Eye Training

[FiveFrameSwing]

RD, I sent this to my kids hitting instructor...former D1 BASEBALL coach, 10K hitting lessons over 30 years. I thought this response was pretty impressive.
"Interesting. Beware of doc studies. They can complicate simple things. Good article but the subjects are strong adult hitters that can keep the head still through contact. Their core is stable through contact. They are much more able to use soft focus to tracking hard focus because their body control is at such a high auto response level. When the pitch gets faster they do not change the process. Many concentrate on facial relaxation during practice. They also have mastered the 3 parts to timing a pitch. One of my game ?'s is did you see the ball well? When the older hitters get to a certain level we do vision tests some are written and times."

Thoughts?

He acknowledges that it is a "good article". He doesn't refute the article .... which would be foolish on his part.

Instead he suggests that kids should be taught differently in terms of eye usage. I'm going to disagree with that.

 

[Westwind]

I used duct tape on a batting helmet to narrow the view of the wearer, basically my dd's put the helmet on and I put the tape vertically just a bit wider than the outside corners of their eyes. My intent was to cause them to physically move their head and track the ball by limiting peripheral vision during front toss. It definitely challenged them. Tracking the ball was definitely harder with side vision limited. They always seemed to see the ball well after removing the tape.

I felt like we got good results from this but if using peripheral vision is critical and sharp focus on the ball can be detrimental it seems this drill is something that could have unintended consequences.

 

[rdbass]

Can UltimEyes app train your brain to give you superhuman vision?

 

[marauderssoftball]

Improving The Hitters Eye: Tracking | FPSixty

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

I used duct tape on a batting helmet to narrow the view of the wearer, basically my dd's put the helmet on and I put the tape vertically just a bit wider than the outside corners of their eyes. My intent was to cause them to physically move their head and track the ball by limiting peripheral vision during front toss. It definitely challenged them. Tracking the ball was definitely harder with side vision limited. They always seemed to see the ball well after removing the tape.

I felt like we got good results from this but if using peripheral vision is critical and sharp focus on the ball can be detrimental it seems this drill is something that could have unintended consequences.

While a soft focus is important, so is having the center of the eye directed towards the ball ... some use the cue of keeping the nose on the ball.

 

[GunnerShotgun]

Improving The Hitters Eye: Tracking | FPSixty

My limited understanding is that this is the exact opposite of how you want your hitters to focus when hitting the ball.

 

[marauderssoftball]

My limited understanding is that this is the exact opposite of how you want your hitters to focus when hitting the ball.

Why is that? And I really am asking for more knowledge, not being rude in any way!

 

[GunnerShotgun]

There is often an abrupt change in the ball's trajectory
just before the player hits it: the baseball breaks and the
tennis ball bounces. Like batting instructors, tennis
coaches teach beginners to use the strategy with the
anticipatory saccade in order to see the ball hit the racket;
this strategy is probably only useful as a learning tool.
Therefore, we suggest that neither baseball players nor
tennis players keep their eyes on the ball. The success
of the good players is due to faster smooth-pursuit eye
movements, a good ability to suppress the vestibuloocular
reflex, and the occasional use of an anticipatory
saccade.

Sometimes our subjects used the strategy of tracking
with head and eyes and falling behind in the last 5 ft,
and sometimes they used the strategy of tracking with
head and eyes but also using an anticipatory saccade. It
has been speculated (L. Matin, pers. com.) that athletes
might use the latter strategy when they are learning the
trajectory of a new pitch and the former strategy when
hitting home runs.

 

[marauderssoftball]

On breaking pitches I can see the reason it may not help as much. The only thing that can help that is taking a lot of live pitches, anticipating what the pitcher is going to pitch, etc. For a basic way of training the eye to pick up the ball at contact I think the drill I linked to would work well. If you placed the balls at different heights and different spots on the plate it would help recognition as well.

I can't remember where I heard/saw it but overall you never really see the ball, your brain anticipates where it will be most of the time. But giving your brain a frame of reference for where the ball could be helps when you don't have a consistent pitcher to work with.

 

[GunnerShotgun]

I think that if the balls were setting on a tee and not moving that would defeat the purpose of learning how the pitches moved.

I understood the study to state that when you are learning how to hit specific movement pitches you should use a jump saccade with the eyes (track the ball and then jump to where you think the ball will be when it hits the bat).

When you are hitting in a game you should use smooth pursuit until the last "X" amount of feet and then use peripheral vision to hit the ball (since you can't see it hit the bat anyways).