Frank J. Spaniol, Ed.D., CSCS*D
Professor, Department of Kinesiology
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi

The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes and perceptions of high school baseball players that participated in Vizual Edge Performance Training (VEPT). Visual skills were assessed using the Vizual Edge Performance Trainer (VEPT), a commercial software program designed to assess eye alignment, depth perception, convergence, visual recognition, and visual tracking Individual subtest scores were used to generate a composite VEPT score.

During the 2017 baseball season, eighty-five male subjects (age = 16.02 ± 1.05) fifty-two of these subjects from a high school in Texas and thirty-three of these from a high school in Oklahoma. They completed a twenty-five question Likert-scale survey, which examined the perceived effectiveness of VEPT. The participants averaged two training sessions per week for 16.32 minutes per session for a period of 10.86 weeks.

Results from the survey indicated that 82% percent of the subjects agreed or strongly agreed that visual skills play an important role in baseball performance, while 71% believed that VEPT actually enhanced those skills (20% were undecided, 5% disagree and 2% strongly disagree due to limited training time). In addition, 40% believed that VEPT improved their performance during this study and it took an average of 4.48 weeks for them to notice such improvements.

As a group, 70% believed that VEPT increased their ability to “focus”, 59% felt the visual practice improved their concentration, and 58% agreed the training augmented their ability to “see” the ball. In addition, 31% reported more consistency, 42% believed batting results increased, 39% felt their fielding improved, and 17% reported superior balance.

Overall, the results of this survey indicate that a significant number of high school baseball players participating in VEPT believed their visual skills improved, which they felt translated into enhanced performance.