Measure taken by Irish rugby players to improve high catching would be perfect for hurlers

If they're using eyesight training to help see a rugby ball, God only knows how much of a help it might be to hurlers.

For a man of 5 ft 8 inches, Keith Earls is decent in the air. You can always trust the Limerick man under a dropping ball, under pressure or not. His steady hands and springy leap ensure there's little to worry about when our number 11 goes to fetch. It's no coincidence that Earlsy is so aerially adept. The Munster club man puts in plenty of practice in fielding high balls in training along with his fellow back men in the Irish and provincial set-ups.

"It is something we have been working on and I suppose it's the likes of Andrew Conway, Sweets and the boys in Munster putting pressure on me. It is a big part of rugby now," he told us on Thursday at Carton House.

The hard yards don't stop there, however. A new craze being used by Early and co to improve themselves is that of eyesight training. The lads go to serious lengths to ensure they've every base covered, and it makes sense seeing as clear sight is one of the most important factors in plucking a ball from the skies.

"I have been doing a lot of eye training as well so I can see the ball running at high speed. It's a massive part of the game and thankfully from the work we've put in, some of the results have come through in games."

After taking a few bangs to the head, the 30-year-olds eyesight had been sent out of sync, but the eyesight drills he describes here have proved a solid tonic.

“Putting an ‘x’ on the window and moving your head back and forward, getting your eyes balanced with the gel in your ears so that when you’re running at high speed that the ball isn’t...you’re trying to look for it. I think I said it last week, that it is quite hard to see a ball running at high speed so look, I’m at an age now where every one percent counts!”

"You can do it at home and some of the lads would be looking at me in the physio room saying ‘what the hell is this fella doing staring at an x on the window’. I’ve had a couple of bangs on the head a couple of years ago which kind of knocked my eyes out of sync with the gel in the ears so I went to the balance centre in Dublin and got a few exercises. "I’ve done them for a while, left them behind and I’m back into it again, it’s something I’ve been doing constantly the last couple of weeks."

It's all about those percentage gains, and the Moyross man is confident the time he spends refining his vision serves a valuable purpose.

"Like I said I’m looking for the 1% in everything and at the moment I am seeing the ball a lot more clearer in the air as I’m running, there’s still loads to improve on as well. Look, I’ll keep working away at it."

It got us thinking, if rugby players see benefits in such measures in ensuring they can see the ball clearly when it's coming towards them at pace, imagine how valuable it might be for a hurler. The sliotar is way smaller than a rugby ball. It travels at a much faster pace so a hurler's vision would be tested even more approaching a zipping ball. We've heard of the occlusion goggles, the sleep workshops, how about the eyesight training?