Where Should the Eyes Be Focused in the Batter's Box?

A coach recently told me of the importance of where the girls' eyes should be focused in an at bat before the pitch is released. He told me that the batter's eyes should be on the pitcher's torso around the hip where the pitch will be released. The batter, he said, should make sure not to look at the pitcher's face or get distracted by all of the moving parts in the windup. This way the player can hopefully pick up the pitch as early as possible and get an early load. My daughter has been struggling a little with picking up pitches early and identifying them.

Do others agree with this? I have, nor have I seen the coaches specify where exactly the player should be looking. Thanks!

This may be a high level nuance that could effect players to a certain degree against high level pitching but, I believe for the most part this is a non-teach. If your daughter is struggling it is likely another reason in the swing mechanic. Focusing on eyes tracking the ball unless you are certain the swing is fundamentally sound could be a waste of time and provide false hope.

I ask the girls to see the motion with peripheral vision and focus on the ball being released at the hip.
On a similar note as to the OP saying to not focus on the pitchers face.... When throwing a change up its important to keep the premotion and facial expressions like your about to throw gas. Because so many people watch the entire process and are not focused on the release point.

coach james said:

I ask the girls to see the motion with peripheral vision and focus on the ball being released at the hip.
On a similar note as to the OP saying to not focus on the pitchers face.... When throwing a change up its important to keep the premotion and facial expressions like your about to throw gas. Because so many people watch the entire process and are not focused on the release point.

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CJ, good to read this.

The soft relaxed focus gets a running start ..... at first the soft relaxed focus is 'behind' the pitcher.

How long can the eyes focus on one spot? Mistake many make.

Remember see the ball hit the ball and it’s one of the most difficult things to do in sports!

I would really suggest reading the book, Keep Your Eyes On The Ball, especially chapter 7, as it gives you a better insight as to how they completed the experiment.

They used a professional baseball player named Brian Harper and two others however my interest centered on him since the others hand no experience. He demonstrated traits I would expect a pro to use. The way they measured the people is a hoot and you have to see the picture from the book to really appreciate it.

Vision drills : Visit "Test Your Vision. Binocular? Stereoscopic?" and go through the menu and look around

Many hitting coaches overlook this key area.

Sports Illustrated March 2002 edition. An article called Hitters Rule by Tom Verducci, talked about vision training and how players exercised their eyes by focusing on objects up close and then looking at objects in the distance to improve what is termed accommodation. The hitter while in the on deck circle held his bat up close to his eyes looking at the trademark on the bat and then looked at the center fielders position. We teach many vision drills to our students and teach USA used many of them while training.

SBFAMILY said:

How long can the eyes focus on one spot? Mistake many make.

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The notion of focusing on a spot, such as the center of the ball, is what leads to swing issues ..... and gives a sense of speeding up the game. Simply a bad idea IMO.

My questions to you is what vision drills do you teach?

SBFAMILY said:

My questions to you is what vision drills do you teach?

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SBF, I won't have time for about a week to answer this .... but if you do a search you'll see that I've addressed this in reasonable detail ..... I've posted on this topic multiple times and included GIFs (both here and at BBD).

No probelm I can wait. Just post the details on why and what you teach. I'm sure we can all learn.

SBFAMILY said:

No probelm I can wait. Just post the details on why and what you teach. I'm sure we can all learn.

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If you are teaching a hard focus on a spot, then IMO you can learn a great deal ...... information that is hugely helpful IMO.