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Can ‘Athletic Intelligence’ Be Measured?

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Teams in the NFL and other leagues believe performance on a tablet can predict success in the real game. 

Two N.F.L. draft prospects sat on a couch on the shaded patio outside a hotel room in St. Petersburg, Fla. They were waiting to take another test. They had only been in town a couple of days, and already this was their sixth test. Each time it was the same routine: Go to this room at this time, ask for this person, do whatever he tells you. No one said what the tests were for, and so far the prospects had never been told how they did.


READ HOW gameSense’s own Dr. Len Zaichkowsky is helping bring cognitive skills to the forefront of sports.

Three Must-Have Cognitive Skills for Fast-Paced Sports

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Eric Rynston-Lobel, a young journalism student at Northwestern University recently published an interesting article, “Hitting a baseball is the hardest skill to pull off in sports. Here’s why,” in the magazine Popular Science. We asked our own, Leonard Zaichkowsky, PH.D., and gameSense Co-Founder and Director of Sport Science to add his insights on this topic. His thoughts are below…

Through his scientific research and interviews with experts in physics, Dr. David Kagan, neuroscience, Dr. Paul Sajda, and hitting coaches, Eric accurately portrayed the fact that the skill of hitting a baseball is complex and unlike any other sport skill. It involves more than sheer physical athleticism. In his article, he points out the classical example of how the great Michael Jordon, who ruled the basketball world, failed in his attempt to play professional baseball. Jordan failed primarily because he could not execute one specific skill: hit the 90-mile an hour baseball. This reminded me of when I had my graduate students read a motor learning explanation of the Jordan phenomenon in the book “Why Michael  Couldn’t Hit: And Other Tales of the Neurology of Sports,” written by Harold Klawans. 

Like Professor Sajda, I studied, taught, and wrote about the brain processes that are involved in rapid decision-making by athletes. Sajda, according to Eric, believes exceptional hitters have two important cognitive qualities: 

  1. The ability to stop themselves from swinging at certain pitches in a fraction of a second.
  2. The ability to identify pitches.

I call the first point “impulse control or response override”, an important cognitive skill to be sure.  But the most important attribute hitters must have is the ability to identify pitches or what gameSense refers to as pitch recognition.  In the book I co-authored with Dan Peterson, “The Playmakers Advantage”, published in 2018, we discuss the three critical perceptual-cognitive skills needed in fast-paced sports or in hitting of a baseball or softball.  They are: 

  1. The ability to visually focus on and read important cues early. For example, great hitters with their excellent visual acuity learn to read a pitcher’s grip of the ball and their release point.

  2. Anticipate and decide the type of pitch and location.  If a baseball pitcher throws at 90 miles per hour, from 55 feet the hitter needs to decide in .440 seconds whether the pitch will be a strike or a ball; to swing or not swing (where impulse control is needed); and decide whether the pitch is going to be a fastball, breaking ball or changeup, etc. Hitting a fastpitch softball is even more difficult.  A 70 mph fastball released  37 feet from home plate requires .35 seconds of reaction time for the batter or 20% less time.

  3. Execute the skill of putting the bat on the ball.  All of this perceptual-cognitive activity plus muscle/limb movement to hit the ball on the sweet spot of the bat takes less than half a second.  In sum, hitting a baseball or softball requires incredible coordination of the hitter’s eyes, brain, nervous system, and muscles of the body.

Until recently, the only way hitters
could develop this important perceptual cognitive skill was through getting at-bats
in a batting cage or in game situations, which is not an efficient method of
training. Today, the visual temporal occlusion method of brain training
developed by GameSense Sports,
allows hitters at all levels to get many “at bats” by simply viewing a variety
of pitchers on their mobile phone, iPad, or desktop computer. 

About Leonard Zaichkowsky, PH.D., gameSense Co-Founder and Director of Sport Science

Dr. Zaichkowsky is a widely known sport and performance scientist whose specialty is the psychophysiology of human performance. For 37 years, he was a professor at Boston University with a joint appointment in the School of Education and School of Medicine.

He has published 6 books and more than 100 scientific papers on sport psychology, sport science, biofeedback, and research methods and made more than 300 presentations world-wide. Currently, Len is a science consultant for a number of sports, medical, military, and business organizations. Dr. Zaichkowsky is a licensed psychologist, a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA), and 2016 recipient of APA’s award for “Distinguished Contributions to Professional Practice”. He is a past-president and Fellow of the Association for Applied Sport  Psychology (1997-99), a former member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, and currently section editor on psychology for the International Journal of Health & Sport Science. Len has consulted with U.S., Canadian, and Australian Olympic organizations, Major League Baseball, NBA, NFL, NHL, Spanish World Cup Soccer, Real Madrid, and numerous other elite sport organizations.

Coach’s Corner: Coach Gentile

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Hello Softball family! 

 

I’m Coach Gentile or Coach Courtney. I am a former Division 1 softball coach and I am the Softball Director and your Customer Success Specialist here at gameSense. 

 

Like Coach P, who you met last week, I grew up with a bat and ball in my hands. In some capacity, I have played every position on the field; but pitching, 1B, and OF are the ones that I played in College at The Ohio State University. 

 

I realized when I was about 13 that I wanted to coach softball in some capacity. I always tried to lead vocally and by example on the field. It wasn’t until I got to be a Junior in college did I really want to pursue coaching at the collegiate level. You are at your most vulnerable and influential years from 18-22 and I wanted to be that coach that could help mentor not only on the field but off as well. I’ve just recently started coaching travel ball again and more passionate than ever to be that person for these young women to look to and to teach them how to be independent, empowered young women and to teach them what it will take to get to the next level of their careers in softball. 

 

I am grateful to be a part of this gameSense family as I truly believe technology and pitch recognition is going to be the wave of the future here in our game that we all love so much. I wish I would have had it when I played! 

Coach’s Corner: What do the experts say about playing and coaching?

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Coach’s Corner #TipTuesday

We stand behind the real-world, on-the-field application of our products just as much as we stand behind the science and technology used to develop them; so it is very important to us that real, experienced coaches and athletes play a part in the everyday operation of gameSense Sports.  We have former college athletes as well as travel, high school, and college coaches on-staff with their hands on the product every day, working hard and providing input to make our apps the most efficient, valuable, and practical training tool available.  

The coaches on our staff have so many insights, we figured it was time to give them a platform to do what they do best – coach! So, welcome to “Coach’s Corner” – a new weekly installment in the gameSense world where we let our coaching experts take over a post on the ‘gram and drop some knowledge for our followers. 

Why College and Travel Teams now Test Hitters’ Pitch Recognition

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The gS SRTTM

By Dr. Peter Fadde, Chief Science Officer, gameSense Sports

A hitter’s statistics betray the symptoms of poor pitch recognition: strikeouts, low on-base percentage, and even groundouts (afterall, weakly putting the ball into play is a win for the pitcher, not the hitter!). There are also some hitters that appear asymptomatic. Their stats can be described as “just fine” … for now. These hitters may have good vision, good eye-hand coordination, sound swing mechanics, and an aggressive approach in their hitting arsenal. But if they don’t have good pitch recognition they will eventually run into pitchers that expose their deficiencies.

Athletes who ignore the symptoms of poor pitch recognition jeopardize their chances of high-level hitting success. College coaches know this, and many are starting to insist that players have their pitch recognition tested before being considered for their programs.

Fortunately, there is a reliable and valid pitch recognition test available for baseball and softball hitters. It is called the Standardized Recognition Test, or SRT. The SRT uses the video-occlusion method that sports scientists have used for 40 years to research seemingly-impossible sports skills such as: blocking penalty shots, returning 130 mile-per-hour tennis serves, and split-second hitting decisions in baseball, softball, and cricket. 

In a video-occlusion test, the athlete watches video of a pitcher from the point-of-view of a batter. The pitcher winds up and throws; the ball comes out of the pitcher’s hand, and then the video cuts to black. The athlete needs to choose what type of pitch it was: Fastball? Curve? Rise? Slider? Wicked Googly? Pitch zone recognition is also tested:  Ball or Strike? Time of ball flight that the athlete gets to see varies: sometimes they see about one-third of ball flight, sometimes less, and sometimes the video cuts to black right at release of the
pitch. Decades of research prove that expert hitters can “read” pitches better and earlier, thereby having more time to decide if and where to swing. 

The SRT- developed by gameSense Sports – has three scores: Pitch Type, Pitch Location:Ball/Strike, and PR (or Pitch Recognition)  score. Hitters that are especially good at Pitch Type often have high stats in Slugging Percentage; They see the ball early and adjust their swing. Hitters with high Ball/Strike scores have a good eye for the zone. Hitters with a high overall PR Score often occupy the three-hole in the batting lineup when they are also strong hitters (strong mechanics, vision, confidence, approach, etc.)

It is important to remember that the SRT does not test hitting ability. Some players with high PR Scores still struggle at the plate due to other factors such as poor hitting mechanics, strength, vision, confidence, or approach. What SRT does test is how well an athlete can read pitches, which becomes of higher importance as the athlete progress into more elite levels of play.  

Over 700 minor league players and hundreds of college players – including players in the Cape Cod Baseball League – have taken the
gameSense SRT for Pro/College baseball. The college softball SRT is breaking into prominence and now required by several teams, notably in the formidable SEC. And gameSense now has SRTs for High School/Travel baseball and softball.  Teams use SRT scores in recruiting, coaches and instructors use SRT scores to reveal pitch recognition strengths and weaknesses, and players use SRT scores to see how much they have improved when they train their pitch recognition.

As a science-based test is expected to be, the SRT is trustworthy and valid; It measures what it says it measures. It is reliable. And in order to increase scores, the actual work must be put in first: If an athlete takes an SRT today and again next month, they will score about the same if they have not practiced their pitch recognition.

The best way to improve hitting health and stats are to heed the symptoms of poor pitch recognition and take the test. More  information on the SRT can be found at: https://gamesensesport.com/gs-standardized-recognition-test/.


New Southern Illinois University research aims to help athletes and law enforcement

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Researchers at SIU Carbondale have developed new technology to improve high-speed decision making skills.

Dr. Peter Fadde created Video-Occlusion, an alternative form of virtual or augmented reality.The technology was originally developed for sports, but it can also be used to increase reaction times in many different professions, including law enforcement and medical fields.

Read the full Story Here

Minor Leaguers are competing against each other with gameSense: Sporttechie Exclusive

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gameSense Offers Minor Leaguers Free Access to Pitch-IQ App

By Joe Lemire


Pitch recognition app gameSense is offering minor leaguers free access to its Pitch-IQ app during the Covid-19 lockdown. Seven MLB organizations have taken advantage of this Safe-At-Home program that began in April.

The foundation for gameSense is 1970s-era research into anticipatory behavior based on early visual cues. The app shows a pitcher wind up and release the ball—then goes black at the moment a hitter must decide whether to swing. Hitters using the gameSense pitch-occlusion platform have shown statistically significant improvements in their on-base and slugging percentages.

“Pitchers can keep throwing to stay sharp,” gameSense co-founder Peter Fadde writes in an email. “But what about hitters? We’re giving them a way to help stay sharp for when games start.”

In April, the minor league hitters completed 1,236 drills. Each drill consists of 10 pitches, meaning the players logged about 3,500 virtual at bats. Fadde plans to compile a new research report based on those activities.


Read the Full Article HERE

Testimonials from Top coaches/trainers/Startups on what to do during COVID-19 crisis

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Click here to Read the Entire Article

GameSense sports is a technology company that has developed an app for baseball and softball that measures and teaches pitch recognition using the scientifically validated method of “visual occlusion. It utilizes live video from a large library of pitchers at different levels of ability. Again your phone or tablet is all you need to improve your perceptual/cognitive decision making skills in baseball. Unfortunately the other major professional sports do not have a comparable training system at this time.

Tech Makes Baseball a Simple Game: You See the Ball, You Hit the Ball, You Got It?

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This is the third story in a five-part series that examines how swing biomechanics and the proliferation of technological tools are helping hitters.

Modern technology is able to illuminate the kinematic sequence of a hitter’s swing, but those assessments top out at the athlete’s torso. What happens above the neck is just as critical, and it’s hard not to lean into baseball’s most famous truism of all: Yogi Berra famously said the game is “90% mental,” which makes perfect sense if you ignore that fact that he said the other 50% is physical.

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