Most athletes are aware of eye-hand coordination, but few understand its importance in the execution of hitting and catching. In essence, eye-hand coordination means that athletes are capable of coordinating the movements of the arms and hands in relation to what is visually seen.
For example, it is relatively easy to hit a tennis ball or a racquetball with an oversize racket. However, where the ball makes contact on the racket depends on how well developed your eye-hand coordination is. If you contact the ball in the middle of the racket, commonly known as the sweet spot, the hit will feel effortless.
If the hit is off center, you will feel vibrations from the hit and the racket may turn in your hand. The vibrations may be even more pronounced when hitting a baseball or golfball.
In general, the farther away from the center of gravity of the ball and the center of gravity of the bat or club, the greater will be the twisting tendency and the stronger the vibrations. In addition, the distance that the ball travels is decreased. Thus even though making contact may appear relatively easy, accurate contact requires a very high level of eye-hand coordination.
Eye-hand coordination is transferable from sport to sport if the factors involved are the same. For example, a high-level tennis player who has good eye-hand coordination will be able to transfer this skill to racquetball quite easily. The transfer to baseball will not be positive since the same skills are not involved.
This can help to explain why Michael Jordan was not capable of quickly becoming a high-level baseball player. He has well developed eye-hand coordination as seen in his basketball shooting, jumping, passing, and ability to catch the ball. But, in baseball the type of eye-hand coordination needed is different. In batting there is approximately .24 seconds to make a decision to swing the bat and approximately .24 seconds to execute the swing. Not only must you coordinate the eye and hand movements, but you must be able to track the baseball as it moves toward you, be able to judge its speed and estimated time of arrival, and be able to carry out the swing and make contact.
In catching, you must also coordinate the arm movements to be in position for the dropping ball. To know where the arm is in relation to its movements without looking at it requires development of the propioceptors in the muscles and joints. When these are highly developed (often known as the kinesthetic sense), your body automatically knows where the arm is in space.
For example, close your eyes and raise your arms until they are level with the shoulders. Open your eyes and check. If your arms were not level, then your propioceptors are not giving the correct feedback in regard to arm position. If this exercise is too easy, close your eyes and bring your finger to within one inch of your nose without first touching your nose. If you can do this without any problem, you can say you have a highly developed propioceptive sense.
Regardless of the type of eye-hand coordination that is needed, most important is to know that eye-hand coordination can be improved. How you can do this will be discussed in a future article.