Oculomotor Behavior During Visually Guided Responses in Inline Speed Skaters

Inline speed skating requires efficient visual processing and oculomotor coordination, particularly during physically demanding exercise. This study investigated whether an acute training session alters oculomotor behavior during visually guided responses to spectrally narrow-band chromatic stimuli. Fifteen federated speed skaters (16.90 ± 6.54 years) were assessed before (PRE) and after (POST) a complete training session. Participants performed a structured visual task using the ReactionX system, which presented randomly ordered spectrally narrow-band chromatic green, blue, and red light stimuli, while binocular eye movements were recorded at 200 Hz using a Neon sports eye tracker (Pupil Labs, Berlin, Germany). Blink frequency and duration, fixation and saccadic parameters, and saccade amplitude and velocity were analyzed. No significant PRE–POST differences were observed for the main oculomotor variables across stimulus colors (p > 0.05). Numerically fewer fixations and saccadic eye movements after training were observed for green (p = 0.102 and p = 0.109) and red stimuli (p = 0.116 and p = 0.121), but these differences did not reach statistical significance. Significant positive correlations between saccade amplitude and velocity were observed for green and red stimuli (ρ = 0.52–0.75; p < 0.05). These exploratory findings do not provide evidence of significant changes in oculomotor behavior following a single training session and the observed numerical differences cannot be interpreted as changes in visual scanning efficiency or color-specific effects.