I have noticed diopter problems at the beginning of high school. I was wearing glasses, but not while I was practicing.
I couldn't see the crossbar clearly, so I relied on the feeling, but I could never be very confident. When I would practice, I would fly two to three feet from the crossbar and see it blurry. For this reason, it seems to me that it is twice as wide as it's real size.
I would have been without my glasses for days during the competitions when I was in need of good vision.
I often wasn't able to recognize the fellow athletes I've met many times in competitions or couldn't see who's waving at me from the audience.
A real problem was that I couldn't see semaphore/board either. While the points for performance were written on board, I would wait for my coach to tell me how many points I got. Like so, I wasn't able to tell if I got 14.366 or 14.866 points on the latest World Championship, and the difference was huge. I was looking at my coach and couldn't tell the points from his face, and those thousands of seconds lasted for an eternity. 
 
Svjetlost Eye Clinic left an extremely positive impression, I felt the most comfortable and that is why I decided to have laser diopter removal. 
Before the surgery, I might have had a slight fear, but now that I see the results, I don't think anyone should be afraid. The operation was painless and lasted ten minutes. My first training after the surgery was incredible. 
For the first time, I was able to see the time from the clock in the hall. I could even see the needle counting seconds move. The feeling at the crossbar was far different, everything was easier and simpler.
With the perfect vision, this will be a new dimension that will force me to be even better.