Keep your eyes on the ball?

[GunnerShotgun]

Two strategies:

The optimal hitting strategy: track the ball with smooth pursuit eye movements and fall behind in the last five feet.

The optimal learning strategy: track the ball over the first part of its trajectory with smooth pursuit eye movements, make a fast saccadic eye movement to the predicted point of bat-ball collision, then let the ball catch up to the eye. The batter observes the ball, makes a prediction of where it will hit his bat, sees the actual position of the ball when it hits the bat, and uses this feedback to learn to predict better next time.

 

[knightsb]

DD has a tendency to pull her head early like she is trying to immediately see where the ball is going to go. I understand that a player may loose sight of a fast pitch the last several feet, however when I throw front toss, which most times isn't that fast, it seems to me she should be able to track that ball to the bat. It is during these front toss sessions we try to work on "seeing" the ball contact the bat.

 

[SBFAMILY]

This is from a famous Baseball Player , even thou his drugs issues cloud the picture: Do this:\\

When Barry Bonds would help at the Griffey International School of Baseball, he explained how he tracked the ball and people there named it the Barry Bonds drill.

He would show the glove on the end of a bat and tell the students if you catch a ball by looking (tracking) the ball to the glove, then why not catch it with the bat doing the same thing. He would get in the batter’s box and put a glove on the top hand. Hitters who are left handed batters use a righted glove and hitters who are right handed batters use a left handed glove. In his case it would be on his left hand. They feed a ball into a pitching machine and he would load and then stride and catch the ball with the glove with his head down as he caught it, tracking the ball into the glove.

He started behind where the catcher sets up and would move forward one step after each catch until he was about 15 feet forward and then would reverse his direction and step backwards one step at a time.

Then he would use his bat and repeat the same thing.

He was working low to high, slow to fast as he progressed and then worked high to low and fast to slow as he reversed his direction.

When Crystl had cages and pitching machines she would demonstrate this at clinics. She would also allow the hitters to try it, so there have been several hundred people actually witness it.

 

[straightleg]

SB I forgot about that one...good stuff!!!
I remember the hitting portion, just forgot about the glove portion.

Howard showed that to me along time ago


SL

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

I have an 'AGENDA' to make my DD a better hitter(feels good to get that out).

Looks like Bustos head is down at contact to me. Maybe my understanding of 'head down at contact' is incorrect?
I'm sure someone will clear up the confusion.

I don't view this as 'head down', so much as simply tracking the ball.

I teach my hitters to see the result of their swing. Coincidently, in all of the clips I have of Bustos she does the same thing. What she is not doing is keeping her head down after contact … more she is viewing the result of her hit. What Bustos is doing well here is keeping her head still as she turns the barrel, and this assists her swing efficiency.

If you followed the advice given earlier ... I put a piece of white duct tape on the top of the tee with the letters HD, head down, and tell hitters you want to see the tape after the ball leaves the tee ... then you are encouraging the opposite.

 

[CJ D]

So after 7 pages, 5 of which I have bitten my tongue on because I finally broke down and read "how to make friends and influence people", it seems as though I shall continue to teach as I have been. There have been a few folks who have posted why the eyes can't keep up with a 90mph fastball, but not why you shouldn't try. There is also no mention of peripheral vision, which is why I think when CB is doing the tee drill (the acronym escapes me now) at a 45, her head is focusing on the top of the tee when the ball leaves, and stays there.

My concern, and the reason I started this thread was just because I had seen a couple times on here people talking about very poor coaching that girls were getting with phrases like "keep your head down, watch it hit the bat, follow it in"....I had begun to feel a bit inadequate....lol.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

FFS, when you can teach what she does and when you can actually hit the way she does you may mention her name.

Until then could you make that with a little more cream please.

“Tracking such a ball as it crosses the plate would require head and eye rotations on excess of 1000 degrees per second: a century of scientific literature says that humans cannot track targets moving faster than 90 degrees per second.”

“At this point, the head position was changing faster than the angular position of the ball, and the vestibulo ocular eye movements compensated for the premature head movement. The batter was apparently giving his head a head start. Why would he want to do this? Because the head is heavier than the eye and consequently takes longer to get it moving: therefore, in the beginning of the movement, as the head starts turning to the right (ahead of the ball), the vestibular system in the inner ear signals the oculomotor system to make a compensating leftward eye movement. This allows the head to start turning while the gaze remains fixed on the ball.”

“However, this vestibulo ocular compensation must soon stop. In the last half of the balls flight, the eye and head must both be moving to the right, and the batter must, therefore, suppress his vestibular ocular reflex, so that the tracking head movements does not produce compensating eye movements that would take his eye off the ball. The professional athlete was very good at suppressing his vestibule ocular reflex. Most of our students subjects tracked the ball with either head movements alone or eye movements alone, but not both.”

“After the ball crossed the plate, the students usually made large eye or head movements, whereas the gaze of the professional athlete was quite steady.”

Page 181 of Keep your Eye On The Ball.

We have taught this to our students for years! Close your eyes as a right handed hitter while looking towards first base and turn your head towards the pitcher. Now tell me what direction your eyes moved? Towards the pitcher or the catchers position. At stride with the head getting a head start, which way did your eyes move?

SBF, I have taught the same ... and have pointed out the book you are quoting several times over the years. It helps optimize one's ability to track a ball.

As for your lead off comment ... that made me laugh. Heck, I'm still waiting for Bustos to teach what she does. The clip that Rdbass keeps showing of her pulling the barrel out front (and making a late hand pivot), may be what she teaches, but it is not what she does in her game swings.

 

[CJ D]

Btw, here was the gif of that. Down the page a bit. http://www.discussfastpitch.com/sof...e-any-comments-their-hitters-mechanics-6.html

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Sometimes we see what we want to see and refuse to admit we make mistakes.

Some of your post recommends to watch the best players and do what they do, which IMO is easier said than done. I am more interested in the training, drills and dedication required to get to that point we see as an end result.

CB is not the only one who I have heard tracking the ball and head down at contact, a college baseball coach (he according to Alabama HC had more former players in MLB than any current coach) was a guest speaker at Alabama softball camp and Alabama staff also preached tracking the ball and head down at contact. These successful players and coaches instructions along with my experience is enough to make me believe there is something to this concept of head down at contact.

Tracking the ball to contact is one thing, having players keep their head down after contact is another thing.

 

[straightleg]

Head down works in many sports...The best know it and do it, just like Bustos
Common knowledge among elite hitting and golfing instructors











Straightleg