Today, Ryo Ishikawa, the seventeen-year-old Japanese phenom, announced that he would be playing one of his very first PGA TOUR events at the Transitions Championship For Healthy Sight.
Many people have compared Ryo to a young Tiger Woods, so there is a ton of excitement about him coming to the US to play. Thinking about this young Japanese player on the verge of success reminded me of a sports vision training success story out of Japan.
Outfielder Doug Jennings played in the Major Leagues with both the Oakland A’s and Chicago Cubs. While with the Cubs, Doug was finding that he couldn’t see the pitch seven feet from the bat. The ball looked even tinier than it had in the past and Doug couldn’t swing his arms in time to make contact. This was particularly confusing to Doug because he had 20/15 vision, the same as baseball Hall of Famer Ted Williams.
I evaluated Doug and found out that he was left-eye dominant. After just a few short sessions, I was able to help Doug learn how to train his eyes to improve his tracking and depth perception of a baseball. Being a left-handed hitter, Doug adapted his batting stance to position his left eye more toward the mound so that he could more accurately see the ball at the pitcher’s point of release.
Through sports vision training, Doug would go on to become an MVP in the Japanese league, and even tied the league’s consecutive games with a home run record in the process.
Doug had this to say about his work to improve his vision, “Dr. Lampert’s Sports Vision Training brought an awareness of my batting to a new level. He made me aware that vision is, in many ways, more important to hitting than the actual mechanics of the swing.”
I wanted to share this story with you this week to show you how great the results of improved vision and sports vision training can be and hopefully inspire you to learn more about using your vision for your own success.