Deep, informative, passionate, and well written...
Nice work, 2 bucket
Nice work, 2 bucket
Tracking the ball
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FiveFrameSwing
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Pretty much the opposite of what many have heard.
Post makes a good case for why it is important for B-level players to migrate to A-level as quickly as possible where they can get used to facing better pitching.
This is a very simplistic comparison but in many ways its the same as how children learn to read. The more they see words and how their written they have experience interpreting meaning and context and anticipating where things are going. I often here people say watch the ball hit the bat. I'm not sure i really ever remember seeing the ball hit the bat?
Note the use of their when it should have been they're.
Note the use of their when it should have been they're.
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Nice article BUCKETDAD. It's a elegant way of saying what we teach our kids, see ball, hit ball.
I know each of us have our own way or discipline we teach our DD/students/team. But for me I've always felt the building block starts from the neck up and between the ears. Then we can improve the physical swing. I feel the mental part takes time, and can be tricky as its different for each person. I want them confident in contact young, even if the mechanics are off a tad. Once the mental recognition and personal confidence is there, then we tweak the mechanics.
Working on mechanics first just seams backwards to me. The mind controls the body, not the body the mind. I'm not a huge fan of the tee, we're not playing tee-ball and not trying to see how far we can hit a stationary object. I need mine to constantly see a moving object ( ball ) and make another moving object ( bat ) make solid contact.
I want them to see as many different pitches and pitchers as they can. I've said before we work a large portion of practice on live game type pitching. IMO, you have to.
Highlighted are some very good food for thought and how I see the article.
First of all, Vision in Sports Performance can fall into a 4-part mental process. That's right I said MENTAL I know the eyes are muscles and some people want to do eye exercises to make them stronger. Good luck with that. Sounds familiar -people are also over-training teams and then playing a 50-plus game season tired and hurt. But the 4-part process is actually mental, not as physical as we would like to believe. We have destroyed so many hitters by making it all about the physical and ignored the mental plane -let's not do the same thing with vision.
Part 1 - Capture
The capture process is based on recognition. Without going into every dynamic of recognition (which would be impossible), let's just agree on this, "The more we see something, the easier it is to recognize it." Do I need strong eye muscles for that? Should I put my eyes through a freakin' workout in order to have better recognition? No. I need to simply create files and store those files in my short or long term memory, which brings me to phase 2.
Part 2 - Memorize/File
Memorizing pitches (and how they move)and storing them as files is based on focus and understanding the difference between the "image" and the "object". The object is reality and the image is my perception of reality. That is why hitters will swing at pitches in the dirt and then say it wasn't low (and to them, it wasn't low). The whole ballpark saw a better version of the "object" and the hitter saw an "image." You see, this is what happens when you have eye doctors talking about hitting when they got cut from Little League. You get confusion. So your better hitters are always gonna come from the parts of the country where they can play more baseball and softball and see more pitches so they can create-record-store more files. Not do eye exercises. (I am laughing so hard right now and people are looking at me. Lol.) We don't go study math to get better at English.
Part 3 - Recall
Recollection is key. Because now that we have created all these memories, we now have to bring them back or at least cross-reference what we are seeing in the present atbat with what we have already experienced in past atbats. So I can lay off a rise-ball because I have seen thousands of them since I was 14. B-level travel players probably won't be very good at laying off that pitch. They don't have enough files stored and haven't seen enough good rise balls. This is why Michael Jordan couldn't hit, but I'll bet you he could ace all those frivolous vision drill-exercises, and video-games.
Part 4 - Interpret
Interpreting is about about combining or putting the first 3 parts together. We need to develop those three either together or independently with hitting drills.
By taking the bat and the ball out of the "vision" training process, recognition/response is not happening as fast and efficient as it needs to for whatever level you are hitting at. Your athletes are getting good at seeing numbers on tennis balls and there are no numbers on a baseball or a softball (hence, no recognition). And besides, at the highest levels of play, a hitter cannot stare at the ball -he needs to see part of the ball (and part of where its going) in order to be on-time. So I hope you are not teaching hitters to watch the ball throughout its entire flight. Looking for numbers will cause bad tracking habits and actually speed up the pitch.
Secondly, the batter's box is not a tv screen so the computers and video-games don't enhance recognition either. Hitters need to create files. Files and more files and then store them. Only then can recognition really and truly happen.
I know each of us have our own way or discipline we teach our DD/students/team. But for me I've always felt the building block starts from the neck up and between the ears. Then we can improve the physical swing. I feel the mental part takes time, and can be tricky as its different for each person. I want them confident in contact young, even if the mechanics are off a tad. Once the mental recognition and personal confidence is there, then we tweak the mechanics.
Working on mechanics first just seams backwards to me. The mind controls the body, not the body the mind. I'm not a huge fan of the tee, we're not playing tee-ball and not trying to see how far we can hit a stationary object. I need mine to constantly see a moving object ( ball ) and make another moving object ( bat ) make solid contact.
I want them to see as many different pitches and pitchers as they can. I've said before we work a large portion of practice on live game type pitching. IMO, you have to.
Highlighted are some very good food for thought and how I see the article.
First of all, Vision in Sports Performance can fall into a 4-part mental process. That's right I said MENTAL I know the eyes are muscles and some people want to do eye exercises to make them stronger. Good luck with that. Sounds familiar -people are also over-training teams and then playing a 50-plus game season tired and hurt. But the 4-part process is actually mental, not as physical as we would like to believe. We have destroyed so many hitters by making it all about the physical and ignored the mental plane -let's not do the same thing with vision.
Part 1 - Capture
The capture process is based on recognition. Without going into every dynamic of recognition (which would be impossible), let's just agree on this, "The more we see something, the easier it is to recognize it." Do I need strong eye muscles for that? Should I put my eyes through a freakin' workout in order to have better recognition? No. I need to simply create files and store those files in my short or long term memory, which brings me to phase 2.
Part 2 - Memorize/File
Memorizing pitches (and how they move)and storing them as files is based on focus and understanding the difference between the "image" and the "object". The object is reality and the image is my perception of reality. That is why hitters will swing at pitches in the dirt and then say it wasn't low (and to them, it wasn't low). The whole ballpark saw a better version of the "object" and the hitter saw an "image." You see, this is what happens when you have eye doctors talking about hitting when they got cut from Little League. You get confusion. So your better hitters are always gonna come from the parts of the country where they can play more baseball and softball and see more pitches so they can create-record-store more files. Not do eye exercises. (I am laughing so hard right now and people are looking at me. Lol.) We don't go study math to get better at English.
Part 3 - Recall
Recollection is key. Because now that we have created all these memories, we now have to bring them back or at least cross-reference what we are seeing in the present atbat with what we have already experienced in past atbats. So I can lay off a rise-ball because I have seen thousands of them since I was 14. B-level travel players probably won't be very good at laying off that pitch. They don't have enough files stored and haven't seen enough good rise balls. This is why Michael Jordan couldn't hit, but I'll bet you he could ace all those frivolous vision drill-exercises, and video-games.
Part 4 - Interpret
Interpreting is about about combining or putting the first 3 parts together. We need to develop those three either together or independently with hitting drills.
By taking the bat and the ball out of the "vision" training process, recognition/response is not happening as fast and efficient as it needs to for whatever level you are hitting at. Your athletes are getting good at seeing numbers on tennis balls and there are no numbers on a baseball or a softball (hence, no recognition). And besides, at the highest levels of play, a hitter cannot stare at the ball -he needs to see part of the ball (and part of where its going) in order to be on-time. So I hope you are not teaching hitters to watch the ball throughout its entire flight. Looking for numbers will cause bad tracking habits and actually speed up the pitch.
Secondly, the batter's box is not a tv screen so the computers and video-games don't enhance recognition either. Hitters need to create files. Files and more files and then store them. Only then can recognition really and truly happen.
- Dec 29, 2010
- 439
- 0
GD, is this from Rob Crews blog?
I just copied and pasted, then highlighted what I enjoyed most from the posting by BUCKETDAD on page 1 of this thread.
Didn't know you was a no teeer too!!! Not to stir a big fuss, but do you mind me asking about TCB balls. I'm not for them either, unless you can pitch them at game speed... Also I really think every Girl should start out learning everything there is to know about pitching, and whether she can or not continue learning every style, pre-motion ect... the rest of her time playing... even more than pitchers, because they are more focused on their choices. When teamates ask DD if the other pitcher is fast, she says stuff like "She stretches like yoga, swims like Mark Phelps, and drags her foot like bowler & leaves a snake track...ect.. Lotz of files. Would love to see someone sneak in the a slingshot pitch on her in a game...
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You'll have to ask someone else opinions on TCB balls. We don't use them as I haven't been in a situation where a pitcher is throwing them in a game.
I feel the same way for weighted balls as a pitching practice tool. But I'm not knocking them or anyone who feels they help their girls. As with any advice, you take some and leave some. What works for team X might not be the road team Z finds successful. That's what makes the game fun from the coaches bucket. Whoever can take what they can get their hands on and squeeze 110% out of them wins.
Cannonball
Ex "Expert"
- Feb 25, 2009
- 4,891
- 113
Thought I'd post this pic of dd and you can look at eye location. (Especially in first one.) I hope this works since I had to cut and paste it from the school website.
Those are some cool looking school uniforms!!
