As a baseball player we teach and train every muscle in the body. We are always exercising and working on our strength, mobility, flexibility, range of motion, and even our minds. But we always overlook the most important one, our eyes and vision. To be successful in any sport you must be able to see and process what you are seeing quickly. Hitting happens in under 400 milliseconds but you need to process the pitch within 75-100 milliseconds. Have you ever thought about what goes into that process? Check out this link and you will see what needs to happen for you to see and recognize a pitch.
https://projects.seattletimes.com/2017/mariners-preview/science/
The good news is that we can improve our vision and train it just like we train other parts of our body. Here is a list of training exercises that I have been doing after working with a sports vision therapist.
Hart Chart
- Cost – Free
- What is needed:
- Small letter chart
- Large letter chart
- Optional – Eye patch
What is the hart chart and how does it work? Accommodation is the focusing of the lens in your eye. If your vision gets blurry up close, accommodation is not working. Your eyes strain and you may bet headaches as well. The good news is that you can exercise and strengthen to improve. The way we do this is by printing off a small letter – near chart and a large letter – far chart. You go back and forth reading each line of the chart. Near, far, near, far, etc.… You do this while covering one eye with either your hand or a purchased eye patch. Here are the instructions:
http://semovisioncare.com/Pt%20Forms/Pt%20education/Hart%20Chart.pdf
Also read this and watch the video:
https://otrobert.wordpress.com/2018/02/10/the-hart-chart/
If you do this 1-2 times a day, you will quickly feel and experience results. It would be idea to do a session in the morning and at night.
Here is an Amazon link to an eye patch:
Flippers Vision Therapy
- Cost – $15-30 per flipper
- What is needed:
- +/- 2 flipper to start
- Additional +/- 1.5-3.0 flippers if needed
- Small letter chart from the Hart Chart above
How do you use flippers? Flippers are a great tool to add into your vision training. They work on helping your eyes focus near and far quickly. The idea is to simulate distances with a + or – magnification in the flipper. This video explains how to use the flipper:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=86&v=UXtYvTL4Y5Y
If you do this for 3-5 minutes a day and ramp up to maybe 10 in a month, you will notice an improvement in how quickly your eyes can work on focusing.
Here is an Amazon link to purchase flippers. I suggest the +/- 2 to start with. These are cheap but work well. They do ship from China, so it takes a while for shipping.
https://www.amazon.com/SUNWIN-Optical-Flipper-Optometry-Plastic/dp/B01JLKSQRS
Brock String
- Cost – $10
- What is needed:
- Purchase a Brock String
This one is going to be hard for me to explain how it works and what it does. But it’s basically a long 10’ strings with 3-5 beads on it. You space the beads out and then hold the string up between your eyes. Then you look down the string and try to focus on each bead individually. When that happens, you see 1 bead, but the other beads look like there are 2. Its best to just show you the instructions with pictures:
https://www.good-lite.com/cw3/Assets/documents/911115_BrockStringInstructions.pdf
and
https://www.bouldervt.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/478/2016/05/Brock-String.pdf
This will help train depth perception and focus. Its hard for your eyes to process 1 bead at first but with some training it becomes easier. The one PDF above shows other drills that can be done using the same string.
Here is the link to purchase on Amazon:
Senaptec Strobe Glasses
- Cost $349
- What is needed:
- Senaptec Glasses
Senaptec took over the old Nike strobe training glasses. They state that they train the connection between an individual’s eyes, brain, and body. They are basically strobe lights in the lens of the glasses that cut down the frames you see and it makes you react quicker and process information faster.
Here is the link to Senaptec where you can read and learn more:
https://senaptec.com/senaptecstrobe/
Conclusion
I personally do every drill listed; I even have the glasses. None are easy but every drill does work and strengthens your vision. Its easy to slack on vision training and I know that 98% probably don’t even think about it but when you put in the effort of 10 minutes a day, results will come. Sorry that I couldn’t explain each drill well, but it is very complicated. You have to try it to experience the impact. I would tell everyone reading this to start with the Hart Chart and download/print a free chart online and give it a try. It won’t cost you anything.