no depth preception problems hitting
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Is that a medical diagnosis (medical vision issue etc) or a perception based on her results. If you can share a little more info on what is going on maybe a few folks here can give you something to work with.
- Oct 12, 2009
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I have a kid on my team who I think may have this problem, but I'm trying to figure out an easy way to test this. I know that in the AF, they used to test this by having pilots line up two vertical sticks as best they could.
- Dec 28, 2008
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I'm no eye doctor, but I can share a little on the subject because I use a software product called the Vizual Edge Performance Trainer with my students as a test of their eye muscles, and to help them improve. The reality is that our eyes have muscles in them, just like the rest of the body, and the muscles we use the most become stronger and those that we don't use become weaker. There are several different topics on this thread regarding sight:
Visual Alignment - This is the ability for the brain to coordinate what the right eye is telling it, with what the left eye is telling it. The vertical sticks drill would be a good test of that.
Eye Dominance - This is the body's "chosen/stronger" eye. Most of us have 1 eye that is more accurate in the information that it feeds to the brain. A simple test for this is to stand about 15 feet in front of your DD and have her hold her arm completely outstretched with 1 finger up in the air trying to line it up with the middle of your face. She should then close either eye and see what happens to the finger. Then open both eyes, line the finger up again, then close the other eye. Odds are good that when she closes one eye it will appear to her as though her finger is now way over by your shoulders or perhaps further. But with the other eye closed the finger stays pretty much dead bang in the center of your face. The eye that is open when the finger is still in the center of your face is her dominant eye. So what? Reason I bring that up is that some right handed batters are very much right eye dominant, and their left eye is way off. So unless they purposely stand in a way that they can see the ball the entire way with their right eye so that their brain has good information to process, they will naturally be "listening" to their left eye until the ball cross the plane with their nose, at which point the brain will transfer to the right eye, but unfortunately they've had bad input. So they need to really ensure that they turn their head so that the pitcher and ball are always on the right side of their nose. A good indication of a dominance issue is a girl that does tremendous hitting off of a tee and from side soft toss, but can't hit well from front soft toss.
Convergence - This is the ability of the muscles in the eye to focus on something that is coming closer to the person. Catchers typically have a great ability to do this, and I'm sure you can all imagine why. They use those muscles so much. Typically their having built those muscles then allows them to be really good hitters (assuming practice for timing) because batters must be able to track something coming in. This is
Divergence - This is the ability of the muscles in the eye to focus on something that is going away from the person. Typically pitchers have high abilities in terms of this because of their constant focus on the ball as it moves away from them.
Depth Perception - This is the ability to judge the distance, angle, speed of something that is further away. Great outfielders have the ability to perceive the depth of something instantly. Others like myself need a longer time to process. When I played outfield I had mentally count out "one thousand one" in my head, and then I was able to track the ball. Some people perceive things closer than they or, others further away. Typically problems with depth perception involve longer distances than just 40-43 feet, but if depth perception is truly the problem, then it would manifest itself by the player either always being early or always being late, but she would be on the same plane as the ball (not under or over) on a pretty consistent basis.
With the software package I mentioned it is easy to test, and many sports eye doctors use something similar. On the field it would be hard to know for sure or test because of all of the other factors. For instance I throw the ball up for an outfielder and she puts her glove up immediately and goes the wrong way. She may have a depth perception issue, or she may just be afraid. Same with batting. They may just be afraid to strikeout so they wait a long time to ensure they only swing at strikes so they are always late and always hit the ball to the right side weakly. Typically players learn how to compensate with their timing when they have small issues. Those that have severe problems are the ones that need help to build up their eye muscles.
Hope it helps and gets you on the right track and don't forget ... Google is your friend
Visual Alignment - This is the ability for the brain to coordinate what the right eye is telling it, with what the left eye is telling it. The vertical sticks drill would be a good test of that.
Eye Dominance - This is the body's "chosen/stronger" eye. Most of us have 1 eye that is more accurate in the information that it feeds to the brain. A simple test for this is to stand about 15 feet in front of your DD and have her hold her arm completely outstretched with 1 finger up in the air trying to line it up with the middle of your face. She should then close either eye and see what happens to the finger. Then open both eyes, line the finger up again, then close the other eye. Odds are good that when she closes one eye it will appear to her as though her finger is now way over by your shoulders or perhaps further. But with the other eye closed the finger stays pretty much dead bang in the center of your face. The eye that is open when the finger is still in the center of your face is her dominant eye. So what? Reason I bring that up is that some right handed batters are very much right eye dominant, and their left eye is way off. So unless they purposely stand in a way that they can see the ball the entire way with their right eye so that their brain has good information to process, they will naturally be "listening" to their left eye until the ball cross the plane with their nose, at which point the brain will transfer to the right eye, but unfortunately they've had bad input. So they need to really ensure that they turn their head so that the pitcher and ball are always on the right side of their nose. A good indication of a dominance issue is a girl that does tremendous hitting off of a tee and from side soft toss, but can't hit well from front soft toss.
Convergence - This is the ability of the muscles in the eye to focus on something that is coming closer to the person. Catchers typically have a great ability to do this, and I'm sure you can all imagine why. They use those muscles so much. Typically their having built those muscles then allows them to be really good hitters (assuming practice for timing) because batters must be able to track something coming in. This is
Divergence - This is the ability of the muscles in the eye to focus on something that is going away from the person. Typically pitchers have high abilities in terms of this because of their constant focus on the ball as it moves away from them.
Depth Perception - This is the ability to judge the distance, angle, speed of something that is further away. Great outfielders have the ability to perceive the depth of something instantly. Others like myself need a longer time to process. When I played outfield I had mentally count out "one thousand one" in my head, and then I was able to track the ball. Some people perceive things closer than they or, others further away. Typically problems with depth perception involve longer distances than just 40-43 feet, but if depth perception is truly the problem, then it would manifest itself by the player either always being early or always being late, but she would be on the same plane as the ball (not under or over) on a pretty consistent basis.
With the software package I mentioned it is easy to test, and many sports eye doctors use something similar. On the field it would be hard to know for sure or test because of all of the other factors. For instance I throw the ball up for an outfielder and she puts her glove up immediately and goes the wrong way. She may have a depth perception issue, or she may just be afraid. Same with batting. They may just be afraid to strikeout so they wait a long time to ensure they only swing at strikes so they are always late and always hit the ball to the right side weakly. Typically players learn how to compensate with their timing when they have small issues. Those that have severe problems are the ones that need help to build up their eye muscles.
Hope it helps and gets you on the right track and don't forget ... Google is your friend
- Oct 12, 2009
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Then you've got to wonder whether FP is the right game for her.
I'm going out on a limb here, but suggesting DD should quit may not have been the kind of help OP had in mind.
If the girl is really determined to play and works hard at it, Im sure she can learn to overcome her disability. I have two friends that are both blind in one eye, one is a very good basketball player and the other had a four year college scholarship as a baseball pitcher. Neither of them should have any depth perception, yet both have been able to develop some way of relating distance with only one eye.
- Oct 12, 2009
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With only one eye, you're simply going to have depth perception problems and there's no way to death with the problem.
You HAVE to have two eyes for depth perception.
Pitching is about the only option, but even then she's going to be vulnerable to come-backers.
On of my coaches when I was little had a glass eye due to a childhood accident. He played through HS and was a great influence to me. He switch hit, but felt he could see the ball much better hitting from the left side since his right eye was his good eye and it was closer to the pitcher. He really had to turn his head hitting righty to make sure the right eye had a path to see.
While this is a huge obstacle, I encourage her to keep working hard. This is one of those life lessons on perseverance that the player, her teammates and her coaches can appreciate.
While this is a huge obstacle, I encourage her to keep working hard. This is one of those life lessons on perseverance that the player, her teammates and her coaches can appreciate.
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