Jack I am always trying to learn new ways to teach.
The first thing we address is stance or you can not get the two eyed look. Most kids feel uncomfortable just trying to turn the head towards the pitcher far enough to get that two eyed look. Take two toilet paper rolls (empty) and have them use it as binoculars. They will not be able to turn the head far enough towards the pitcher without the neck feeling uncomfortable. Now have them move the back foot towards home plate about two to four inches or what TSW termed a 5 degree to 10 degree open stance and the stress in the neck is gone. I only have three kids who use a closed stance and they all had lazy left eye surgery. Most of our kids use a slightly open stance or even based on their body type.
If you close your eyes when in the batters box as a right handed hitter looking at first base, which way does your eyes move when you turn your head towards the pitcher? You should be able to feel the eye balls on the back of the eye lids....the eyes move rearward. Now with a good two eyed look and understanding of how the eyes move, when they hitter strides if they give the head a head start by slightly moving the head rearward, the eyes will fixate on the incoming ball by the eyes moving towards the pitcher. The eyes move faster than the head so we are giving the head a head start and the eyes will catch up naturally. The eyes will scan the ball and the brain will convert the two different images into one and the brain will help adjust your eyes to the flight of the ball so the bat meets the ball. You can not actually see the ball and bat collide if the speed of the ball is over 35 MPH.
I use the Nike Strobe glasses and also a strobe light mounted over the hitters head to prove this to them.
Another drill I do is to soft toss from the side while the hitter looks through the net as if it is the pitchers point of release. Again as they stride foot lands, the head turns slightly and I hold my fist which is zero, one, two or three fingers and they must tell me immediately what the hand count is. You will notice if the front leg is stiff/ rigid, or the front side opens, they can not see my hand count. The brain will adjust the hands to the flight of the ball based on the information and training of the balls flight path and they will hit the ball without actually seeing where the ball went and they are stronger with their head down verses up. When using a tee we have a white rag inside the tee and after hitting the ball their eyes should be fixed on the rag. We do not want them to see where the ball went. Again we want them to look through the net and track the ball to the tee.
I always want to hear what others do to learn something new.
Thanks Howard
