How To Train Pitch Recognition With Applied Vision Baseball App. (Pt. 2)

Mark Brooks here with the Applied Vision Baseball Pitch Recognition Training App.

In the previous video, I showed you how to, how to go about diving into your first pitch recognition training drill with Bud Smith on Easy and Hard Modes.

In this video, we'll review the main pitch recognition drills such as the:

  • Soft vs Hard Focus Transitions
  • Pitch-Path-Predictions
  • Post-Up

If you're already a member, feel free to log in and watch the tutorial inside the Applied Vision Baseball App.

If you're not a member, you can click here to learn more about how to train your pitch recognition skills.

Applied Vision Baseball App Tutorial Transcript

So we had Bud Smith, the big league guy, a big-league lefty, and then we had Dante, a top college prospect.

So you got a feel for what it's like, what it feels like to see a big-league fastball from the left side and then a power explosive ball, low 90's fastball, from an elite-level player with a plus-plus curveball.

In this video, I'm going to walk you through this specialized specialty pitch recognition training drills.

So we have, as you can see here in the specialized section slider, we have the soft vs herd focuses, the posts up, the pitch path prediction, and then some various other pitch recognition specialty drills.

In this video, we're going to focus on the soft vs hard focus, post-up and pitch path prediction drills.

We've got a lefty. I believe he's in the pro college, section slider. We're going to click on "start now."

Let's talk a little bit about what the pitch path or what are the soft first hard focus pitch recognition training is. The purpose of this drill, okay, is to help you as a hitter to become familiar with what a good pitch-path-pitch recognition tempo looks like, right?

It looks and feels like using a nice soft to hard focus transition.

So what is a soft vs hard focus transition? It was a fastball right there.

Basically, as hitters, what we want to do is we want to avoid eye strain, right?

A tense muscle is a slow muscle. A Tense muscle is a slow muscle. A loose muscle is a quick muscle tense.

Muscles around the eyes undermine our ability to recognize spin, speed, and location as soon as possible, right? So it undermines our pitch recognition performance. So how do we as hitters, how do we avoid eyestrain?

We made sure we don't get to the release point too soon or too late. We made sure, you know, what we want is a nice broad soft focus on the picture. So what is basically the circle that you see here represents the broad focus, right?

So we're looking at a general view of the pitcher boom. Correct. and then we jump our eyes from the pitcher to the release point.

Sometimes, you know, you hear coaches talk about focusing on the local of a cap, the logo of the cap or the head of the picture. You know, I think that's great. I think a general, a good place to start is just to focus on a general soft focus of the picture.

That's what Ted Williams did. He had a broad focus of just a general focus of a pitcher and then we transition from the circle on the pitcher boom to the window just above the knees point.

Got that one correct too. So the idea is, is fairly simple, right?

We want a nice soft to hard transition. Let's see how many I got correct here. A five out of six, not too bad. Let's go back to a new training track condition juggle.

Soft vs Hard Focus Transitions

So the idea is simple, soft to hard focus, keep that tempo, in rhythm so that you're avoiding eyestrain with the broad focus on the picture.

And then transitioning to the release point window just above or to the, to the slightly to the right to the left, depending on if it's a lefty or righty of the pitcher's throwing arm.

Again, you know, if you're facing a guy with a three quarters release point or sidearms some ring guide, that release point window is going to be different, which is why we have pitchers at different release points.

We have guys three quarters like Ozzy here. We have been, with a pretty much a sidearm release point if you want to get good looks of what that looks like, definitely check out Ben and Ozzie as well. Okay, so let's move on to the next pitch recognition training job.

We're going to do three today. Let's do with Misco.

Would post up, not post up as a heading instructor. I believe that the post-up pitch recognition training drills are the most important skill set as a hitter to learn.

Here's why.

Chances are I've never seen you hit, but I would imagine most of your strikeouts are getting froze on the fastball inside, right? And especially when you have two strikes on you obviously and the breaking ball in the dirt, right?

So chasing the ball in the dirt, you know, leaving our posture because we're trying to make contact with the pitch out of the zone. Here is why this drill is so important.

Okay, how good you get. I'm making the pitcher pay when he leaves a ball up in the zone. Hit contact percentage period. How good you get at being aggressive up in the zone on pitches up in the zone. Pitches left up in the zone would dictate how hard you hit the baseball on a continual basis.

This one is down. So the idea here is simple.

You are going to look for something that starts up in the zone. So up in the zone here represents the green zone. Okay, so this is a binary pitch recognition training.

This is either yes or no. Pretty much every pitch here is going to be a strike somewhere in the strike zone. Your role here, what you're training is not just swinging at strikes but just swing got strikes up in the zone.

So we've got yes-no, the question is up. Boom. That was up in the zone. I was a slider. That's a mistake.

Pitch, right? As hitters, the pitcher leaves a ball up on his own. The mentality is we do not miss, okay? So if it's down in the zone, that means it's if it's a breaking ball, it's going to end up in the dirt are hitting instinct, right? We're developing hitters is to look for something up in his own.

If it's down, I got that one wrong. That was, that was borderline.

This is going to help us to develop, plate discipline. Again, here's why. If the break of the zone starts up in the zone, it will end up a strike in the zone, in your wheelhouse when it crosses the plate. If it starts down in the zone, it will end up in the dirt by the time it crosses the plate.

That's the idea. That's the approach. That's what we're trying to reinforce. I'm going to go with yes here.

Got that one correct. Awesome. The better you get at this, the lawyer, your strikeout, you're going to be, the higher your hard contact percentage is going to be and more pressure. You're gonna put on the pitcher.

More pressure you're gonna put on the defense, which is what allows you to help your team win, which is what it's all about.

So that one's down and zone. I'm going to go no. Oh, that was borderline. It's another one. That's a tough one. This even for me, you know, I have a lot of experience teaching, teaching this and I still have to stay sharp right after you have to continue on in order to stay sharp.

So I've got six out of eight. Not too bad.

That's a good pitch. Recognition average. Let's move on to the next pitch recognition special teacher. This one is the pitch path prediction sequence.

Okay. So the purpose of this, this pitch recognition drill is to help hitters reinforce what we call the [inaudible] psychotic visual ability. So what, what is the psychotic, visual ability? In other words, it's the ability to predict where the pitch is going to be based on the current information. All right, let's go back to bud here.

So as hitters, well you don't swing out with a ball. This right, I release point. We swing at where we predict the ball is going to be at the point of contact, right? This is why hitters with great psychotic abilities are great curveball hitters, okay.

Especially that big, the big loopy 12 to six curveball, which is what bud Smith has here. Is this a ball down in the zone. So especially that, that big loopy 12 to six curveball, which is what bud Smith has here. This is going to help you to predict early when the ball, where the ball ends up, okay?

So with, where you're going to see here is you're going to see release point. You're going to see the occlusion.

So, the screen goes up and then you're going to see two dots, two different colors. So this one's pretty straight forward.

You're going to see the occlusion training, you're going to see, two circles. Like I said, you're, you can see where the ball is going to end up at release point. So you're not recognizing where the ball is.

You're recognizing where the ball is going to be once it hits the zone. So let's see here. Let's do one that was a fastball. Ooh, I'm gonna go fast. Part red. Oh, that was a change yet.

That was a tough one. So this is going to be one of the harder pitch recognition jobs. This is a hard difficulty. Boom. Fastball red. Got that one correct. Let's do another one here. Let's see if I can, if I can build on that one. Let's go slider green. Got that one incorrect. That's a tough one too. Here we go. Let's try another one. Boom. Curveball red.

Yes. Got that one. Let's see if I can finish strong. Let's go. Fastball-red. Whew.

So again, a good change-up is going to be really hard to recognize, okay?

This is why you know, the pitch path prediction and the post-up drills are going to be ones that you want to do every single day without question.

You can see here, I totally got undressed here, right? I need, I need some practice with this one. This is great to do as a pregame warmup. If you're facing a guy who can locate there, their secondary pitch consistently, or a guy who pitches backward, especially in count leverage, there's cantilevered levered.

So two Oh three one a one. Oh right. If he's, you know, willing to or is able to throw that slider curve ball change up for strike and those hitters counts.

Your ability to recognize pitch path prediction or your approach to have a post up drill post up approach is going to pay dividends, while you're performing in the batter's box and competing in the batter's box. So try out these various pitch recognition drills.

Go back and forth with the occlusion training, the special teacher drills, you know, mix them up with, with Ben, Ozzy, Zach, and we're going to be adding new pitchers, every quarter as well, you know, face guys for both sides of the plate, face guides who piss from different sides of the mountain.

Take these pitch recognition tempos and reps into your batting practice and games. Until next time I will see you in the next pitch recognition training tutorial.

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