Does anybody have any good vision drills for faster identification of off speed pitches? I have a major problem identifying changes and curves outside of situations where a pitcher is likely to throw one.

Hmm, possibly the thing with the numbers on the ball. Maybe even just sitting back and waiting long as possible on every pitch during bp my help.

Take a good look at your load and approach (stride). Sometimes if you stride without a purpose, your front foot will land without ever knowing what pitch you are seeing. There needs to be a purpose in your stride. Sometimes you need to slow it down a little or adjust your rhythm to get it consistent.

The best tool for learning to read off-speed pitches is experience. The more you see, the better you get. Nothing beats experience, but the problem is finding someone to throw to you consistent enough to master it.

You might try the Frozen Ropes up there in Rochester. Chris, Mike and the boys are really awesome at helping in this area and they also have some software for your computer that you can train on to help soften your focus to read the ball quicker.

Manny Ramirez and Frozen Ropes just put out a DVD devoted primarily to vision drills. Haven't seen it yet so I don't know how it is.

The easiest and possibly one of the best ways is to simply get in the box in normal hitting position and watch pitchs thrown in the bullpens. Do everything to trigger, just don't swing.

I agree with PGStaff, the only way to improve your vision is to watch more pitches from the box. Although I would suggest that set up your time so that it is possible for you to be able to hit for real, the closer to reality and game situations that you can practice in the better.

Part of our BP include Take 4, meaning after bunts, the players read four pitches all the way to the catcher.
Before they come in the cage, they do tee and hit-stick work and also take a stop in the pen while the pitches are working. We have them watch 10 pitches each.
No substitution for experience.

Frozen Ropes is really trying to reveal better tracking approaches for hitters. It's good stuff.

There are several optical guys out there that have some stuff to look at with respect to visual traction, recognition, detection, and reaction. Something about stereo opothy (sp?) email me & I go look out in the shed.

OBTW:

Dave Hudgens and hitting.com sell a vision training package - it utilizes different colored wiffle balls in many of the drills to help with pitch recognition skills.

I have those Vision devices but there all pretty corny using with High School kids and limited time. Learn to play handball. Tracking that ball around is exceptional for hand eye coordination. I use the golf ball pitching machine as well. Its works great and kids like to use it. Throw in some colored balls and tell them the colored balls you TAKE
the pitch. You can view some of Manny's vision training on the clip from Frozen Ropes site. Manny wears an eye patch as well on a drill or 2.

Upstate,

Try the following website:

Eyesite

Eye training is not something that many folks look into, no pun intended. As a baseball player, if you can't see you don't hit even if your mechanics are flawless.

My son has looked into many eye training tools to enhance his depth perception and train his eyes. He chose this particular website, because all of the drills are on-line and your progress is tracked and you can not move to the next level or drill until you reach a certain score. I believe the cost is $79 for one year and $149 for three years. Not saying it is the be all end all for eye-training but something you may want to look into....no pun intended.

I hope this helps you and good luck!

O42