Nevertheless, given the challenges inherent in doing research with high-level athlete populations, the contribution of hardware and software to expert performance remains an open question.īetween 20, the Nike Sensory Stations were developed and utilized as a tool to quantitatively evaluate athlete visual and motor skills. For example, past research found that expert athletes demonstrated more adept anticipation, pattern recognition, and visual search skills than non-experts 14, 15, 16. ![]() While these studies indicate that superior batters possess superior visual system physiology, the preponderance of evidence in the literature concludes that, in the absence of hardware differences, expert performance is subserved by superior abilities to process and act upon visual information. Some studies have found that expert baseball players possess superior visual acuity 10, enhanced contrast sensitivity 11, better peripheral vision 12, and better visual tracking abilities 13 than non-athlete controls. This literature, and the larger debate across all sports, centers on the question of whether athletes possess inherently better visual-system physiology (so-called “visual hardware” that allows for the reception of visual information), or if differences are restricted to enhanced perceptual-cognitive abilities that can be shaped through practice (so-called “visual software” involved in processing of visual information) 9. Although a small number of studies have reported links between superior baseball statistical production and better visual reaction times 4, dynamic stereoacuity 5, binocular divergence 6, and visual recognition 7, 8, they are based on small sample sizes and/or appear in conference proceedings, rather than peer reviewed articles.Ī more common approach for inferring the sensorimotor abilities important for baseball performance involves studying the difference between professionals, amateurs, and non-athletes. However, the combination of noisy game statistics and costly sample acquisition makes inferring meaningful relationships difficult. Given the substantial role of visual and motor demands in baseball (henceforth called “sensorimotor skills”), there has been a concerted effort to determine which elements of the perception-action cycle contribute to successful baseball performance 3. Despite the need to visualize the strike zone, it has been argued that motor demands, such as controlling the speed, spin, and location of the ball are more important for pitching success than visual requirements 2. Pitchers attempt to deny batters effective contact with the ball while projecting it through the strike zone 60 feet away. Pitching, while equally demanding, draws upon a fundamentally different skill set. The immense difficulty of this task is underscored by the fact that players who hit successfully on less than a third of their at-bats can receive hundred million dollar contracts in today’s free-agent market. We now know that Major League Baseball (MLB) pitches move at speeds near the processing limits of the vestibular-ocular tracking 1, leaving the batter with mere milliseconds to decipher the pitch, project its trajectory, decide to swing, and coordinate the timing and trajectory of a 2.25-inch diameter bat. ![]() Advances in sport science continue to validate Williams’ claim hitting a pitched baseball places incredible demands on athletes’ visual systems. Ted Williams, one of the most legendary baseball players of all time, once said, “I think without question the hardest single thing to do in sport is to hit a baseball”. The pattern of results suggests performance contributions from both visual-sensory and visual-motor abilities and indicates that sensorimotor screenings may be useful for player scouting. We find no such relationship for either slugging percentage or fielder-independent pitching. Within this framework, we find that sensorimotor abilities are significant predictors of on-base percentage, walk rate and strikeout rate, accounting for age, position, and league. For this purpose, we develop a series of Bayesian hierarchical latent variable models enabling us to compare statistics across professional baseball leagues. ![]() In this study, we compare sensorimotor abilities, measured through 8 psychomotor tasks comprising the Nike Sensory Station assessment battery, and game statistics in a sample of 252 professional baseball players to evaluate the links between sensorimotor skills and on-field performance. Baseball players must be able to see and react in an instant, yet it is hotly debated whether superior performance is associated with superior sensorimotor abilities.
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