At this time of year, when the sun is lower in the sky, playing tennis can be tricky, especially for lobs, when you are on the side facing the sun. I've tried sunglasses, which definitely help, but with my older eyes, they make it harder to see the ball when I am not looking up into the sun. So it occurred to me that it might work to get some of those flip-up sunglasses that attach to regular glasses. I'd play with them flipped up and out of the way until I have to return a lob. Then I'd flip them down, hit them lob back, and flip them back up. That ought to work since the lob would give me time to get them flipped down. So I went shopping. All of the flip-up glasses I found are polarized. Now unless I didn't understand anything in my college physics classes, it is my understanding that polarized glasses mainly block polarized light, such as light that has been reflected off of some surface like the hood of a car, the snow on the slopes, or the water on a lake. Polarized sunglasses would not be any better than non-polarized sunglasses at blocking the light coming directly from the sun. They wouldn't be any worse, just not any better. Right? There are three main characteristics of sunglasses that matter: UV protection. This is probably the most important, especially if looking directly into the sun. Light blocking. This has to do with the color of the glass. Polarization. This is only good for reflected light as explained above. Is that all correct? If so, I think my objective should be to get sunglasses that have (a) UV protection and (b) good light filtering. Polarization doesn't matter one way of the other. I'd appreciate comments and suggestions.
I would also add color filtering. Some situations (like being out on the water or on the snow) benefit from blocking blue light, for example. Contrast goes up.
you should NEVER look directly into the sun with or without sun glasses on. The only eye protection that would be rated for looking directly at the sun would be welders goggles. from my experience, wearing all day , it is my opinion that it is not beneficial for long term eye health... UNLESS you maintain a low light level consistently. the brains natural colour balancing is upset and takes time to adjust back to the correct range of normal colour formats. i expect that over time, colour filtering will set up subconscious emotional reactions to various colours. this will be amplified by a neurological response. if you have experience with recreational psychedelic drugs and do not suffer from any anxiety issues ptsd etc etc then it might not make a big impact.
Pretty sure the OP didn't mean looking directly at the sun. She's playing tennis. Anytime you are not in shade and are generally facing south, the sun stands a good chance of being in your peripheral vision. You can't practically avoid that completely. What you don't want is to get the sun in your foveal vision.
