Vision training for hitters

Read time: 3 minutes

New Patrick Jones Baseball Podcast is out:

This week's podcast is with Jordan Chiero

Scouting Director: PBR (Ohio)

Jordan gives great insight in the recruiting process for high school baseball players and parents. 

Listen: iTunes or Spotify

Can we get the eyes from normal to super-normal performance? 

“There’s evidence we can do it.” 

 • Dr. Jeffery Goldberg 

Talking about vision in hitting is like talking about the mental game. 

It’s not sexy. 

It doesn’t go viral. 

Last week, I gave a presentation on vision at the Connecting the Dots conference in Tampa, Florida. 

Leading up to that presentation, I spent all week researching everything I could find on vision and talked to anyone who would answer my questions (Thank you, Dr. Lauren Bailey) 

Let me tell you, this stuff is complicated. 

But I am very optimistic about this being a low-hanging fruit in player development. 

Here’s some interesting data on MLB hitters and vision: 

The average MLB hitter has between 20/10 and 20/12 vision.

To put that in perspective, a few years ago, a large-scale vision test was done in India, and only 1 in 9,411 people had 20/10 vision. 

58% of MLB players have “excellent” depth perception, compared to 18% of the general population in the United States. The same trends held when Olympic softball players were tested. (The Sports Gene) 

I have always had a fixed mindset towards vision. You could improve your vision by getting glasses or LASIK surgery if you have poor vision. 

But I didn’t think you could have a good vision and make it great. 

With newer technology, it could happen relatively soon. I was listening to the Huberman Lab podcast on vision, and the latest research is very optimistic. 

However, there is yet to be a quick fix. We should all know that by now, even though it’s human nature to want something to happen immediately. (I’m guilty of this) 

Before simplifying something, we have to go to the deep end and understand it. 

Each eye has 7 muscles. 

Only 6 of the muscles are involved with tracking an incoming pitch.

5 Key Terms: 

Convergence: How your eyes work together when looking at a nearby object. 

Dynamic Visual Acuity: The ability to see objects in motion. 

Peripheral Vision: Being able to notice things going on outside your direct line of vision. 

Depth Perception: Judging how close or far away something is. 

Contrast Sensitivity: Being able to distinguish objects from different types of backgrounds.

Drills 

Now that we a very basic understanding of how the eyes work.

Let's talk about some drills we can do with hitters

1. Brock String

Hold the string in front of your nose, and then focus on the closest ball, and then move on to the next ball and so on until you reach the end, and then reverse back to the first ball again. 

2. 3D Depth Perception 

This helps with convergence and is great to prime the hitter before stepping up to the plate. Here is Ian Happ using them on the on-deck circle

3. Card Tracking 

I saw this drill a few years ago from Dave Busky on Instagram. I think it's a great way to work on dynamic visual acuity before they start hitting for the day. 

I think the most important thing to do for hitters is to get them an assessment with someone who has experience working with baseball hitters.

Dr. Lauren Bailey has worked with MLB All-Stars and has always been a great resource for me. 

P.S. If anyone is attending the NFCA this week in Louisville, let me know!

I'll be there for a few days.

Whenever you're ready, there's 1 way I can help you: 

I'm working with hitters in Cincinnati, Ohio

If you or someone you know wants to become a complete hitter and improve...

• Mental Game 
• Approach 
• Power 
• Consistency 
• Timing 

Then fill out this form, and we'll be in touch