The start of the 2019 season for the pros and college players is upon us. What players will be standing atop the leader board by the end of the season? The bigger question is how do the great ones maintain their edge and what will catapult the prospect to household name status?
In other words, what players will demonstrate the Double Vision only the few sustain over the long season.
No. It’s not about eyesite or prescription contact lens. It’s not about reading the eye chart from 20 feet away. Yes, you need clear eyesight to read and drive but that by itself won’t help hit a curve ball, recognize a change-up or help turn around a 100 mph fastball.
Let’s make it simple. Vision is how effective you are in getting the “external picture” through the crap, distractions and negative thoughts sitting in your head that clouds or delays your ability to interpret and react to the “picture”. Vision is a performance based factor that allows
some to see more and in slow motion than others. Put another way, vision is the human software that edits and updates the external world for the brain ( the hard drive) to process.
Whether you are always a step slow on groundballs to your left, slow on reading flyballs to your right or late seeing the spin of the screwball, vision is either the problem or the solution.
What comes first, mental slumps or visual changes in what, how and when players are paying attention to?
Do negative thoughts effect a players
Vision or is the way the player is “looking” cause the negative and clouded thoughts? What came first the chicken or the egg?
Let the philosophers figure that one out.
Treating the eyes as part of the brain ( actually it is the only part of the brain we can see!) is the best way to improve both mental and visual clarity at the same time. Truly, how and what we are paying attention to at any given moment explains why clarity of thought is tied into our clarity of seeing.
Let’s examine the high caliber visual skills in action:
Scan and Hunt
Be aware of how, what and how long you are looking at a target. Open Focus, the visual strategies of the rich and famous, is the preferred method to improve clarity and reaction time in sports.
The classic line ” when I look at nothing I see everything” is a repeated description of high level athletes when performing at their best. This Open Focus definition allows players to see the whole field and have better spatial awareness of their surroundings and ball flight prediction.
Double Vision
Great performers are incredible in creating in their minds eye, the actions,movements and mindset they want to use come crunch time.
The ability to create, edit and play their own movie ( best flix) as a rehearsal for game situations is what allows them to play at a higher level. This imagery requires a constant commitment so that the player can access the image anytime in the game.
This other definition of Vision also applies to the dedicated player that can ” see and plan out” his ideal training and practice schedule.
Vision to prepare combined with the vision to see your ideal performance is the ultimate skill set. Go see it yourself!
