As tennis player Lois Boisson continues to stun the spectators at the 2025 French Open, many are wondering what is behind her stunning comeback, and the answer might surprise you – it’s virtual reality (VR) and neurovisual training.
Although the 22-year-old Frenchwoman continues to dominate her opponents, it wasn’t an easy path for her. Specifically, she tore the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her left knee a week after her Grand Slam debut in Paris following a WTA 125 title on home soil in Saint-Malo in April 2024.
Lois Boisson benefits from new VR technologies
And now she’s back, better than ever, and it’s all thanks to the cutting-edge technology of the modern era and her fitness coach Sebastien Durand, who introduced her to science-backed neurovisual training to improve her performance. As Boisson recently commented:
“It’s very difficult to explain, but it’s both visual and you just do some exercises differently. You connect the brain with the eyes, and then everything goes faster, you know, so it’s really great for tennis. (…) It was after my surgery. We did that [and] I came back faster.”
Specifically, the neurovisual training involved sight tests catching a ball at short range with one eye covered, buzzer reaction tests, and using VR headsets. According to Boisson, “it’s all about small details,” and that more optimization brings better success chances, making “everything as fast as possible.”
Meanwhile, her coach has designed these exercises with orthoptist (a healthcare professional specializing in eye movement and binocular vision) Angela Ragaigne, and shared that eye health and visual care are crucial to performance, as “80% of the information taken from the athlete’s environment comes from their vision.”
With this in mind, they have developed a “process, a method, and specific exercises, designing a tailor-made neurovisual treatment specifically adapted to the athlete’s needs, background, and sport,” as Durand explained in the Instagram post on April 30.
Elsewhere, other sportspeople are taking advantage of technological advancements to perform better, including NBA Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry, who exercises his basketball moves with the help of the latest artificial intelligence (AI) robot.
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