Augmented Reality In Baseball – Applied Vision Baseball

Here’s my bold 3-5 year prediction. The future of hitting will change immensely because of open AI, Virtual and Augmented Reality in baseball.

The ability to simulate at-bats and rehearse success will get better and become more immersive every year.

Here’s my bold 5-10 year prediction.

There is a huge opportunity for hitters who adopt a Post-Up approach to hitting. In the era of the launch angle, there have been more strikes and pop-ups now than at any point in history.

Why? Because pitchers have made an adjustment.

2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 all had 40,000+ strikeouts.

That’s almost half the amount of strikeouts MLB saw during the days of tough-as-nail hitters like George Brett, Andre Dawson, and Robin Yount.

Look I get it. Maybe we’re comparing apples to oranges here but if hitters don’t adjust, those strikeouts are gonna increase, and we’re going to see more 20,30,40 + homers hitters with less than 100 hundred hits a season.

The reality is this – pitchers are seeing hitters obsessed with launch angle and hitting the ball in the air, creating an early collapse in their backside, so pitchers are now elevating the fastball.

Look at players from the 80s and 90s and you’ll see hitters with a more linear style approach.

Carew, Gwynn, Mattingly, Boggs…

Line drive hitting machines.

Now I’m not saying Linear Hitting is the solution but I’m telling you right now, strikeouts are utterly worthless. Unless you’re a 30+ homer guy at an elite level, if you’re going for broke in every swing you’re just a dressed-up out.

If you want to be a great hitter, do damage up in the zone and make the pitcher pay on mistake pitches. In other words, take a freakin Hell-Hack.

Applied Vision Baseball – Augmented Reality Baseball

As I mentioned, earlier, we are getting closer and closer to hitters being able to simulate live at-bats, timing, and tempo from anywhere.

With technologies like Win Reality and yours truly, Applied Vision Baseball, hitters are going to be able to rehearse success and get a tacit feel for what it likes to time up elite-level high-velo Fastballs and devastating breaking balls.

At Applied Vision Baseball we’ve been working on non-VR, VR vision training drills and in the very near future Augmented Reality for hitters who want to work on their pitch selection.

Not long from now, you’ll be able to put on some AR glasses, take it to a batting cage, and have a holographic big leaguer on a mound throwing you pitches while you take or swing at balls off a tee or hit a virtual ball, and know exactly where it will be overlapped on an actual ball field.

Maybe not today, but someday.

My goal with Applied Vision Baseball isn’t just to find novel ways to take batting practice, it’s to truly understand hitting concepts and principles to help you see and anticipate the ball better.

Two principles that I believe will help you to make more solid contact and sharpen your pitch selection:

What two principles you might ask?

Posting Up and keeping the finger on the Swing Trigger.

Let me explain.

Posting Up

As previously mentioned, we are seeing record-high strikeouts and pop flies. Why? Because modern-day hitters are being trained to hit the ball in the air. The result? Early collapses with the back shoulders, pop-ups, and pop flies.

Understand: my guy Steve Springer get said it best when he said hitting for power is the most overrated tool in baseball if it can’t be done consistently and to all parts of the field. Anyone can hit for a little pull power but can you drive the ball with authority to the opposite field?

That’s REAL power. Pitchers have adjusted to the new generation of hitters by elevating the fastball. Hence, more strikeouts and pop flies.

Hitters we have to get back to the basics. We have to get back to becoming line Drive Hitting Machines.

This is the power of Posting Up.

We need to be aggressive on pitches up in the zone, looking up in the zone and adjusting down in the zone the same way we look away and then adjust in. Some of the furthest balls you will ever hit are the chest-high fastball and hanging breaking ball. 

This will help with plate discipline by being able to recognize nice the pitch to avoid chasing the breaking ball in the dirt.

If the breaking ball starts up in the zone it will be in the zone at the point of contact.

I the breaking ball starts down in the zone, it will be in the dirt, down in the zone when crossing home plate. This is the key. We can spit on the pitches in the dirt by anticipating strikes up in the zone.

Posting Up helps you make more solid contact while increasing your plate discipline.

Believe it.

Keeping The Finger On The Swing Trigger

What do all big leaguers have in common?

A lot of things but for starters:

Fundamentally repeatable swings.

Short and compact.

Athletic ability.

The ability to be focused present and on time.

Strength.

Also – they do not get cheated by the fastball.

To be a great hitter, you have to be able to hit the Fastball.

The problem is, sometimes we freeze on a Fastball like a deer in headlights, and the reason why is because we’re thinking we will swing IF it’s a strike.

If we’re waiting to see if it’s a strike before we swing it’ll be too late.

We have to assume, we have to anticipate that the next pitch is going to be a strike. We have to assume the next pitch is going to be the best pitch we’re going to see all day.

Our thinking needs to be “Yes, yes, no” on a ball and “Yes, yes, go “ on a strike. 

Each pitch the pitcher throws need to represent an opportunity in their minds to drive the ball with 100% authority.

This is called keeping your finger on the Swing Trigger.

Be calm cool and collected, yet focused, present, and on time on the next pitch.

Not guessing. Anticipating.

So here is the rub.

You can train your ability to Post Up and keep your finger on the Swing Trigger with our dozens of drills in Applied Vision Baseball.

Non-VR drills and Vr drills as well as our future road map of Augment Reality vision training drills.

Rehearsing Success In Augmented Reality Baseball

In a game loaded with failure, our ability to be confident and stay confident regardless of the outcome will dictate how confident we feel at the plate.

How do we train this? By simulating at-bats and rehearsing success.

The average youth ballplayer sees with their eyes around 500-1000 pitches a year while standing in a batter’s box. 

Imagine how comfortable at the plate you’d feel if you saw that many pitches in a week.

Pretty dang confident.

Anyways this is what we have cooking at Applied Vision Baseball.

You can check out our drills, by joining for a dollar.

We’ll even send you a free VR headset when you start a Pro Plan while you train both the non-VR and VR training drills.

That’s all I got.

Like and subscribe.

Be and stay a student of the game.

Join Us For $1

Improve your pitch selection and pitch recognition by training your vision and timing in the Applied Vision Baseball App. You can get access to over 1,000 pitch sequences while simulating at-bats against pitchers from all levels. Join us and start your VR and non-VR vision training for $1.