An article taken from Collegiate Baseball details API's use in different sports.

Visual Skills are necessary for athletes and their training.

Baseball, Basketball, Badminton, Cricket, Football, Field Hockey, Handball, Skeet Shooting, Soccer, Fencing, Ice Hockey, Judo, Racquetball, Tennis, Softball, Volleyball, Water Polo, Table Tennis.

If your sport(s) is listed above, read on to find out why visual training is a must to achieve your athletic potential.

98/30.

Your “eyes” initiate ninety eight percent of your actions or reactions in athletics. If you use API’s Visual Training System and improve your visual skills by 30%, you will be affecting 98% of what you use in a positive way. Think about how you make decisions. Do you just move, throw or hit an object without a goal or a focus on a target? Consider what you do before you do anything: you “look” in order to make the decision. If you don’t look, you should. Bad things can happen if you don’t! The mind can only consider and evaluate what it sees; how rapidly, how orderly and how accurately you see is how the mind controls the body.

Our research is based on pre and post-testing of player’s visual skills. (We assume the eyes are normal or corrected with lenses.) These skills vary. Just as if we had everyone run, some would be fast, some slow and some average. To show you an actual situation let’s look at Football and Baseball. You can make the transition to your own sport.

In Football we’ll take the quarterback. Each QB has about 3 seconds to throw the ball. During this time he must pick an open receiver, study the defense and hopefully not get sacked. During our early research there were two NFL quarterbacks that we tracked during the season. One QB could make 5 “looks” per second, or 15 “looks” in 3 seconds. He had quick recognition time, .200/second, allowing him to release his eyes to go to the next “look.” He also had faster eye motility. The second QB could only make 3 eye movements per second, or 9 “looks” in 3 seconds. His eye stops were .333/second. During the season a comparison was made and as you would guess, QB #1 threw fewer interceptions and had fewer sacks. QB #2 had more of each. Would you like to make more accurate and faster looks? Would you like to make 15 “looks in 3 seconds over only 9? It is obvious isn’t it?

Here is a comparison you can make and apply to your sport. In Baseball, a pitch travels upwards to 100 mph. In College it is 82 mph on average. Let’s assume the ball takes about 1/2 second to get to home plate. Player “A” has a recognition time (the time it takes to see and release his eyes) of .333 of a second. The ball isn’t really picked up by the eyes until it has traveled 45 feet. He has only 15 feet theoretically to make a decision. Player “B” has a recognition time of .200 of a second. He picks up the flight of the ball after it travels 15 feet. He has 45 feet of time to make a decision.

Which player would you like to be? Using API’s Trigger Visual Training System you can improve your perceptual skills by 30% on average. Think about the areas that your eyes are used in your sport. Remember 98/30. If you do training now, why not add training of the eyes? Train the whole body.

Tony Gwynn started using API while at SDSU. They are using it today and Tony is the new Head Coach.	Tony Gwynn's son at SDSU being set-up for using the Visagraph by Dr. Bailey

EFFECT OF RECOGNITION RELEASE TIME AND MOVEMENT OF THE

EYES IN BASEBALL

Dr. Howard L. Bailey, O.M.S.

Regardless of how you stand, grip the bat or hold your tongue, you have about one half of a second to decide to swing or not to swing, whether you can see the ball or not.

In college, the ball travels an average of 82 miles per hour. That is 164 feet per second. In professional ball it can be 90+ mph. At 60' 6", the ball has .504 of a second "traveling" time. This is not all decision making time as you will see. All of the fundamentals you know to cut down on unnecessary movements such as hitches, over striding and refocusing on release area doesn't add to decision time. These actions results in lack of readiness or unnecessary pre-movements. Fundamentals will help in bat control and allow for a more controlled swing, but everything in hitting is predicated within the time frame of the pitch.

At Athletic Perception Institute, our research in recording eye movements has shown that all hitters have the ability to move the eyes at a speed well over the speed of any pitch that can be thrown. That doesn't mean he has the ocular control at that speed. The average saccadic movement (eye movement) in an 86 arc, the average number of degrees the eye turns in following a ball from the pitchers hand to in front of home plate, can travel 120 milliseconds or 344 mph. (R. Dodge and T. S. Chine, Psychological Review, 7) While the task is complicated by the fact that the recognition time, or eye release, is so poor that hitters are unable to start the eye movement to follow the ball and have adequate eye control to track the ball at the speed it is traveling. This is trainable and by the use of eye graphs you can pick those with controllability or lack thereof. The recognition/release time is the time it takes to recognize the visual cue and then move his eyes in an effort to catch up with the ball. (Figure "A")

Eye graphs are taken on API's Eye Trac recorder that transmits a reflective light from the eye to moving graph paper much like an electrocardiograph. We can determine how fast and how often the eyes can be moved and how long it takes to get the eyes starter in a period of time. We can also tell if the eyes travel faster in one direction over the other and if the recognition or release time is faster from one side.

When comparing these two players, refer to Figure "B." With the pitcher releasing the ball to player X, the ball would travel 40'4" before he moved his eyes to follow the ball. Because of a faster recognition time player Y would begin to track the ball after it raveled only 23' 9 1/2". Notice the difference in the length of "time" spent at the beginning of the movement before starting the ocular excursion. This is static time!

................... 10................... 20................... 30................... 40................... 50................... 60.

  Figure B

Conversely, player Y would have 16'4 1/2"more feet or .133 of a second longer decision time than X.

We have found that better hitters are those with shorter, or faster recognition times and with better ocular control. One graph brought to mind is Tony Gwynn, a player we graphed and trained when he was at San Diego State University. Needless to say, he has outstanding ocular control. Jim Dietz, Head Coach at San Diego State, said I told him that this kid was going to be a great hitter, just by examining his eye graphs.

Your weak hitters have longer recognition times and less visual control. "Never throw a 'change-up' to a weak hitter!" Why? It is the only pitch he sees, or has time to follow. You just blow it by him. They may not lack bat control, but we know they lack ocular control.

As you can see, TIME is all you have in making decisions. The more time you have, the more accurate your decision and a more controlled and accurate swing will result. The area of recognition/release time is Trainable, along with improving the accuracy during the time leading up to the swing.

Much has been said about peripheral vision and its attributes in athletics. Studies have shown that at 15', the eye has only 10" of 100% acuity. When you get off 4" off center, you have lost 68% of your accuracy. (Feinberg, 1949, "A Study of Some Aspects of Peripheral Visual Acuity.") Many hitters are attempting to hit the ball using peripheral vision.

To get the feeling about this lack of accuracy, try this. If you have a watch on, don't look at it, but hold out your wrist as if you were going to look at it. Look at the fingernail on your middle finger. You can see your watch, but you cannot tell the time. Move your eyes over towards the watch and see how far you have to move your eyes to see the hands! This is the area of accurate recognition. It is very narrow. This is why we have to be able to use our eyes efficiently and effectively to gain maximum accuracy for successful performance.

In hitting, this means that if the eyes are not in close proximity of the ball, the hitter is hitting with this inaccurate, out of focus peripheral vision, or is guessing.

We are assuming in our training that the eyes have normal acuity or are corrected with lenses by professional vision care people who are concerned with correction. Our concern is how the eyes function as a physical activity. The two areas that API develops is the ability to recognize faster and more accurately, as well as to move the eyes more quickly and under control. This Is Trainable.

API training has improved these visual skills averaging up to 32% in over 1000 college and professional athletes as well as U. S. Navy fighter pilots. One player made a 106% improvement. When you consider this improvement in recognition time, player X will have an additional .083 of a second to follow the ball and 10' more distance in which to make a decision. Player Y would have .05 of a second more and 5' 10" additional observation distance. We are using a 25% improvement factor. (See Figure "C")

................... 10................... 20................... 30................... 40................... 50................... 60.

Figure "C"

Another area that you should concern yourself with is that of "Global Vision"and "Hard Center Vision." The term Global means you look at the "big" picture, i.e., takes in the entire body of the pitcher for example. Hard Center means you are concentrating on a small area of importance. The hitters should be looking in the area where the ball is going to be released. A professional Dart player told me they do not look at the bull's-eye, they look at an old hole in the bull's-eye for accuracy! The smaller your target, the more margin you have for error.

Each pitcher releases the ball from a slightly different area. It behooves the hitter to "study" this. Any extra eye movement to locate the release area reduces his decision time!

Hitters must decide where the ball is going to come out. That area is "Hard Center". If he is looking at the pitcher with a "Global" look, he must: 1. Make an additional eye movement (time) to find where the ball is coming from and then, 2. Use whatever recognition time he uses, plus moving his eyes in an effort to catch up with the ball. This Hard Center "seeing" is acquirable with practice. Remember, anytime you can reduce recognition time and unnecessary eye movements, you can add that time to the decision and accuracy time of the pitch.

To experience the "Hard Center" vision, do this. If you have a bookcase, look at the bookcase. Now find a certain book and look at it. Move your eyes to the first letter of the title. Did you feel your eyes move each time to a smaller concentric area each time? You went from Global to Hard Center vision.

Hitting is not the only area that can benefit from improved visual skills. Fielders for example can arrive at the point of contact sooner just by reducing his recognition time. How many times have your players just missed catching a ball by inches? Remember the great players who were not fleet of foot, but seemed to be in front of the balls hit to them? They got a jump on the ball, or to put it another way, they had fast recognition/release skills. The body goes into motion only AFTER a visual cue. If a fielder has 11.5 speed in the 100, he would gain 27" traveling 30' by reducing his recognition/release time by 25%, Imagine how this training would benefit base stealing, running down fly balls or any action that requires a move to a spot to complete a play!

Other areas where visual skills are demanding are those of pitching and making double plays.

In pitching, one of the toughest visual tasks is with a man on base. Especially with a man on second. The head must turn to pick up the target and also release the ball in a minimum amount of time. If the pitcher has faster recognition skills he will take less time in picking up the target and will be more accurate in his delivery. He should be using a "Hard Center" vision in picking up his target.

Infielders have a tough visual task in making double plays. He must first field the ball and then quickly pick out his target. How fast and accurately can he find it? The more accurate the seeing skill, the more accurate the throw. Throws should always be made to a small target.

Most errors are not a result of poor physical skills. Most errors are due to a lack of proper visual skills. Errors can also be caused by mental distractions, which in turn results in lack of concentration, putting the eyes in neutral.

API's Trigger Visual Training System techniques employ the latest computer software program available to train accurate motility skills. We also teach players how to use and improve the most important visual skills: recognition and faster and more accurate "seeing" skills. Players, with improved visual skills, gain an advantage over their opponents. The player can work on his own at his own time and own rate.