Improving your vision

[champion17]

Hey everyone, what drills are good to improve your baseball related vision?

[Jake Patterson]

Hey everyone, what drills are good to improve your baseball related vision?

What precisely are you trying to improve upon? Hitting? Fielding?

[RichardLillard1]

What about both?

[champion17]

i meant to say hitting but now that you have suggested both the more the better.

[Jake Patterson]

i meant to say hitting but now that you have suggested both the more the better.
I think we still need more information. What specifically are you having problems with? Picking up the ball out of the pitcher's hand?

There are numerous drills, but they are typically geared toward a very specific issue. Can you provide anymore info???
Not trying to put you off, just trying to understand your problem. Have you had your eyes checked??

[champion17]

my problem sometimes is picking it up from the pitcher.

[Jake Patterson]

my problem sometimes is picking it up from the pitcher.

I don't know if you have access to a tennis ball machine. I have had kids who have had the same problem. One solution was to set them up with the above and to rapid fire balls at a slow speed. The key here is repatition not speed. I would have the player set up about 25' from the machine and with a tennis racket - the object is to make contact with the ball - not swing. the faster you feed the better. You can do the same thing with a pitching machine and a bat. As you improve move back - Once you get to 60' start swinging.

Another drill to improve hand eye coordination is dribbling two tennis balls. Start with 1 ball same hand - then 1 ball alternating hands - then 2 balls same hand - then two balls alternating hands... if you can master that let me know and I can give you more TB drills

Please note: It's difficult to advise without seeing a swing. Can you post a clip ???

[Sultan_1895-1948]

Hey everyone, what drills are good to improve your baseball related vision?

Not really drill related...but

Ever tried staring at one spot for too long. You naturally begin to lose focus. That's no good when you're in the box. Don't keep your eyes in one place for too long before the pitch. Gwynn used to look at the pitchers logo on his hat, and then right before the pitch he would slowly shift his focus toward the pitcher's release point. That's another thing. Release point from the pitcher. Find it. Know it. Become one with it. Its paramount.

You could try not reading or watching movies. Or you could go the Shoeless Joe Jackson route and stare at a candle with your left eye closed (if you're a righty).

HGH is said to help, but I wouldn't recommend that.

[Jake Patterson]

Not really drill related...but


Another thought ... Younger players sometimes have problems seeing the ball because they do not use both eyes. In order to see the ball properly and have good depth perception you need to see the ball with both eyes. To check this - set up at the plate as if hitting. Close the front eye and turn your head so you can see both sides of the mound with the back eye. You may have to open your stance a little....

[dannyboy]

champion17,

Of the .2 or so seconds on a 90 (longer for slower) in which to input info (successfully) from a pitch (from a human), I believe an experienced batter reads location before speed. Sorta like a CF that plays straight-away and on a ball hit right at him, his break is delayed, whereas one hit to either side, his (and I’m talking about the good ones) break is immediate.
For a batter, an extreme is when a pitcher loses it (the pitch) so bad that the catcher cannot catch it, the batter doesn’t even attempt to start swing. Note: a fastball (real fastball) thrown at a batter is similar to a hit directly toward center fielder. Batter cannot avoid being hit, but he certainly does not start (bat direction change) the swing.

I coach high schoolers and it’s difficult, no impossible, to have enough time to properly one on one. Mechanics are important, but they are only one part of the equation.
Mental.
Focus. Real Focus.
Recognition/Decision.
Visual Reaction Time.
Anticipation.
Timing.
Plate Discipline.
Adjustment.

Baseball is (and I know I’ll catch hell) fundamentally a two-player game. Paper, rocks, scissors. A game.
Rose might have said “See the ball, hit the ball” but, at the highest levels the game is considerably more complex and mentally demanding, and I highly doubt that all Rose did, when at bat, was “See the ball…”
Because of the limited time to react, the batter often needs to formulate an expectation of the type and location of the pitch before it is thrown, resulting in poorer performance when that expectation is not correct. At that level, baseball becomes a mental game of outguessing the
opponent.

Cognitive processing contextual interference.
A sample drill I use.
Location Drill:

Pitcher, catcher, batter and plate but no bat. 60 ft. 6 in. Batter points and holds index finger in line with lead forearm in stance. Pitch. One arm swing (lead). Batter points (and holds/freezing at simulated contact point) to location before pitch arrives. He is told to try and recognize pitch location only (not speed) and to attempt to point to eventual contact location BEFORE what would be temporally normal contact time. In other words, to FOCUS on location only (and point) as EARLY AS BATTER IS HUMANLY CAPABLE, regardless of pitch speed. Accuracy is important, and being accurate as early as possible is the goal. Coach should push batter to threshold limit for recognition/reaction (see use of stopwatch below). The drill should be a simulation of one AB. In other words the pitcher should be pitching to strike the batter out and pitch selection should vary speed, location, and movement. The batter should check swing on balls. The coach should not umpire. Have another do it. Note: coach should note position of pointed arm (in relation to front side) at contact point HOLD AT CONTACT, not follow thru] for inside, outside, middle, high, and low. Coach should also note the pointed direction of the lead elbow, watching especially for direction of the elbow point when the arm is up/down and in/out. A helpful indicator for this is to fashion directional indicator from a coffee cup and a rubber band and slip it over the batter’s arm to the elbow (a pointer, if you will).
Repeat procedure for rear arm (another full AB).
Another note: I position myself seated on a bucket or chair, with a clipboard and pencil and stopwatch. The stopwatch is ********. I simulate recording times, but only make a note after each batter is finished. When they ask me for times, I tell them I don’t wish to embarrass anyone, so I will not give them times. I do, however, let out occasional ooooh’s and aaaaah’s to keep them competitive and to push them to really try and stay on task. I don’t attempt to record a note of every pitch, instead, try and pick out the most prominent impression for each hitter, something to work on.
I rotate four players through each position (batter, pitcher, catcher, umpire). Each batter has two AB’s. Note: I realize that some can’t pitch, and control muddys the water, but it is what it is, they and I, deal with it. The lesson is to consciously heighten FOCUS/CONCENTRATION to RECOGNITION/REACTION THRESHOLD and to encourage ANTICIPATION. To make each hitter aware of the DEGREE OF FOCUS that he is CAPABLE of. And, hopefully, to transfer some over to game. Being ready (really ready) on each (as in every) pitch.




.

[Jake Patterson]

A sample drill I use.
Location Drill:


Another variation of this is to divide the strike sone into 6-zones

| 1 | 2 |
| 3 | 4 |
| 5 | 6 |

Have the batter call the number - Anything outside the strike zone is called "out."

If this works well move to a nine zone stike zone.

What's good about this drill is you can make a game of it - 10 pitches each player - A good call is 2 points, one zone off is 1 point, a miss 0 points.

[dannyboy]

Jake,

the reason that I have them point and hold to contact is to get them to pull inside, 90 degree dead red, and oppo outside...
rather than just call it out.

and verbal isn't as contextual as physical.

[Jake Patterson]

Jake,

the reason that I have them point and hold to contact is to get them to pull inside, 90 degree dead red, and oppo outside...
rather than just call it out.

and verbal isn't as contextual as physical.

Ray,
Agree

[Sorpe]

Back when I was in college (oh, so long ago), I used drills from a book entitled Sports Vision. I found the book and the drills to be very good. I have no idea if the book is still in print. One thing I liked about the book was that all the drills could be done at home. Some drills required that you make various devices to be used to do the drill, but everything could be made with stuff most people have around the house such as paper, string, etc.

Dave Hudgens (hitting.com) used to sell a vision improvement program devised for him by a guy prominent in vision improvement circles, but whose name escapes me.

[CoachZee]

I'm sure if you do a Google search you will find some computer programs out there to train your eye and brain to recognize and transmit information faster. I remember a site (can't find it right now) that claimed it helped some pro players have quicker eye recognition. It even had a free sample. It was almost psychedelic, reminded me of the 70's :)

Mike Candrea shoots tennis balls with numbers on them from a machine at up to 150 mph and the batter had to call out the number as she swung. One college coach told me the fastest a batter could recognize the number was 120 mph.

This D-1 coach also used the numbered tennis balls to do soft toss and front toss and make the batter call out the numbers. I don't know if it works or not but coaches are trying it.