Hand-eye coordination allows your visual system to
coordinate what you see with your hand motions. Activities such as handwriting,
tossing a ball and cleaning your house require hand-eye coordination. Most
sports require some kind of hand-coordination. Baseball players use this skill
while batting, pitching and catching. Hockey players guide sticks and pucks
with this skill. A swimmer even uses hand-eye coordination to accurately propel
her stroke in a straight line.

The term “hand-eye coordination” describes the
ability of your body’s visual system to process information received through
the eyes and uses it to direct the movements of the hands. Tennis, golf,
baseball and basketball players obviously require this skill, but optimal interactions
among the brain, the eyes and the limbs are also essential to simple, daily
functional tasks.

The function of hand-eye coordination is a complex
neurological process. It begins when the eyes send visual information to the
brain, which in turn integrates the data and turns them into a
three-dimensional image. Two systems help the brain accomplish this task: The
focal system identifies the object, and the ambient system the object’s
position in space. Once the information is processed, the cerebellum, located
in the hindbrain, controls the motor coordination responsible for the task.