eyes cuts off the visual information, which is a primary source for understanding our environment and positioning within it.
Improved Proprioception and Vestibular Input – In the absence of visual cues, the brain compensates by placing more reliance on the proprioceptive (body awareness) and vestibular (balance) systems. This shift helps maintain spatial orientation and balance despite the lack of visual information.

Increased Neural Demand for Balance and Spatial Awareness

Vestibular System Activation – With the eyes closed, the inner ear’s vestibular system, which detects balance and spatial orientation, becomes more active to help maintain equilibrium.
Proprioceptive Feedback Improvement – The brain also improves its processing of feedback from muscles and joints about the body’s position and movement, helping with balance without visual cues.

Brain Adaptation and Neuroplasticity

Adaptation – The brain adapts to the lack of visual input by refining its processing of information from other senses. This can improve an athlete’s ability to perform tasks without relying heavily and only on sight.
Neuroplasticity – This adaptation involves neuroplasticity, where the brain’s neural networks reorganize and strengthen connections that prioritize non-visual sensory input for balance and spatial awareness.

Cognitive and Psychological Effects

Increased Cognitive Load – Initially, performing tasks with eyes closed can increase the cognitive load, making the task feel more challenging as the brain processes less familiar sensory information.
Focus and Concentration – Athletes may experience heightened focus and concentration as they pay more attention to non-visual cues to compensate for the lack of sight.

Potential for Improved Sensory Integration

Improved Sensory Integration – Over time, training with eyes closed can improve the brain’s ability to integrate sensory information from the proprioceptive and vestibular systems, potentially improving an athlete’s performance in conditions where visual information is limited or unavailable.

Benefits of Visual Occlusion in Training

Using visual occlusion in handball goalkeeper training can be highly beneficial. This technique, which involves temporarily restricting the goalkeeper’s visual information, can significantly improve various aspects of their performance. Here are some key benefits and considerations:

Improved Reaction Time

Visual occlusion forces goalkeepers to rely less on visual cues and more on anticipation and instinct, which can help speed up their reaction times. By training to respond to cues other than the direct sight of the ball, goalkeepers can develop faster and more intuitive responses to shots.

Improved Spatial Awareness

Without constant visual feedback, goalkeepers learn to better interpret spatial relationships and the position of the ball, opponents, and themselves relative to the goal. This heightened spatial awareness is crucial for positioning and making saves.

Increased Focus and Concentration

Visual occlusion can help sharpen a goalkeeper’s mental focus and concentration. When visual information is limited, goalkeepers must pay closer attention to other sensory inputs and cues, such as the sound of the ball being struck or the movement patterns of opposing players.

Boosted Anticipation Skills

Goalkeepers can improve their ability to predict the trajectory of shots and movements of players. Visual occlusion training encourages the development of anticipatory skills, allowing goalkeepers to make saves based on the pattern recognition of players’ actions, movement, body and shooting arm position before a shot is taken.

Improved Sensory Processing

Training with visual occlusion encourages the brain to process information from the vestibular and proprioceptive systems more efficiently, compensating for the lack of visual cues. This can lead to improvements in balance, coordination, and the ability to maintain orientation in space.

Timing Visual Occlusion Training

Integrating visual occlusion into the training requires strategic timing to make sure goalkeepers derive the maximum benefit without compromising other aspects of their training:

• Off-Season and Pre-Season – Introduce visual occlusion techniques in the off-season and pre-season periods to develop cognitive skills and adaptability before the competitive season begins.
• Skill Development Phases – During phases focused on developing specific skills, such as reaction time or anticipation, visual occlusion can intensify the learning process.
• Recovery Sessions – On lighter training days or during recovery sessions, visual occlusion can be used to keep cognitive skills sharp while physically resting.

Implementing Visual Occlusion Effectively

Effective implementation of visual occlusion training requires a thoughtful approach that progressively challenges goalkeepers while ensuring their safety and engagement:

Start With Partial Visual Occlusion

Start only with an eye-patch, or limited vision exercises. You never want to start on full visual occlusion, and with closing visual field completely.

Start With Basic Drills

Begin with simpler drills that goalkeepers are already comfortable with, such as catching balls from a seated or kneeling position, to acclimatizing them to the sensation of reduced visual input.

Progress to Dynamic Exercises

Gradually incorporate more dynamic drills, or more goalkeeper specific drills, including save reactions to shots from various angles, to challenge and improve the goalkeeper’s ability to react with limited visual cues.

Use a Variety of Occlusion Methods

Alternate between different types of visual occlusion (e.g., covering one eye, both eyes, or using strobe glasses) to challenge the goalkeeper’s adaptability and cognitive processing in diverse ways.

Incorporate Game-Like Scenarios

Simulate game situations with visual occlusion to improve the goalkeeper’s ability to read the game and make split-second decisions under pressure.

Safety First

Always make sure that the training environment is safe, free of obstacles, to prevent injury during occlusion exercises when vision is partially or fully limited.

Feedback and Adaptation

Provide goalkeepers with feedback on their performance and adapt the training intensity based on their progress and comfort level with the exercises.

Video – Visual Occlusion – Alternate Hand Wall Toss With an Eye-Patch

In the video below, you can see a simple eye-hand coordination drill with visual occlusion – an alternate hand wall toss with an eye-patch.

You can put an eye-patch on the dominant, or on the non-dominant eye of a goalkeeper, and you can start with a simple one hand wall toss individually, or in pair with two goalkeepers.

There are many different progressions of this simple starting drill, with one ball, with alternate catches, with addition of two or three balls – either against the wall, or between two or more goalkeepers.

Video – Eye-Hand and Visual Occlusion Drills Ideas

In the video below, you can see a few of the eye-hand and visual occlusion drills, performed while wearing an eye patch on a dominant eye. These visual occlusion drills can be your inspiration for some additional ideas and options for some other drills.

Please remember to always follow the principles of progression from easier to more complicated drills.

In Conclusion

Closing the eyes affects the brain’s processing of sensory information, demanding greater reliance on non-visual cues for balance and spatial orientation. This not only challenges the brain to adapt and refine its sensory integration capabilities but also has the potential to improve an athlete’s overall sensory awareness, balance, and performance in their sport.

Incorporating visual occlusion into handball goalkeeper training offers a unique and effective way to improve key performance areas. It challenges goalkeepers to develop faster reaction times, better spatial awareness, and heightened anticipatory skills, making them more adaptable and efficient in their role in front of the goal. As with any training method, it should be used cautiously and as part of a comprehensive training program tailored to the individual needs and individual abilities of the goalkeeper.

Visual occlusion training offers a cutting-edge approach to refining the cognitive and anticipatory skills of handball goalkeepers. By challenging goalkeepers to rely less on their visual sense and more on their mental faculties and other senses, this training method can significantly improve their in-game performance. Implementing visual occlusion thoughtfully and progressively into the training can lead to goalkeepers who are more adaptable, focused, and capable of making the split-second decisions needed in a match.

The latest update of this article: March, 2024.

Resources

• Postural Stability in Goalkeepers of the Polish National Junior Handball Team
• Visual occlusion techniques to understand the role of vision
• Does training with visual occlusion improve technical skills in Under-14 football players?
• Visual occlusion effects on youth football players’ performance during small-sided games
• The Impact of a Spatial Occlusion Training Intervention on Pass Accuracy across a Continuum of Representative Experimental Design in Football

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