How do you teach tracking the ball?

[SBFAMILY]

Today is Howard's Birthday ! He has given the softball world many years of his time and many young kids have learned more than softball from him. My dd included. The ceiling fan, did get me in hot water with the wife. The dd taped playing cards on it and she was not happy!

 

[PEPPERS]

This one is simple, I take a tennis ball and place a colored dot on the tennis ball (you can find the stick on dots in the office supply section Wal-Mart). I have the kids stand as in a batters stance, no bat, toss the tennis ball have them yell the color as soon as they identify the color. They track the ball all the way and catch it with the back hand as the position them selves to contact.

When I was playing years a go we tossed rubber balls at each other with a strobe light, but never hit with a bat. I also had an old record player used a pencil and had small dots on the surface where you put the record and would turn on the record player and practice touching the dots with a pencil. Seems I had read where a ML player used this to train his eyes and I duplicated it. I’m 57 so this was years ago.

 

[jinjet95]

We discovered 2 years ago that my dd had a condition called convergence excess- almost the opposite of lazy eye. One eye tracked an object moving toward her with no problem, the other moved past the object before coming back to focus on it. No wonder she was having trouble hitting. She went through 8 weeks of eye therapy. A couple of the exercises were very similar to the pencil exercise mentioned in an earlier post. I'm happy to say she hits very well now and has moved into the lead off spot. The only thing I can add to the above is if a player is having a lot of difficulty tracking the ball when they are using a proper stance and head postion, then you may want to suggest they get a comprehensive eye exam to rule out a convergence or other eye problem. These types of eye issues cannot be found with a routine eye exam that only tests vision, such as used in a pediatrician's office - my daughter saw 20/20 but couldin't track movement well. They need to see an opthamologist to get a comprehensive exam.

 

[Hitter]

This one is simple, I take a tennis ball and place a colored dot on the tennis ball (you can find the stick on dots in the office supply section Wal-Mart). I have the kids stand as in a batters stance, no bat, toss the tennis ball have them yell the color as soon as they identify the color. They track the ball all the way and catch it with the back hand as the position them selves to contact.

When I was playing years a go we tossed rubber balls at each other with a strobe light, but never hit with a bat. I also had an old record player used a pencil and had small dots on the surface where you put the record and would turn on the record player and practice touching the dots with a pencil. Seems I had read where a ML player used this to train his eyes and I duplicated it. I’m 57 so this was years ago.

Thanks Dan for the birthday wishes...61 and I am still picking daisies verses helping push them up from the ground!

I used an old record player table that had 78, 45 and 33 &1/3. Anything much above 45 to 48 RPM is challenging to read. I used a piece of plastic with the dry erase markers and would put a series of numbers or words and they would have to tell me what they saw. TSW would try this also read the name of the record company etc.

This is what I was hoping for was an exchange of ideas on what others have used or tried.

Thanks Howard

 

[Hitter]

We discovered 2 years ago that my dd had a condition called convergence excess- almost the opposite of lazy eye. One eye tracked an object moving toward her with no problem, the other moved past the object before coming back to focus on it. No wonder she was having trouble hitting. She went through 8 weeks of eye therapy. A couple of the exercises were very similar to the pencil exercise mentioned in an earlier post. I'm happy to say she hits very well now and has moved into the lead off spot. The only thing I can add to the above is if a player is having a lot of difficulty tracking the ball when they are using a proper stance and head postion, then you may want to suggest they get a comprehensive eye exam to rule out a convergence or other eye problem. These types of eye issues cannot be found with a routine eye exam that only tests vision, such as used in a pediatrician's office - my daughter saw 20/20 but couldin't track movement well. They need to see an opthamologist to get a comprehensive exam.

I have never had one of these cases yet. I have seen when soft tossing that the hitters head moves a little or almost a twitch. We found out she had very little peripheral vision and the vision specialist used the pencil drill and she had a machine she took home that was kind of like how they test for drivers license exams to track her improvement.

Thanks for sharing...Howard

 

[PEPPERS]

Happy birthday Howard!!!!!!

I would like to thank you for your tips on the forum, I have only been a member a short period of time, but I’ve learned so much from you and the other fine members.

 

[Chris O'Leary]

Many times hitters who struggle may not being seeing the ball well or what some term a good two eyed look.

Make sure they get a two-eyed look and don't reverse-rotate their shoulders too much.

Make sure they track the ball by moving their eyes more than their head.

 

[Chris O'Leary]

A method I've read about, but haven't used, is simply having the hitter in the batter's box (during pitching practice) without a bat so she learns to read balls & strikes. Taking the pressure off having to hit lets her focus on ball path. Have her call BALL or STRIKE at the point where she would decide to swing, then see if the cather & pitcher agree!

I have used this in baseball, especially if they have trouble reading a particular pitch.

It's also good for the pitchers.

 

[Erik]

Howard,



Happy Birthday






EL

 

[Bouldersdad]

We use a glove instead of a bat. glove is on the top hand. goes to toe touch then catches the ball at connection......... batting cage works best live pitching works well for the advanced hitters.........newer ones can get extended to fast and get nailed............. Happy B Day H........... the top 3% said to tell you she loves ya and wishes a happy one for the big boy

Tim