Hitting and Hitters Discussion Vision Training Question for Howard, Kyle, Shayne, etc.

Some comments and questions about Vision Training.

Last year the best session at the Ohio State Winter Softball Camp was the lecture on Vision Training. Ohio State uses it for all of their sports, especially for football and the guy giving the lecture commented about how almost of all the great athletes of today like Albert Pujols, Larry Fitzgerald, etc. have great vision. The PhD showed examples of some exercises that they do on Vision Training at Ohio State to improve vision and focus.

I bought my dd a Nintendo DS and the Flash Focus game for Christmas. The game does some of the same things that they do at Ohio State. I use it too and it is a challenge to me.

Now my questions for Howard, Shayne, Kyle, SB Family or anyone else. What do you think of the drill where a girl has one eye covered and you soft toss to her and then switch to the other eye covered to increase focus? What do you think of the "glasses taped to small openings" drill for a player and then soft toss to them to help increase focus? Do you do or recommend any vision drills?

Thanks in Advance,
Tom

Vision training is weight lifting for the eyes! You are working the 6 extraocular muscles!

In my opinion vision drills are critical to any hitter’s success and what I find interesting is the kids who do the drills everyday are better students in school and pay more attention to detail when learning new skills.

Howard has a couple of pages of drills he has sent to me, but I will let him post them, since it is his material. . The one my dd likes is cards on a ceiling fan. Of course she taped them and my wife was not happy.

gobucksnreddevils said:

Some comments and questions about Vision Training.

Last year the best session at the Ohio State Winter Softball Camp was the lecture on Vision Training. Ohio State uses it for all of their sports, especially for football and the guy giving the lecture commented about how almost of all the great athletes of today like Albert Pujols, Larry Fitzgerald, etc. have great vision. The PhD showed examples of some exercises that they do on Vision Training at Ohio State to improve vision and focus.

I bought my dd a Nintendo DS and the Flash Focus game for Christmas. The game does some of the same things that they do at Ohio State. I use it too and it is a challenge to me.

Now my questions for Howard, Shayne, Kyle, SB Family or anyone else. What do you think of the drill where a girl has one eye covered and you soft toss to her and then switch to the other eye covered to increase focus? What do you think of the "glasses taped to small openings" drill for a player and then soft toss to them to help increase focus? Do you do or recommend any vision drills?

Thanks in Advance,
Tom

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Tom I was with the Ohio State Coaches in 2005 at the NFCA and Doctor Bill Harrison gave the class. I had been working on learning about vision training and exercises for about 5 years and most had never given it much thought. Dr. Bill as most refer to him has a web site called Slow the Game Down.com . I would also suggest Burton Worrell vision drills and you can Google his name and it should get you there also.

I have attached an article from 2002, that got me interested in vision and you might find it interesting.

Sports Illustrated, March 25, 2002 had a great article on hitting titled, Hitters Rule, by Tom Verducci. He covers what is called the contact hitter (Ichiro), the blended hitter (Giambi) and the power hitter (Thome). Remember I said I wouldn?t talk styles of hitting.

On page 69, ?Says Delgado, ?At times when I?m going good, I can see the bottom half of the ball on it?s way to the plate. That?s were I want to hit it.? And ?Jeter is another hitter with extraordinary vision. He?s often able to see in the blur of the pitcher?s arm moving forward whether what?s coming at him is the bottom of the pitcher?s wrist (indicating a fastball) or the side of the wrist (indicating a breaking ball). ?I?ve tried, but I can?t see it, ?Yankees catcher Jorge Posada says. ?I don?t know how he does it.? Rodriquez trains his eyes to focus quickly. While in the on deck-deck circle, he holds his bat a few inches from his face, the trademark facing him. He focuses on the trademark, and then quickly shifts his focus to the face of the centerfielder.?
Page 70, Martinez. ?He performs eye exercises twice a day, for 45 minutes in the morning and then for five to 10 minutes about 30 minutes before game time. Martinez keeps a worn card, slightly larger than an index card that has a green circle to the left and a red circle to the right. Inside the perimeter of both circles are the words THESE LETTERS, though the R is missing from the green circle and the first T in LETTERS is missing from the red. When he stares at a spot between the two circles, because of a process optics experts call binocular fusion, a brown circle appears with all the letters of THESE LETTERS.? (Note you must stare at the center between the circles and yes it works!) The difficult letter for me is the (T) in the brown circle. I wear tri-focal glasses. ?This exercise strengthens his eye muscles.? And ?Attempting to improve his depth perception, Martinez will shift his focus from one of those letters to a spot on a distant wall with the same grid of letters, only larger, and then back again. Martinez also bunts against those high velocity tennis balls. (Other times, after slowing their speed, he tries to read the number on them as they whiz by.) ?After tracking a smaller ball going 150 miles per hour,? Martinez says, ?a baseball going 90 doesn?t seem so fast.?


Thanks Howard

Had to run some errands and when I got back I found the drills and hope it helps you.

From Outside Magazine October 2004

The drill is called rapid eye movement from Burton Worrell's ocular drills. He recommends spending at least three minutes a day on doing the drills. That is very little time for what I believe will improve your ability to not only track the ball better but improve your balance and ability to field the ball while changing direction. He calls the drill "Walk the Plank".

The challenge as he puts it is, "When you are multitasking at full tilt, balance is one of the first things to suffer. Forcing yourself to focus on a moving object throughout your line of sight-while you're moving and keeping your balance-trains you to maintain your inner equilibrium."

The Drill: Lay a two-by-four flat on the floor and stand on it with one foot in front of the other. Pick up a pen that has text printed on the side and with your arm fully extended; lift it (the pen) to eye level. Make a wide, sweeping figure eight pattern (in a horizontal path not vertical) with your arm and moving only your eyes (not your head) stay focused on the letters on the pen. Finally walk forward and backwards on the beam while continuing the figure eight pattern."

The way I have found to use this is to first have them stand still and get the motion of the horizontal figure eight path first. Then walk a straight line next while doing the figure eight pattern. They will be unbalanced as they begin. Once they can do that then put them on the board. I've seen when they begin this drill the head trying to move in the pattern of the figure eight and that is when they get dizzy and start to stumble. Keep working on this as the kids say it improves not only their vision but also their balance.

Another great drill he recommends is Ocular Acrobatics.

He goes on to say in another drill, "One of the trickiest aspects of most sports is staying focused when everything is moving around you. Think of a wide receiver in football: He has to concentrate on the ball while he and the other players around him are in motion-a situation that easily overtaxes the brain. Skiers face the same task when speeding down a line on a crowed slope."

The Challenge: "You want to be able to identify objects instantly, says Worrell. If you're kayaking and you can't ID that gnarly rock on your right and then quickly shift to the waterfall straight ahead, your system (vision) becomes disoriented and you might miss the safest line through the Class V rapids."

I think trying to watch a ground ball when a runner is passing in the line of your sight or sliding towards you is another example of why this drill is important.


The Drill: "From a deck of cards, pick out the ace through six of one suit. (I like using 10 cards) Tape the cards randomly on a wall close to eye level, spacing them about one foot apart, with the ace in the center. Memorize where each card is located. Standing seven feet from the wall, jump your eyes (move the eyes not your head) from card to card in sequential order (ace through six) as quickly as possible, starting with the ace. You want your eyes to land on the card without having to refocus, but you don?t want to move to the next card until you can clearly see the current card. If you loose focus return to the ace and start over."

While doing this drill I put my hand on top of their head and usually in the beginning you can feel them want to move the head versus using just the eyes.

Another drill I think really works well to drive the point home on tracking the ball is called the pencil drill.

While at the Cleveland Clinic in March 2002, I was reading the Sports Illustrated March 2002 edition. An article called Hitters Rule by Tom Verducci, talked about vision training and how players exercised their eyes by focusing on objects up close and then looking at objects in the distance to improve what is termed accommodation. The hitter while in the on deck circle held his bat up close to his eyes looking at the trademark on the bat and then looked at the center fielders position. Go back to pages 6 and 7 and reread it again.

The Drill: Get two pens or pencils that having writing/ advertisements printed on it. Holding one pen in the left hand slowly move it at eye level toward your nose until you get it up close to your face and it is difficult to read. Your eyes are doing what is termed accommodation or moving closer together to focus on the object that is nearer your face. You will feel the strain on your eyes as you do this. Now holding the other pen in your right hand at arms length repeat this movement with the left hand and when you feel the strain switch your gaze to the pen/pencil in your outstretched right hand and your eyes will feel rested again. Doing these 6 to 30 minutes a day improves your ability to track a ball and hit it in my opinion.

The string drill is another great one to do. I've seen this drill recommended by Dr. Bill Harrison and Dr. Worrell for what is termed ,Eye Teaming."

The Drill: "Thread a half-inch bead on a 6 foot cord. (I found small key chain softballs to use) Attach one end to a doorknob. Face the doorknob and hold the other end taut to the bridge of your nose, so you're 16 inches away from the bead. (I put a leather patch at the end of the string that is placed by the bridge of the nose/ forehead) Look at the bead. You should see two strings, as if one is coming from each eye. The two strings should appear to meet at the bead, (baseball) forming an X. (If they form a Y or only one string, the information from one eye is being suppressed: blink your eyes rapidly to "turn on" both eyes. If you X is in front of the bead, your eyes are aiming closer than it really is. In baseball or tennis, that might cause you to swing too early for the ball. Practice deep breathing and "looking softly" to move the X into the bead. If your X is beyond the bead, your eyes are aiming further away than it is-hence, a late swing at the ball. Practice looking in front of the bead to slowly get the X to the bead. When you find it easy to see the X at the bead, move the bead further out, according to your sport. Then add more beads and shift so one appears as one and the rest as double. (I mark the cord every 16 inches and move the ball as I see the X on both sides of the bead/baseball.)


Howard

Howard,

As always, thanks for the great information.

Did you notice the cards on the garage door behind you! Not sure if we covered that during our clinic.

cgs said:

Howard,

As always, thanks for the great information.

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As always it is fun working with people who want their kids to get better hitting as they, USA TODAY claims is the most difficult thing to do in all of sports, hit a round object with a round object moving in/ out and sometimes up and down in the shadows....baseball and softball

Dan you are supposed to help me remember those things!

Howard

We have the same excuse. Tough getting old!

Howard, That is a tremendous amount of valuable information that you provided. Thanks so much. It will be fun to research all of it and try to implement some of it with my daughter.

Our local HS coach was wondering about doing a vision drill where she would put a patch over one eye and soft toss. Then she would repeat with the other eye. I work with a guy who coaches a travel team in the Pittsburgh area who tapes up glasses with electrical tape so that the viewing area is slimmed down to a small opening. Then he soft tosses and also sends his kids to a pitching machine. Does anyone have any thoughts about how effective these drills might be? Has anyone tried any of these drills and had success? Both of these drills sound effective to me but I am still learning.

Have not tried those, but my fear on the one eye drill. We are trying to teach young kids to use two eyes to track the ball. Breaking them of the habit of not using two eyes and knowing which is the dominate eye. Since we are on the topic of vision. I showed two high school coaches last night, one of the other issues we have with kids. Helment and the facemask. If the mask in front is moving up in down in front of the eyes , the hitter cannot focus. Most helments we tested last night did not fit. So we work on vision drills then let them hit with poor equipment. Try it. Look at an object 40 feet away then have someone move a pencil up in down 6 " in front of your eyes.

gobucksnreddevils said:

Howard, That is a tremendous amount of valuable information that you provided. Thanks so much. It will be fun to research all of it and try to implement some of it with my daughter.

Our local HS coach was wondering about doing a vision drill where she would put a patch over one eye and soft toss. Then she would repeat with the other eye. I work with a guy who coaches a travel team in the Pittsburgh area who tapes up glasses with electrical tape so that the viewing area is slimmed down to a small opening. Then he soft tosses and also sends his kids to a pitching machine. Does anyone have any thoughts about how effective these drills might be? Has anyone tried any of these drills and had success? Both of these drills sound effective to me but I am still learning.

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I have tried the patches and feel the other drills work better and get faster results. The glasses are sold on the market and I have not used those yet.

Although there is a dominant eye, this is usually more useful when performing sighting, such as archery or shooting.

Accommodation or the eyes turning inward to focus means the eyes must learn to work together so the dominant eye has no bearing on it according to doctor Bill Harrison of Slow the Game Down.com especially for tracking sports like baseball, softball or tennis.

We teach how to move the head to give it a head start, because we know the eyes can move faster than the head. A subtle move of the head slightly towards the catcher locks up the eyes as part of vestibulo ocular reflex system to keep our vision from becoming blurred and we found it to be most useful and can be taught to our students. I have even used a strobe light to demonstrate this must be done or you will not hit a ball....ask Laura Berg or Jenny Topping! It was too funny as Crystl watched and knew neither one would hit a ball until they discovered the secret!

Thanks Howard

Good stuff thanks Howard and Dan. You guys are the best.

Dan, that is a great point about the proper fit of the batting helmets. I have see that so often in the rec ball I have coached. Also thanks for the comments about using both eyes to focus. I will be talking to our hs coach about these drills.

This weekend I will try out these drills myself and then have my dd start using them. The next challenge is to somehow be able to talk about and show my dd that the Vision Training will help her so she is motivated to do it on her own. Howard and Crystl are so correct that girls need to know how and be why.

Howard, found a few new excercises you might want to add to the vision training:

- Catching me eating a walking taco, and calculating the # of scoops I've taken every two seconds. I will also put a number on both sides of my spoon. If anyone tells me the # next summer, i will immediately by them a walking taco.

Seriously though, great stuff!!!!!!!! Getting to the point there IS TO MUCH INFORMATION to work it all.. WOW, we've come a long way. KEEP IT UP OHIO!

Triplethreat said:

Howard, found a few new excercises you might want to add to the vision training:

- Catching me eating a walking taco, and calculating the # of scoops I've taken every two seconds. I will also put a number on both sides of my spoon. If anyone tells me the # next summer, i will immediately by them a walking taco.

Seriously though, great stuff!!!!!!!! Getting to the point there IS TO MUCH INFORMATION to work it all.. WOW, we've come a long way. KEEP IT UP OHIO!

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You know where I am coming from