Head and Eye Movements & Gaze Tracking in Baseball

Article: Batters move their heads to keep their eyes on the ball
Source: Ohio State University, via ScienceDaily
Published: August 12, 2021

Researchers in sports vision conducted a review of film- and lab-based studies pertaining to batters' gaze in baseball to answer the question "Do batters actually keep their eye on the ball?" and if so, whether there is any advantage in strategy with regard to head and eye movements. Their study suggests that while batters do indeed keep their eyes on the ball, they direct their gaze by moving their heads rather than their eyes. Some of the batters were also seen to make what is suspected to be an anticipatory shift in gaze toward home plate. While the two authors of this study found no consensus in head and eye movements among baseball batters, they did uncover a consistent finding that batters move their heads rather than their eyes to direct their gaze at the ball. They speculate that given the time pressure during the half-a-second journey of a pitched ball to home plate, head movement reduces the complexity of negotiating visual and neural signals. However, head movement also leads to an interesting paradox, namely, suppression of the vestibular ocular reflex (VOR). Responsible for turning our eyes in the opposite direction of a head turn, the vestibular ocular reflex allows us to maintain a stabilized view of our surroundings despite head movement. As one of the authors explains, “When it comes to something like batting, when I’m rotating my head to follow the ball, the VOR is telling my eyes to go in the opposite direction. … So that VOR has to be canceled if the eyes are going to stay on the ball.” After confirming that batters do keep their eyes on the ball, the researchers next look to study whether anticipatory saccades away from the ball improved batting success, a pertinent question to sports training. Thus far, they report no conclusive data, but highlight both athletic interest in the topic as well as the need for larger studies under game conditions. While baseball serves as a model situation in this case, the authors posit that questions such as how we organize our thoughts when pressed for time and whether to fix our gaze on the focus of our attention or direct our gaze based on predictions are questions that apply to everyday life. “Ultimately, once we understand how and why the hand, eye and head are coordinated in a certain way, then training these patterns is the next step," one of the researchers concludes.

My rating of this study: ⭐

Tool, A and Fogt, N. "Review: Head and Eye Movements and Gaze Tracking in Baseball Batting." Optometry and Vision Science.  97(7):750-758. July 2021. https://doi.org/10.1097/OPX.0000000000001721