(61) PERCEPTIONS, ATTITUDES, AND SKILL IMPROVEMENTS OF HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL PLAYERS PARTICIPATING IN VISUAL SKILLS TRAINING

Baseball is a visually dynamic sport requiring athletes to track a fast-moving, small object while assessing the field of play to make decisions in hundredths of a second. Previous research suggests professional baseball players with greater visual capacity exhibit superior batting performance, linking visual skills to a player’s performance. Various training programs have been shown to improve visual skills. Training and its perceived improvement are thought to increase confidence and performance on the field.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes, perceptions, and visual skills of high school baseball players participating in visual skills training.

Methods: Thirty-three male high school baseball players aged 15-18 engaged in Vizual Edge Performance Training (VEPT), a commercial software program designed to assess overall visual skills which included eye alignment, depth perception, convergence, divergence, visual recognition, and visual tracking. After an initial VEPT assessment, participants attended 1-2 training sessions per week for an average of 18.07 ± 2.90 minutes per session for an average of 17.16 ± 2.73 weeks. Subjects completed a post-training VEPT assessment and a twenty-five question Likert-scale survey to examine the perceived effectiveness of and attitudes toward VEPT.

Results: Results from the survey indicated 80% of the athletes agreed or strongly agreed that visual skills play an important role in baseball performance and 65% believed that visual skills training enhanced their visual skills. However, only 38% of the players felt visual training crossed over to improve their sport performance, taking an average of 6.95 ± 4.25 weeks to notice. Reporting on baseball specific skills, 44% of athletes believed that visual skills training benefited their batting performance and 37% believed their fielding improved. Improvement was also reported in 23% of pitchers. Fifty percent of players thought training improved their ability to “focus on the ball” and 41% of players believed training improved their ability to “see the ball earlier.” Reporting on more general athletic abilities, 45% of athletes believed their concentration improved, 19% felt their balance improved, and 35% thought their timing improved. Twenty-one percent reported improved consistency and 25% reported improved confidence. While over half of the players perceived their visual skills as improved, post training scores were significantly higher than baseline scores (t(32) = 2.04 , p < .001, d = 1.22), with an average improvement of 8.46 ± 6.37 points.

Conclusions: Overall, the results of this investigation indicated a significant improvement and perceived improvement in visual skills after visual training. Further research should be conducted to determine the effect of training visual skills on physical as well as perceived performance. Future findings could be used to maximize visual skills to benefit sport performance. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: These results can be used by coaches, trainers, and players to improve visual skills, hopefully resulting in improvements on the field or at least improved attitudes and perceptions of abilities.

Acknowledgements: None.