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Prof Sherylle Calder - 2008 Sport Winner

Prof Sherylle Calder is a visual performance skills coach and world authority on the subject who has the distinction of having received back-to-back World Cup winners’ medals after coaching skills to both the triumphant Springboks last year and the 2003 English World Cup winners.

As the only person in the world who has achieved this and with a PhD degree in visual performance training she is a pioneer in this field and has created an exciting new sport science that is sought-after by international sporting champions and coaches.

Dr Calder has worked with and coached some of the world’s top rugby, cricket, hockey, tennis, golf, shooting, badminton and sailing teams amongst many other sports helping them finding an extra edge and dimension in their game. It is these small percentage performance improvements that have kept them at the forefront.

The new science is based on the thinking that nothing happens in sport until the eye tells the body what to do. Dr Calder, herself a South African hockey player for fourteen years, developed this eye technique to improve her own game and called it Eyethink. This progarmme based on ultimately making beter decisions in the game has revolutionized the world of sport.

It helps sportsmen and women with visual strengths and weakness both on the field and behind a computer. Eyethink has nothing to do with eyesight but focus on developing various visual skills such as reaction, depth perception, eye movements and peripheral awareness as well as hand-eye co-ordination.

The thesis for her Sport Science PhD which she did under Prof Tim Noakes at the University of Cape Town grew out of her interests in understanding the training methods and game concepts used internationally in field hockey and, especially, the role that visual skills play in the improvement of sporting performance.

She developed a novel visual skills training programme to enhance the capacity of players to access performance-relevant visual information during play. Her studies established that the enhancement of visual skills measurably improved the on-field performance and the effect was substantially greater than any achieved by conventional coaching and training programmes. Prof Calder has published her work in various academic and sport related journals.

She has also recently developed an innovative program available to school children in South Africa for sporting and scholastic achievement. This programme looks to not only improve their sporting/learning skills but also change the lives of young kids by improving these much-needed abilities.

Between 1982 and 1996, she represented South Africa in hockey, gaining 50 international field hockey caps and 15 indoor caps. Recognition as one of the top players of her era came in 1995 when she was selected to the team comprising the top 11 players in the pre-Olympic Qualifying Hockey Tournament.

She has also coached hockey extensively and was involved with SA U21, head coach of Western Province and head coach at Stellenbosch University. At the Stellenbosch University she ran hockey camps and coaching programs for 13 year, coaching from grassroots to both the men’s and women’s teams.

Countries participating at this Tournament included Germany, Netherlands, Korea, China, Great Britain, Argentina and Canada. In 1996 she was selected to a World Invitation Select Team to help prepare the Australian Women’s hockey team for the Atlanta Olympic Games.

Dr Calder is well known abroad and has attended various International Symposiums and Scientific conventions all over the world as a keynote speaker. She brings a unique perspective to the field of visual motor performance, blending her knowledge of being an athlete, a coach and a clinician.

Serving on the Sydney Olympics Sports Science panel and delivering seminars in Spain, the United States, Pakistan, England, Ireland and Scotland is also part of her previous work. She is currently part of the International Vision Care Program, and serves on the advisory board of the International Sports Vision Magazine.

Her two offices at the Sport Science Institute of Sport and HPC in Pretoria are involved with working with many young sports people at every level. She was also awarded the University of the Free State Cum Laude Award for exceptional achievements and contributions in sport science in April 2008 and an Associate Professorship in May 2008 from North West University.