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Key Insights to Improved Baseball Performance by Dr. Bill Harrison

New York Mets first baseman Carlos Delgado, a sixteen year MLB veteran, after two years of struggling,had a major trans­formation in his hitting performance this past season. Through June he was hitting .228 with a slugging average of .419. In July he hit .357 with a slugging average of .714.

Cleveland Indians outfielder David Dellucci, a 12-year MLB veteran, was hitting .228 on August 1. That month he went on a tear, batting .345.

Brad Boyer, an A Ball player in the San Francisco Giants chain, increased his batting average in the California League from .248 in 2007 to .347 in 2008 – a 100 point gain. Jason Tweedy, who played collegiately at Long Beach State U., signed a profes­sional contract with the Tampa Bay Rays after he increased his college bat­ting average from .234 in 2007 to .306 in 2008.

Roger Bernadina, who was recently promoted to the Washington Nationals, hit .259 primarily in AA Ball in 2007, but in 2008 hit .335, primarily in AAA ball, a gain of 76 points. Michael Stanton, a former three-sport star at Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, CA, hit 39 homeruns in his first year of professional baseball in the Florida Marlins organization.

The common denominator in all of these hitters is that they placed a significantly higher priority on the “visual side” of their approach to the game. They incorporated vision drills as part of their strength and condition­ing program. Prior to the game they trained their baseball related vision skills. They were coached by a visual performance coach on how to best use their vision and they applied specific techniques to see the ball earlier, track it better, and see the ball deeper.

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 On June 16th the New York Mets had just fired their manager and many people and press were calling for a new 1st baseman.  The bloggers, sports talk hosts and sportswriters universally were saying that Carlos Delgado was finished, he was to old, slow hands.

New York Mets Beltran and Delgado came to our training center in San Juan Capistrano, Ca. (JSerra High School). 

Beltran began immediately to tell me how he continues to use his training  and that the previous night he saw the ball so well he hit it out twice against the Los Angeles Angels. He shared with me how the SlowtheGameDown training has helped him so much that he wanted me to help his struggling teammate fellow New York Met Delgado.  

I told Delgado,  “you know how to swing a bat. You have been doing this for 22 professional seasons.  What you are not doing is using your eyes properly to allow your natural ability to shine.” 

 We spent the next 3 hours discussing how to properly train his eyes and more importantly how to see the ball better (early and deep).  I told him not to expect immediate cure  but to work on his visual skills and concepts and he will see a drastic change.

In July the big slugger is hitting .357 with 8 doubles, 9 homeruns, and 24 RBIs. He also has a sterling .461 OBP for the month with a .714 slugging percentage. That equates to an OPS of 1.159. He had less strike outs and more base on balls. He has gone from the goat of New York to the Resurrected King.

RESULTS

These results are not uncommon of athletes who train and trust their visual system.   We have had miracuolus results with various players at all levels.  I have seen player go froma .250 to .300 avg.   I have seen players almost hit .400 ( George Brett in the majors and Rick Short in the minors) when they trust what they see.  It does not happen by accident.  Like Delgado these guys trainied and began usg their eyes as a tool.

Here are some quotes by Carlos and others.

“I haven’t changed my mechanics. I have been working on seeing the ball better. And, I am seeing the ball really well.” He told Joe Morgan of ESPN Sunday night baseball.

“Timing is so important to baseball and Delgado’s timing was disrupted by not seeing the ball very well.”  Now that he has a plan on how to see the ball early and SlowThe GameDown his mechanics and more importantly his timing have returned.

“As a hitter, you want to see the ball and you want to get ready before they throw the ball, and that’s what I’m trying to do,” Delgado said. “You start early, you see the ball, you start re

cognizing strikes, you stay behind the ball, you can drive it to the opposite field, you can pull it, you can do anything.”

 ”I’m feeling pretty comfortable,” Delgado said of his current turn-around. “My timing feels a lot better, and that lets you see the ball better and stay behind it.”

Learning to gather the right visual information and proc­ess it efficiently can pay big dividends on the softball­field.

The SportsEyeSite training regimen increases the athlete’s ability to gather and process complex infor­mation quickly. The bottom line is athletes are able to collect more information, recognize visual cues earlier and make better decisions faster – hence their performance improves.

TRY THE NEW DRILLS FREE 5 DAY TRIAL(No CC Required) Got to http://www.sportseyesite.com/ and use CODE:SOFTSES42072

Imagine the increase in performance that results from being able to recognize the type of pitch being thrown within the first three feet of it leaving the pitchers hand, or the direction a tennis serve will take before it leaves the opponents racquet or the direction a running back will take before he takes his first step. For these same reasons defensive play will improve also.

The SportsEyeSite training package contains everything your players need to raise their visual game to its full potential The training package challenges all 14 eye muscles with the multiple forms of eye movements essential for athletic success, including
· Saccades (quick switches) – needed to see important details ,
· Pursuits (smooth tracking) – greatly assists eye-hand coordination.
· Vergences (focusing the fourteen muscles for clarity) – essential to maintain depth per­ception when the athlete, the ball or their opponent is in motion,
· Fixation (the ability to stop all eye movements and look at one specific spot) – required to gather the detailed information necessary from a specific visual cue andrelease (the ability to move on to the next fixation spot) – crucial for allowing your attention to move forward to the next task.

The SportsEyeSite develops and enhances visual information processing skills that are the guiding stimulus for performance response and all the exercises are designed to en­hance the foundational building blocks that effect performance on the field.

The role of vision in softball can’t be ignored. The body won’t move until directed by the brain and the brain can’t engage until the eyes see something to initiate action. Just as physical conditioning and practice is necessary to train muscles and refine body move­ments for peak performance, vision training is needed to fine-tune the eyes for optimum achievement.

Try SportsEyeSite training today. Team prices are now available for Coaches. I look forward to seeing your team on our site.

Sincerely,

Dr.Bill
Dr. Bill Harrison