Keep your eyes on the ball?

[PEPPERS]

E Mail From Howard Carrier:

Dan good to hear from you. I have been using the Nike Strobe glasses for about two years. It really helps to anticipate where the ball will be instead of where it is and in the beginning they tend to top the ball. Once they take the glasses off they center up on the ball very quickly and are more focused on seeing the ball.

When Tweeks was here a few years ago he was showing me a two hand softball toss to get the student to try and catch the ball more in front of them instead of letting the ball get so deep as the eyes turn inward or what is termed accommodation or convergence.

Then we toss the balls so they cross to add more focus and concentration in their ability to catch the balls. Great drill and with the glasses it takes it much further.

The glasses have several settings and you can see demonstrations by Googling their web site. One is a basketball player throwing tennis balls against the wall and having to shuffle step to get to the ball and then anticipating the flight of the ball. In other words allowing the brain to work the eye hand coordination and the ability to catch the ball.

For years you have heard using a patch over the dominate eye when practicing hitting. With the glasses you can actually turn off either lenses making it dark like the eye patch.

This allows where the head must be turned when hitting inside or outside pitches and demonstrates you cannot keep the head totally still and depend totally on eye movement only. The kids love the glasses and how it challenges their abilities. I have had a few kids that said it upsets their stomachs and we just do not use them if it happens.

I know the University of Cincinnati had used the glasses for a couple years and had a vision training program for the baseball team using the glasses.

Hope this helps in some way.

I’ve never heard of the glasses before, but when I was a kid I read where one ML player would toss a ball in a room with a strobe light on to improve his vision. We did it, but I never knew if it helped or not, the same article he would take a record player put dots on the turntable and use a pencil point to touch the dots as they rotated on the turntable, we also did that.

We finished second in The Babe Ruth League in the US that year, we lost to a team from Texas, so maybe it did help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4txQ_ZWfsZI

 

[fourts]

SBF is welcome to stop in for his own hitting session, bring a student, bring in multiple students, or observe a hitting session in progress ... I'm pretty flexible wrt his visit.

Don't forget what you wrote earlier ...

Your confusing agenda with fact! Again I'll ask for the "Hanson Principle" as I understand it, it requires us to visually confirm theory from fact. So show us YOUR work and we will all apply the HP.

 

[rdbass]

For the new posters:
The Hanson Principle (… the one to use)
“Always compare what anybody tells you about the swing to slow motion clips of the best hitters in the world”.
-- Mark Hanson

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Your confusing agenda with fact! Again I'll ask for the "Hanson Principle" as I understand it, it requires us to visually confirm theory from fact. So show us YOUR work and we will all apply the HP.

The Hanson Principle doesn't state that we use a particular hitter. Here, re-read it and see if you can follow it this time. And remember ... you don't have an agenda.

The Hanson Principle:
"Always compare what anybody tells you about the swing to slow motion clips of the best hitters in the world."
-- Mark Hanson

 

[PEPPERS]

The Hanson Principle doesn't state that we use a particular hitter. Here, re-read it and see if you can follow it this time. And remember ... you don't have an agenda.

The Hanson Principle:
"Always compare what anybody tells you about the swing to slow motion clips of the best hitters in the world." -- Mark Hanson

IMO the big hole in the Hanson Principal, is that people observe the same thing and all have different ideals of what took place. Sometime we see what we want to see and our mind adds or subtracts details.

Many studies have been conducted on eye witness testimony and it has proven to be very unreliable.

I think there is a place for it, but it is not the Holy Grail of hitting JMO.

 

[rdbass]

IMO the big hole in the Hanson Principal, is that people observe the same thing and all have different ideals of what took place. Sometime we see what we want to see and our mind adds or subtracts details.

Many studies have been conducted on eye witness testimony and it has proven to be very unreliable.

I think there is a place for it, but it is not the Holy Grail of hitting JMO.

That I agree with. I also have learned the more I learn about hitting the better I see what I'm suppose to see. Si?

 

[SBFAMILY]

PEPPERS in your line of work, I bet you encounter that and would be a expert. My brother has the same thing happen when he is in court.

 

[CoogansBluff]

I think y'all make a great point about human nature - that we tend to see what we are conditioned or want to see.

However, I wouldn't call that a 'hole' in the Hanson Principle. I would compare it to the advice of having an inside-out swing. That doesn't guarantee you're going to hit the ball, but it's still the best way to try.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

IMO the big hole in the Hanson Principal, is that people observe the same thing and all have different ideals of what took place. Sometime we see what we want to see and our mind adds or subtracts details.

Many studies have been conducted on eye witness testimony and it has proven to be very unreliable.

I think there is a place for it, but it is not the Holy Grail of hitting JMO.

The Hanson Principle is not full proof by any means. There can be questions regarding what "under the hood" actions produce what results ... and that's where you need to pick up a bat, swing, film and review. The Hanson Principle is good at filtering out bad information when someone advises actions that contradict what is observed.

 

[SBFAMILY]

OBSERVED. That is the key word as PEPPERS pointed out. You can ask 6 people in a court room what they saw and each will see it different. Good example is what you like to argue about the action of the back elbow, while I know 6 well established hitting coaches that see it different then you do. So each of us see it different doesn't mean it is right or wrong. Opinions we all have them. What someone pointed out in a post in the last hour. How can you take what you observe and teach it to a 12 year old that you are working with. Few can.