contact lenses, which ones?

hehe...i want contacts for badminton soooo badly! right now i dont even wear my glasses to play so its kinda blurry. when i eventually do get contacts i think i will enjoy playing more.

 

I just got contacts a few days ago, disposable ones(monthly). So far it has been okay. According to MY optician, the one I'm wearing now is good for sports. And if it does dry out, buy some eye drops. Works for me at least. I'm gonna try wearing it for my training this Sunday, I'll see how it goes.

 

i have only tried J&J acuvue's and acuvue2's, as well as some competing one i forgot about as it wasn't that great, but the acuvue2's are quite good... i think i blink somewhat more than a person without contacts would irregardless of the contacts.

this only really causes a problem if i'm in the middle of one of those super long and intense rallies i'd hate to loose, at which point i don't want to miss a split second of it thus will not blink (which stops me from naturally replenishing the liquid on the contacts lenses). in this case i may either be forced to blink or my vision may blur somewhat until after the rally is over.

this is quite a rare occurance however and is in part due to the fact that i usually play badminton at night and have been wearing my contact lenses since the morning, so wearing them for a good 12 hours. if you were to just put them in a couple hours before badminton i doubt you'd have this problem unless you had particularly dry eyes. even still, this situation may happen once every 5-10 nights i go to play badminton, so very rarely.

even in those situations i don't feel it really takes too much away from my playing ability. i can still see the bird and return as i normally would but it may take away some of my focus.

in any case, i see 20/100 approx. without my contacts and about 20/15 with them (better than a person with normally good eyes!) so i cannot really complain!

PS. even though these contacts are rated for 2 weeks before disposal, that is totally untrue. J&J even at one point admitted they used identical contacts that were repackaged for their daily, 2 week, and 1 year contacts but wanted to sell to different markets. i'm not sure what happened exactly since then but i do know that i've seen these 2 week contacts worn for over 1 year with no problems. additionally my optician even admitted that it's perfectly safe to wear the 2 week contacts for 2 months. so taking that into consideration makes them a pretty good deal!

 

I have always used contact lens for playing badminton. I normally put them on just before i go and they work great, never felt them moving around in my eyes and so on.

Some opticalian once told me that its not really that good to wear contact lens daily for long hours, there are contact lens out there specially designed for ppl to use them long hour but i think they have higher water content or better "breath" so oxygen can filter thru more easily......

i think those contact u mentioned are like disposable ones, I am using the more permenent type, since they fit my eyes better, i found the disposable ones are too thin sometimes and they move around quite easily...

just my 2 cents

 

Somehow I always had the impression that contact lens HELP you, not take away your playing ability? For me it helps a great deal, I don't have to wipe my specs every few moments, it's worse if my shirt is totally damp(usually is). My specs won't be clear and thus I won't be able to play properly.

I heard about acuvue, what's so good about it? Is there a difference?

 

I wear disposable lens (weekly ones) but I usually stretch out a good pair over several weeks by wearing them only when I am out on dates or playing baddy. Rest of the time, I wear glasses. Not sure if this practice is good for my eye. I find that my eyes dry out faster while playing when I wear them the whole day rather than just put them on before going to the club. A good salient solution eye-drop helps in this case... just use them before any club sessions and I am set for the whole day.

 

I still use glasses but i can give u a testimony to why you SHOULD use contacts:

A few Fridays ago, my partner and I played against a husband & wife team, who were pretty good and I got smashed, TWICE to the SAME lense, one set after the other, and my glasses CRAAAAACKED!!

So, those of you who wants to decide whether you want glasses or contacts, go contacts!

 

i agree, but i've worn contacts for about 9 years now, and never worn a single pair of glasses! so they may take away slightly from my playing ability, compared with wearing nothing at all (laser surgery?), but compared with glasses i'm sure they're more convenient.

as for acuvue 2's, they're a little thicker and better quality than the original acuvue's, but at the same price, so cannot complain. also i watched an ad on tv for them (not the best source of information!) that said 7 out of 10 people will see better than 20/20 (normal healthy vision) using these contacts. while i have no idea if that statistic actually holds true, their claim holds true for me, as i can actually see a little better than someone with normal vision when i'm wearing the contacts. additionally they're comfortable to wear for longer periods of time compared with other contacts i believe.

 

Bobby, you've just convinced me to try acuvue2 the next time I change my lens. You don't wear glasses at all? I wear glasses usually after I take out my contact lens, don't wanna try wearing it past the maximum 12 hours.

Anyone here had a bad experienced with contact lens while playing badminton?

 

Actually, I think that's one more reason why you SHOULD wear protective eyewear even if it's glasses Imagine getting your eye taken out by a shot... not the same as replacing a cracked glasses. Either wear protective goggles or hold your racquet in front of you while you defend... always.

 

Hey Wilfredlgf,

I don't mean to be pedantic about it, as even I don't practice what I preached... I bought a protective goggle but found problems with it (ex. fogged up view, uncomfortable fit, makes me more agressive, etc...). I would have love to wear my glasses if they weren't always loose and so expensive to replace.

What I did to overcome this is to be always mindful of protecting my face, especially my eyes, by always keeping track of the birdie and keeping my racquet in front and at chest level. When one plays with better players, one's reflex becomes more important. Maintaining calmness and relax hold on racquet improves reflex reaction. More importantly, keeping the racquet right in the center of potential body target saves time and effort while defending.

I think that most of the time, if one has already taken precautions, it's usually the partner's fault when one's hit... by being predictable and/or do bad drops in the middle. Case in point, I got hit on my lips recently because my partner ("C" level player and not my regular partner) did one too many drops and send one high drop shot right in front of me while I moved to back him up front. Thankfully, I haven't been hit in the eyes yet.

 

Since moving to wearing contact lens many years ago, my peripheral vision had improved greatly over spectacles. However, under extended or intense rallies, one of mine contact len in my eye shift position and blur out vision on one side, leading loosing the rallies ~80% of the time. Does this shifting of contact len normal or have any contacts wearer experienced this too?

 

Nope, disposable contacts never shifted on me before (except for the time when I put them in backwards). Also, maybe they weren't correctly fitted to your eye (i.e. they are too big or too small).

 

It happenes to me regularly, especially when I jump or smash hard. Suddenly, my vision turns blur and I have to guess where the shuttle, of course, in the end, I lose the rallies.

I found this happens more regularly with one type of contact len than the other. I am using Accuvue2 disposable, this is most comfortable to wear but it swifts easily. The original Accuvue was less comfortable but it seldom give me the problem. I have tried other brands so I cannot say if it is due to the brand.

Also, it happens frequently when you blink your eyes when it is dry. So, I normally apply some eye drops before the game and it helps.

 

chibe k, does the contact shifting occurs on one particular eye?

 

I would say it is on one eye most of the time because I remember forcing myself to use the other eye to keep the rally going. A couple of times when the lens swifted on both eyes, I had to stop the rally, but this only happened 2-3 times in the past. I normally blink my eyes few times to clear my vision again.

 

Cooler and ChibeK, from your description it seems that the lenses you have bought are not the correct base curve for your eyes (the better, and more expensive, contact lenses such as those made by Acuvue come in more than one base curve.
It may even be the case that you both have astigmatism, and so require a Toric lens, which are designed specifically with the Axis (orientation of your astigmatism) in mind. Toric lenses tend to remain more stable on your eye when you blink or look around, and provide consistently sharp vision, since they cannot rotate on the eye.
In the UK at least some of the optometrists, astonishingly, seem quite incompetent, and doubtless have no real qualifications. I suggest that you look for a well qualified optician and explain the problem. At bottom it will remove one more excuse for not performing at your best.

 

Interesting point you made, now I am thinking more about my disposable lens. I already purchased enough supplies that lasts for a year, but I can always exchange if I do not like the lens. I should visit my optometrist again to address the problem.
I have annual eye exam, the last one happened 3 months ago, and the optometrist said everything is fine, he even recommended me to get lasik surgery since I play lots of sports. In any case, I want to find out if he recommends Toric lens.