Head & Eye tracking.

[FiveFrameSwing]

Came across the following in the book "The Hitting Edge" (below).

"Track the pitch as far as possible into the hitting zone. The head should not move very much, and the eyes must stay on the ball. A good hitter loses sight of the pitch 6 to 10 feet from home plate; a bat hitter loses sight of it at 12 to 15 feet. If the hitter's head tries to follow the ball all the way into the catcher's glove as he tries to swing, he is defying one of the absolutes that allows the body to create force during motion --- one body part cannot accelerate forward until another body part stops. The bat cannot attack forward to strike the ball if the head is moving back to track the pitch."


I generally instruct my students to track the ball into the catcher's glove when they don't swing and am curious how others instruct.

[virg]

I don't care either way. It might be a way to get a raggedy group to focus concentration on the first objective in hitting. "See- ball!". It didn't hurt Rose did it. Where was the writer looking when Pete did it?

I do object to a Suit saying too much about what- you- can't- do then leaning on Isaac Newton. Kieth Hernandez said in print (his book Percentage Baseball) that he had seen his bat make contact at that moment: Suits come along and say otherwise. Who to believe? Your call.

[StraightGrain11]

Something I've used - not always, but sometimes - is to tell them to track it the same way they track a ball to their glove. You pretty much have to watch it as far as possible to get an idea where the glove needs to be to catch it, why wouldn't it be similar with a bat?

[virg]

Came across the following in the book "The Hitting Edge" (below).

"Track the pitch as far as possible into the hitting zone. The head should not move very much, and the eyes must stay on the ball. A good hitter loses sight of the pitch 6 to 10 feet from home plate; a bat hitter loses sight of it at 12 to 15 feet. If the hitter's head tries to follow the ball all the way into the catcher's glove as he tries to swing, he is defying one of the absolutes that allows the body to create force during mot.

Has that writer ever been to the ballpark? Who tries to hit it out of a catcher's glove? Would anybody but a science fiction writer try it?

You learn to track a ball by tracking balls, including both batting and playing catch.

[Jake Patterson]

I generally instruct my students to track the ball into the catcher's glove when they don't swing and am curious how others instruct.

I do also. I also agree with most of what the book suggests.
Here's some pics
AlbertPujols eyes.JPG

bonds eyes.JPG

[Nater44]

I do also. I also agree with most of what the book suggests.
Here's some pics
[ATTACH]43740[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]43741[/ATTACH]

Not sure we can determine where these hitters are looking even though their heads are pointing in the direction of the lines drawn.

Without getting more technical on a topic that can turn quite technical, I have some thoughts. Learning to recognize spin and rotation, location, and velocity are far more valuable than spending a lot of time working on how far a hitter can track a ball into the catcher's glove. Most young hitters (assuming they are up to bat to actually hit the ball) will follow the ball with their eyes because it's moving, and well... because they want to hit it.

We used to call pitches by location as soon as the pitcher would release the ball for practice in recognition of pitch location. Large colored dots with a sharpie pen on a baseball also help hitters concentrate on the ball more efficiently.

[Nater44]

I do also. I also agree with most of what the book suggests.
Here's some pics
[ATTACH]43740[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]43741[/ATTACH]

Cool pics, where do you find all these? Resolution is awesome.

[Jake Patterson]

Cool pics, where do you find all these? Resolution is awesome.

There are thousands posted here.Go to the thread Clips, Pics and Sites. That will be a good start.

[FiveFrameSwing]

Not sure we can determine where these hitters are looking even though their heads are pointing in the direction of the lines drawn.

IMO the lines that you are referring to were drawn to support a point that isn't correct.


Eyes at contact.

[FiveFrameSwing]

IMO the lines that you are referring to were drawn to support a point that isn't correct.


Eyes at contact.

p.s.

Next time you see a group of kids hitting off a tee with their eyes fixated on the ball as they swing, ask yourself if that really resembles reality.

[virg]

[QUOTE=FiveFrameSwing;1206372]IMO the lines that you are referring to were drawn to support a point that isn't correct.QUOTE]

Fiver sounds like another doubter; me too. Hell, I once saw photos of Musial, Williams, and DiMaggio at contact, with their eyelids at half-mast; "proving" that you blink when you swing. Then as now, people tended to accept the printed word without question. Even though those eyelids were as blurred as the ball in those pics.

If you blinked so fast would it blacken your eyes? Would you hit well enough for anyone to take your picture?

Both the eyeballs and neck swivel. Athletes, even we lesser ones, have some ability to coordinate. The head and eyes, like the trunk and limbs would follow- through an intense purposeful coordinated motion. You might not see then but it wouldn't matter. The photos show the head and eyes at the instant the shutter opened; no more. Only part of the story.

[Dirtberry]

I teach my kids that leaving your head in the zone has nothing to do with vision.
It’s all about inward angle weight distribution since I teach batting over the ball.
If you let your head travel towards the pitch it becomes the gateway of front side breakdown!!

I want even the weight of their eyers down in the zone.

[FiveFrameSwing]

I teach my kids that leaving your head in the zone has nothing to do with vision.
It’s all about inward angle weight distribution since I teach batting over the ball.
If you let your head travel towards the pitch it becomes the gateway of front side breakdown!!

I want even the weight of their eyers down in the zone.

I seem to recall that some of Epstein's material discussed the role of the head. At the time I read it I interpreted it to mean that he understood that tracking the ball to the bat was not possible and he instead was teaching the head to remain still so as not to impact the quality of the swing.

[Lady_Knights]

p.s.

Next time you see a group of kids hitting off a tee with their eyes fixated on the ball as they swing, ask yourself if that really resembles reality.

NO, in reality the ball is moving, which when hitting off a tee is not the case. Stupid analogy.

[FiveFrameSwing]

NO, in reality the ball is moving, which when hitting off a tee is not the case. Stupid analogy.

Is it really a "stupid analogy".

The majority of the kids I see hitting off a tee initiate their swing with their head/eyes directed at the ball sitting on the tee. This is not the position that their head is in when they initiate their swing when a ball is pitched to them.

If the objective of tee work is to improve one's swing, then the orientation of one's head should be the same when they initiate their swing as it is for live pitching.

When hitting off of a tee I have my students focus ahead to where the pitcher would be when they trigger. I don't want their eyes to shift back to the ball until bat/ball contact.