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Tony Abbatine, Founder of Frozen Ropes, on Reaction Time

Tony Abbatine shares the benefits of visual training and how it can be used to improve a hitters reaction time.

It's no secret that training the strength of your eyes with visual methods can drastically improve the way you see and process things. For athletes, this has all to do with improving your reaction time. Having the ability to react quickly is useful in sports and daily activities. Dr. Bill Harrison explains, while many athletes focus on building strength, speed, and muscle, eyes also can be developed through training. He states that though the eye muscles do not get bigger, they can become more agile, and the nerve cells can work faster. Training the eyes is becoming as valuable as preparing the body.

Vision training has also been proven to help visually impaired non-athlete individuals. A study performed by the State University of New York, College of Optometry documented that optical training aided people with low sight issues.

Areas of vision that are developed during treatment are hand-eye coordination, focusing, tracking, peripheral sight, and dynamic acuity, which is the ability to focus clearly on moving objects. Organizations such a Frozen Ropes, and company Founder, Tony Abbatine, help athletes of all levels hone in on their visual skills to improve overall gameplay.

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Additionally, it’s no secret that proper nutrition and sleep are contributing factors to overall improved visual processing and reaction times. Proper rest and nutrition generally contribute to improving your body’s overall functions. This includes the level to which an athlete can perform and react.

In order for a hitter to maximize their skill potential, numerous muscle groups need to work in unison, from their core to their eyes. In fact, no muscle group is more important than the eyes of the hitter. Although there isn’t an exact way to physical strengthen, or “bulk up” the muscle of the eyes traditionally, there are tons of ways for hitters to train their eyes to see more clearly while up at the plate. While timing plays a major role in the game, it’s also about getting the eyes and the brain to work in unison together. Similar to the difference between hearing something, and actually understanding something, there’s also a major difference between seeing and visually processing.

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From an athlete or coach’s point of view, a 10% increase in reaction time can mean the difference between a home run or strikeout. Prof. Graham Erickson, College of Optometry, Pacific University, notes that detecting speed and making a decision when to begin a swing can make the difference between a win or a loss in any game. Besides traditional sports, such as baseball, football, tennis, and golf, other sporting events can benefit from increased brain-eye coordination, such as sport shooting, fencing, boxing, and car racing.

Improving reaction time by taking advantage of eyesight training techniques coupled with proper nutrition and sleep, may be just the edge an individual needs to become a top-performing athlete in their field.

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This article was originally published on tonyabbatine.net

Tony Abbatine, is the founder of nationally known athletic training organization, Frozen Ropes. As a pioneer in the world of baseball, softball and visual psychology, Tony specifically uses his innovative techniques involving Sports Psychology to train and coach athletes of all different levels. He has pioneered techniques that help the players he coaches integrate the physical, mental, and visual skills they need to perform at a higher level. For more information, visit tonyabbatine.net.

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