The Fever Program has acquired some new tools and gadgets this year to help with our players’ vision and this will be an area that we invest more time on going forward. We have learned from the best college programs in the country that vision is an area of continuous improvement for their players.
Very small changes can make a huge difference in this area. For example, making sure a batter’s head is level and she has a level two eyed look at the pitcher not only increases her range of vision but enables her back eye to engage. We were very surprised to learn that a slight head tilt can deactivate vision in the back eye, decreasing the field of vision as the ball approaches the plate.
Making sure your player has 20/20 or better vision can really help improve batting. As our student athletes spend more and more time studying and transitioning from electronic learning to books to the chalkboard or screen in the front of the classroom, it’s not surprising that their vision is changing and may need to be corrected.
The players will be working on a station that improves their visual acuity by identifying patterns and numbers on a wall chart. In another drill they will work on tracking golf Wiffle balls deep in the zone. Another drill deals with tracking pitched balls into the strike zone and assigning the pitched ball to a sector (think down and in and up and away).
The ultimate skills we are after are better strike zone awareness, pitch recognition, and pitch selection.
Maryland Fever Fastpitch 18U 