Donald Teig, OD, FAAO, (l) and Greg Appelbaum, Ph.D.
NORTH ROYALTON, Ohio—The International Sports Vision Association, an interdisciplinary group of professionals dedicated to advancing the field of vision training for athletes, has announced the addition of Donald Teig, OD, FAAO, and Greg Appelbaum, PhD to its board of directors. Dr. Teig began his sports testing and training career with 15 Major League Baseball teams in 1980, and has since evaluated athletes from just about every sport. He is also the founder and medical director of The A Team—High Performance Vision Associates, a group of elite sports medicine professionals, as well as executive director of “The I Gym,” a visual performance training center in Sunrise, Florida that serves as the exclusive vision care provider for the Florida Panthers hockey team. He has authored numerous articles and books on the relationship between vision and athletic performance, and has originated much of the equipment and techniques being used in the field today.

Previously, Dr. Teig was president of the former International Academy of Sports Vision, which was affiliated with the American College of Sports Medicine, as well as past chairman of the Sports Vision Section of the American Optometric Association, where he received Sports Vision Specialist of the Year honors.

Dr. Appelbaum is an associate professor at the Duke University School of Medicine, where he leads the Human Performance Optimization Lab (Opti Lab) and directs the Brain Research Simulation Center. His research focuses on the brain mechanisms involved in visual-motor control, and how these systems can be improved. He has been conducting DARPA and Army Research Office-funded research addressing the role of vision, and vision training in sports since 2011. He also holds appointments in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Psychology and Neuroscience and is an affiliate of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience.

ISVA president Alex Andrich, OD, FCOVD, said, “Don and Greg bring a rich mix of backgrounds and experiences that will help ISVA increase public and professional awareness of the positive impact that vision training and enhancement of vision skills can have on athletic performance, and educate practitioners about how to build and enhance a sports vision specialty.”