The Role of Vision and Vision Training in Fastpitch Softball

Vision is essential to any sports performance and experts feel that vision performance exercises will become a regular part of sports training in the near future. Since sports vision or softball vision involves more than just eye sight, even softball players with “perfect” 20/20 eye sight can probably further enhance their visual skills. Again, these visual skills are developed from birth. These skills are also learned as you grow. They can also be taught, enhanced, and improved at almost any time during your life through vision training exercises.

Many of the top athletes in the world have a finely-tuned visual systems which helps them learn to anticipate and respond more quickly to complex visual conditions. On top of having these finely-tuned visual systems these athletes also train their vision. If you are interested in training your fast pitch vision, I would recommend to join in.

But how does vision and vision training affect fastpitch softball?

Hitting – In order to hit a pitched ball, softball players must see location, motion or movement, and rotation of the ball. Training the visual skills that enhance the speed and efficiency of the two eyes moving together will allow the player to get her eyes on the ball as it travels to the plate.

Defense – When dealing with ground balls, fly balls, line drives, and throws, players use the information from the eyes then react to the ball.

Choices – Visual information also influences choices made on the field. Choices that players make on the field are directly influenced by what they see and how they interpret what is happening around them. Here are a few examples the situations affects by vision:

• • • Pitch selection – to swing or not to swing
    • Where to throw – seeing where the runners are and what they are doing to determine which base to throw to
    • Run or stay – assessing the situation as a baserunner and making that decision to go even slightly before the coach audibly says “go”

Great players always seem to make the best choices. They also often seem to be one step ahead of the competition in anticipating what is going to happen.

The Visual Skills

The visual skills that fastpitch softball players utilize are:

• • Eye alignment
  • Flexibility of eye movements
  • Speed of Focusing
  • Speed of processing visual information
  • Reaction time
  • Visual concentration
  • Visual confidence

Players with strong visual skills usually have more visual confidence at the plate. They know the ball won’t be thrown by them. They’ll get at least a piece of any pitch they swing at. They probably strike out less than most players on the team.