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The purpose of eye black that athletes and these days certain rappers and their imitators, wear was intended to be to reduce the glare from the sun during the day and from the bright stadium lights during night games. Particularly in football and baseball eye black has been used since the 1950s, and it is slowly being adopted for other sports as well.

A lot of the time you might be trying to focus on the ball coming towards you whilst it is in the air, and of course this can often mean staring either directly towards the sun or overhead lighting. Or even towards something reflective and metallic such as other players helmets or metallic parts of the stands and seating. This of course creates the problem that you cant see the ball against the glare.

As we all know metallic objects reflect the sunlight and so glare is created, meaning that if the ball is in the direct sunlight when it is approaching you, you might not see it may miss it entirely, which of course gives an unfair advantage to the team playing with the suns position behind them. Eye black can help to level the playing field do some extent because it reduces the amount of glare you will encounter as it helps to absorb the brightest light before it shines into your eyes and this helps improve your vision in these circumstances.

Eye black can to a degree also help with the problem of very dry playing conditions. Whatever the sport if the pitch is very dry, then it will become dusty. From here any wind or tackles made on the surface will throw that dust up, often into players eyes. Some sports such as Soccer have overcome this by moistening the pitches before play. Other sports such as baseball however are better played in the dry, as wet conditions would ruin the playing ground. In cases like this eye black can help to protect the eyes from dust as dust sticks to the sticky oily surface that the eye black creates. This may seem insignificant, but that tiny edge may mean the difference between making a pass and not making one, or running on, and stopping because you cant see right.

The other usage of course is that a lot of players think it makes them look tougher somehow, which may give then a psychological edge over their opponent. Many experts believe this is because it is reminiscent of camouflage paint worn by soldiers, or as tribal war paints that help to identify you subconsciously to yourself more closely as a part of your team. Studies have shown that even the extra confidence afforded to players wearing eye black alone is worth them wearing it. Even if on the occasion it doesn't serve any other purpose.

Modern studies have shown in fact that its actual effects as a means to reduce glare are very slight at best and that seen as it will often get smudged or rubbed off after a few plays anyway. It isn't worth actually using if not for the mental boost that it gives players who wear it. Seen as it has now become somewhat a fashion accessory for playing sports and the fact that many players believe rightly or wrongly that it helps them to see better in bright light, means that it will only continue to be widely used.

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