Help With Seeing The Ball Earlier
- Thread starter Momof#34
- Start date
Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch
Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.
Seeing the ball earlier? To me its more likely she needs to load up earlier and be more prepared to swing when she decides. As its been discussed on this forum. One common issue for younger players is that they are not deciding to swing until they are sure its a strike. By then it becomes a late decision. All batters have to be at the plate with the mindset that every pitch is a strike, until it isn't.
She should load up and start her step or toe touch, with every pitch, then if its good she is ready to swing, if its a bad pitch she can hold off. Kids get into this habit by either walking a whole lot so they start to depend on the walk, or she got talked to too many times about swinging at bad pitches. Her mindset should be yes, yes, yes. Which can become yes, yes, yes, no for a bad pitch. Your part in this, is once she starts to be more aggressive, you have to accept the occasional swing at a bad pitch.
She should load up and start her step or toe touch, with every pitch, then if its good she is ready to swing, if its a bad pitch she can hold off. Kids get into this habit by either walking a whole lot so they start to depend on the walk, or she got talked to too many times about swinging at bad pitches. Her mindset should be yes, yes, yes. Which can become yes, yes, yes, no for a bad pitch. Your part in this, is once she starts to be more aggressive, you have to accept the occasional swing at a bad pitch.
Is she swinging at everything when she uses a machine? If she is yell ball to her occasionally, and what was mentioned by chinamigarden she should do everything in her swing but actually pulling the trigger.
Same works for soft toss.
Same works for soft toss.
No she doesn't swing at everything, she has a really good eye for the ball. DD tends to walk alot by working the count full and will foul off sometimes 8/9 times with 2 strikes on her before getting the walk or hitting the ball. She does set up for every pitch by pulling her wait back. Any ideas??
- Oct 25, 2009
- 3,335
- 48
I had a player last year, D1, who was not seeing the ball in games. As I watched her it became apparent that she was not looking at the pitch when she swung.
I got her to come to the local batting cage. I put her in the 35, 50, 65, 75 mph cages. She hardly missed a pitch. So I knew it wasn't her eyes, or hand/eye coordination.
As I discussed how she felt while batting in the games she said she couldn't track the ball all the way because "the balls move". She said since she didn't know where they would be she just swung so she wouldn't go down looking.
The fix ended up being easy. I told her to see as long as she could and try to hit it where it she last saw it. She started hitting. You could obviously see it in her eyes.
Expect anything, it could be as simple and unusual as the above.
Have her see the ball at release point and follow it until she hits it. Sometimes I have batters swing and stop the ball at point of contact, with no intention of following through for those particular swings. That will tell you if she is seeing it or if it's something else. Could be a mechanical problem, for example.
I got her to come to the local batting cage. I put her in the 35, 50, 65, 75 mph cages. She hardly missed a pitch. So I knew it wasn't her eyes, or hand/eye coordination.
As I discussed how she felt while batting in the games she said she couldn't track the ball all the way because "the balls move". She said since she didn't know where they would be she just swung so she wouldn't go down looking.
The fix ended up being easy. I told her to see as long as she could and try to hit it where it she last saw it. She started hitting. You could obviously see it in her eyes.
Expect anything, it could be as simple and unusual as the above.
Have her see the ball at release point and follow it until she hits it. Sometimes I have batters swing and stop the ball at point of contact, with no intention of following through for those particular swings. That will tell you if she is seeing it or if it's something else. Could be a mechanical problem, for example.
My dd had the same problem at the beginning of 12U. After a lot of watching and talking with her hitting coach, she was focusing more on the arm than the ball. She would tell us, "Did you see that crazy wind-up?". Once we got her to focus more at the hip area, she picked up the ball and he averages went way up. My dd would foul off a lot as well, until the other pitchers learned about the CU. Anyway, between a better pick up of the ball sooner and 14U, she has made great strides.
Seeing the ball is about release point and pitch recognition, which entails identifying the release point in the on deck circle and having mechanics that have both eyes on the ball from the beginning, and having a swing such that your head moves as little as possible. All of that happens in a fraction of a second and the brain fires a swing to try to match it.
At some point, and for major league or college softball pitching it's something like halfway to the plate, the die is cast and the batter can no longer make corrections.
Therefore seeing the ball hit the bat is a myth for all but the youngest of hitters. Stopping the bat won't tell you anything more than if they had taken a full swing.
Last edited:
- Oct 25, 2009
- 3,335
- 48
I disagree on this part. I've used it many times to bring the player's eye to the ball after missing a few. Works similar to having them bunt in bp to get them on the ball. I also use it to check various parts of the swing but mostly to see their hand position at contact.
There are many vision drills for the eyes. All great players do them and many are simple. There are many and Bustos does many of them. Team USA also did many of them.
Remember see the ball hit the ball and it’s one of the most difficult things to do in sports!
I would really suggest reading the book, Keep Your Eyes On The Ball, especially chapter 7, as it gives you a better insight as to how they completed the experiment.
My dd's favorite is the pencil drill.
An article called Hitters Rule by Tom Verducci, talked about vision training and how
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 moving nearer or closer to 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.
Visit http://www.vision3d.com/frame.html and go through the menu and look around.
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”.
Remember see the ball hit the ball and it’s one of the most difficult things to do in sports!
I would really suggest reading the book, Keep Your Eyes On The Ball, especially chapter 7, as it gives you a better insight as to how they completed the experiment.
My dd's favorite is the pencil drill.
An article called Hitters Rule by Tom Verducci, talked about vision training and how
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 moving nearer or closer to 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.
Visit http://www.vision3d.com/frame.html and go through the menu and look around.
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”.
Last edited:
