Vision is one of the key foundations for hitting. Without great vision, it is hard to excel no matter how good your mechanics are. It is not common to see players working on this, but I believe it is a crucial component of their game.
There are many pitchers that do a great job at hiding the ball well especially as we get older. This can throw hitters off by seeing the ball too late, making the ball look a few miles per hour faster than it normally is. Their job is to throw a batter’s timing off and they do so by hiding the ball as long as they can. As a hitter, we need to figure out a way to pick up the ball as soon as possible to give us the best chance at hitting it.
I started to work on the vision aspect in high school and believed it played a big part to my success as a hitter. There were some drills I would do as well as having a certain focus when we practiced hitting.
Below are some of the things that I did throughout my career that helped me improve my vision at the plate:
Get Your Eyes Checked Yearly (At Least)
One summer in Alaska, I did very poorly through the first few weeks of the season. I was swinging and missing much more than I had ever done while not really having anything different about my swing or approach. Finally, I seen an eye doctor. It turned out that I needed to use contacts while I played. The rest of the season went well as I was selected to the All-Star team and had the highest RBI’s on the team. Getting your eyes checked at least once a year is important to ensure that you have the best vision for competition.
Simulate Head and Eyes following A Pitched Ball to the Tee
One common hitting drill that I used was simulating as if a pitcher was throwing a pitch when working with the tee. I would “track” the imaginary ball to the stationary ball on the tee as I took a swing. This is like a visualization exercise and it works wonders. We will never have a stationary ball to hit, but you can maximize the use of the tee by incorporating this drill.
Track The Ball All The Way To The Bat
Whenever I hit something moving whether it is front toss, batting practice, machine or off of live pitching, I would always focus on keeping my head and my eyes down at contact. From the saying “control what you can control,” I cannot control the outcome of a swing. What I could control was keeping my head and eyes down at contact, which helped me to get better outcomes. I prided myself on always making good contact and barreling pitches and it is because this was my focus in practice and games.
Soft Focus
Soft focus is when you focus your vision in a zone of the pitchers release point while staying completely relaxed with your mind. This increases your vision and your chances to make great contact. We have been taught to look at the zone of the release point, but not to stay relaxed in our mind. When we do that and have a tense mind, we end up with a “blindness” and not being able to actually track the ball as well. Everyone has a different level of intensity when it comes to focus so you will have to play around with that, but once you find it, it will help you to produce better results. Start with this in batting practice as it is a great simulation to the game.
Vision is extremely important as a hitter and we must practice hitting while keeping vision in the forefront of our focus. In most cases you do not need extra reps to work on vision alone, but it is more about how we go about our practices and games that will lead us to success. Use these steps above to maximize your potential as a hitter.
