Up

 

Don Mattingly, New York Yankees
"I used vision therapy to improve my hitting.
Your hands must go where your eyes tell you. When I see the ball, I hit the ball."

 

"See the Ball, Hit the Ball"  Los Angeles Times

 

 

 

Baseball related Vision Problems

Common Symptoms While Batting That May be Related to Vision Problems

  • Difficulty picking up rotation and location of pitches
  • Poor judgment of speed of pitches
  • Difficulty hitting to all fields
  • Difficulty bunting
  • Strikes out swinging and / or looking

Common Symptoms of Fielders that may be related to Vision Problems

  • Difficulty picking up the ball off the bat
  • Difficulty getting a good jump on the ball
  • Misplaying fly balls
  • Reacting slow to fly balls
  • Misreading ground balls
  • Trouble turning the double play

Common Symptoms of Pitchers that may be related to Vision Problems

  • Poor location of pitches
  • Difficulty picking off runners
  • Difficulty pitching from the stretch vs. wind-up

 

Samples of Baseball related Vision Therapy: Hitting Drills

Colored Horseshoe of Baseball

  • This drill is used to warm up the eyes for live pitching.
  • Color the ball between the inside seams and have the pitcher throw a variety of pitches from the mound or 60 feet 6 inches.
  • In this drill, the batter picks up the spin as quickly as possible, calls out the pitch, and watches the ball into the catcher's mitt.
  • If the batter has trouble identifying the pitch before he throws it, this helps the batter pick up the type of pitch if they don't recognize it at the release point. (Don't hit the ball, just call it in flight.)

Colored Baseballs

  • Use 2-3 colored baseballs:
    • Red=Take
    • White=Hit Away
    • Green=Drag
  • The batter must react to the color of the ball as soon as he/she recognizes the color.
  • The drill can be used with live pitching or soft toss.

Strobe Hitting

  • The batter uses the strobe light while soft tossing or self-tossing sock balls.
  • The slower the strobe flashes, the more difficult it is to hit the ball.
  • CAUTION - THE STROBE CAN CAUSE SEIZURES FOR EPILEPTICS

Soft Toss/Self Toss

  • Use sock balls or small wiffle balls taped smaller than a regular ball.
  • The following drills or wrinkles to these drills can be added to make the task of hitting much more difficult and force better concentration by the batter.
    • Use a thunder stick instead of your regular bat.
    • The tosser calls the field (right, left, center) he/she wants the ball hit as soon as the ball is about to be tossed. If the batter hits the ball to the wrong field or pops the ball up, the players switch positions. The batter can take pitches or the tosser can call for the batter to take a pitch. It the batter swings on a take call, he's out and the players switch.
    • The batter closes his/her eyes and opens them when the tosser calls "open." The batter can take pitches or the tosser can hold the ball. If the player swings and no ball is thrown or pops the ball up the players switch.

Release Drill

  • This drill teaches the player to pick up the pitch at the release and to keep his/her head down on the swing.
    1. The batter calls out the number of fingers, 1-5, that the pitcher throws at the batter, swings and again calls out the number of fingers that a coach has flashed after the bat passes the plate.
    2. The coach flashing the numbers stands 5-6 feet in front of the outside corner of the plate.
  • The drill can be made more difficult by having the pitcher use a ball and show pitches to the hitter without releasing the ball.
  • The hitter would make the visual shift to the plate and hit a sock ball, wiffle ball, or tennis ball of a tee after calling out the pitch.
  • To make the drill even harder, replace the single tee with a double tee, placing the inside tee (higher) about 3-4 feet in front of the inside corner and the second tee (lower) equal to the front point of the outside corner.
  • The batter is now forced to see the ball at the release and react to the pitch (FB, Curve, etc.) If the pitcher show fastball, the batter must turn and pull the ball off the inside tee. If the batter reads off speed pitch, the batter must drive the ball to right field off the outside tee. (Reverse the tees for a left-handed batter.)

Samples of Baseball related Vision Therapy:  Fielding Drills

Numbered/Lettered Baseballs

  • The player or coach can take 5 or 6 balls, number or letter them one letter or number per ball. The coach or player hits the fielder grounders and the player calls the letter or number on the ball as he/she fields it and comes up to throw.
  • Fielder attempts to catch batted ball (grounders or fly balls)
  • Fielder closes his/her eyes, opens and finds the ball as soon as he/she hears contact.
  • Fielder turns back to hitter, as soon as he/she hears contact, he/she turns and looks for the ball.
  • Fielder lies on back and has to get up as soon as the hear contact.

Shade drill

  • Runner interferes with batted ground ball by crossing the path of the ball and the fielder

Fixation drill for outfielders

  • The drill is designed to keep the fielders head steady and teach the player to run on his/her toes while fixating on the top of a flagpole, foul pole…or anything stationary and high. The coach calls out the direction the player should turn or run.

Feel Drill

  1. The player assumes his/her position in the field with a bucket of balls.
  2. The coach rolls the player routine grounders or fly balls and as the player is about to throw the ball, they close their eyes and make the throw.
  • The coach can change the situation (DP throws, plays at the plate, cutoffs…) or the type of grounder/flyball (backhand, gloveside, slow roller), to make the drill more difficult.
  • The player should know before fielding the ball, where the play is to be made.
  • This same drill can be used with pitchers to develop better control.

We have used the strobe light to create visual noise and improve concentration and reaction time with athletes for the past 20 years. Athletes (pro, college, high school, and amateur) have told us that the strobe helps a moving object (ball) look slower and bigger and helps raise the concentration level of the athlete.  The periods of light and dark force the athlete to pick up more information in a shorter period of time and the longer the period of dark the harder the task is for the athlete.

We have used the strobe to test and to train hockey and soccer goalies to react quicker; baseball players to pick up the ball sooner when hitting and fielding; basketball players to concentrate while shooting fouls; skill players (QB's, DB's, RB's, etc.) in football picking up the ball, the defenses, the plays, etc. more quickly; tennis players to pick up the ball and react to the returned ball sooner; shooters and archers to pick up the target and hold it longer; and the list goes on.

Like most training techniques, some adjustments and modifications may be need to adapt this procedure to a specific skill in a specific sport. A good example of this is the substitution of tennis or wiffle balls for hardballs while practicing hitting. It is also important to note that this procedure cannot be used with epileptics.

Drills That Involve Visual Noise: Hitting

Soft toss

  1. (Using tennis, wiffle, or sock balls) Player A stands 8-10 feet to the side of the front shoulder of player B (hitter) and tosses the ball underhand out in front of the hitting zone.
  2. Player B tries to hit the ball with the strobe flashing. This drill can be done with the lights on or with the lights off.
  • (STROBE) Wrinkle - (W/O Strobe) Player A closes eyes and opens them and tries to hit the ball when Player B tosses the ball and says "ball."

Self Toss

  • Player A tosses the ball (sock, tennis, or wiffle) up with front hand 5 times and 5 times with the back and tries to hit the ball on the ground or on a line, not in the air. (STROBE)

Colored Ball Toss

  • (Use 2 or 3 different colored balls to teach discipline while hitting) Using any of the hitting drills; self or soft toss, live…etc., have the hitter react to the thrown colored balls.
  • If the ball is white, the hitter is to swing away; if the ball is black, the hitter brags a bunt; and if the thrown ball is red, the player takes the pitch.

Dry Hitting

  • Each player has a bat and a partner (sits 4-5 feet in front of the front shoulder) and stands facing the coach.
  • The coach, using the wind up or the stretch and no ball, throws 1-5 fingers at the hitters and the hitters call out the number of fingers up.
  • The player then swings and calls out the number of fingers his partner has put down on the swing.
  • The drill teaches the players to pick up the ball at the release point and to keep their heads down on the swing.

Drills That Involve Visual Noise: Fielding

Pick ups

  • Player A rolls grounders at, left, and right of Player B and Player B tries to field as many as possible.

Short Hops

  • Same as pick ups, except the ball is thrown on one bounce. Wrinkle - Short hop with a tag.

Numbered Baseballs

  • Number baseballs 1-5 and take regular infield. Have the fielder call out the number on the ball as its fielded and thrown (forces the fielder to keep his head down while fielding)

Feel Drill

  • Place the players at their positions and have them complete their throw with their eyes closed (task has become engrained when the player can complete it with their eyes closed.)


100 North Rancho Road, Suite #1
Thousand Oaks, CA   91362
Phone (805)495-3937   Fax (805)373-9843
E-Mail

[ Home ] [ Up ] [ What is Agape? ] [ Agape Learning ] [ Agape Optometry ] [ Appointments ] [ Location & Hours ] [ Questionnaires ] [ Staff ] [ Payment Options ] [ Job Opportunities ] [ Privacy Practices ]