Vision Training For Baseball Pitching

Everything you do in pitching begins with what you see -- the catcher's mitt, the way the hitter is standing, the crowd in the stands. Vision training for pitching underlies your success on the mound; if you visualize success, you have a better chance at achieving it.

For baseball pitchers, visualization training can have a positive effect on your game day performance. Here's how to do it like I was taught by a sports psychologist in pro ball. It takes 10 minutes and can be done daily.

1. Go to a quite place where you won't be distracted for 10 minutes.

2. Close your eyes and relax.

3. Visualize yourself on the mound in a big game -- first from the outside (like you're a fan watching the pitcher on the mound), then from behind the mound, and then from a close-up view of your upper body (almost like the camera angle on TV, but you want to see it closer).

4. View your pitching mechanics, nice and fluid. See proper arm angle and release point. Feel the pitching delivery with all your senses.

5. Visualize yourself throwing different pitches. See the arc of the slider. See the arc of the curve ball. See the movement on your two-seamer. See the backward spin of your four-seam fastball. The ball will produce a light that will follow the proper path, depending on the pitch. See and follow the pitch acting as it should.

Vision training will allow you to go out on game day and just focus on the catcher's glove. Say, "I'm going to throw the curveball on the low outside corner," and you don't have to think about your mechanics or anything like that. You will throw that curveball to that point that you've already visualized more often than not.

Try it.

Comments

[diego joachin]

hey good posts.
i think pitching has a lot to do with life. discipline, courage and humble.

[Steven Ellis]

I totally agree!

Steven