Author Archives: Robert Riggins

First Principles Thinking & Hitting

Understanding what has to be true in the act of hitting improved my ability to develop hitters. I could apply this to such a wide array of topics. For the sake of time, I will focus this post to the following areas: For the first 15 years of my coaching career, my sole focus wasContinue reading “First Principles Thinking & Hitting”

Neuroscience and Pitching: Building Better Command Training (A Thought Experiment)

I was a pitcher in high school and slated to be one in college as well. Being a pitcher comes with the universal cue of “Just Throw Strikes”, as if it were just that easy. I always had pretty decent command and on several occasions I was informed by coaches that I threw too manyContinue reading “Neuroscience and Pitching: Building Better Command Training (A Thought Experiment)”

Neuroscience and Hitting: Part 2 Ear Plugs, White Noise, and Bat Speed

Disclaimer: Some information & data has been purposely left out due to the proprietary nature of this training method. We as a staff feel comfortable sharing this information as the majority of what is explained here is publicly available knowledge. We just pieced ideas together. Our first attempt at having a hitter use ear plugsContinue reading “Neuroscience and Hitting: Part 2 Ear Plugs, White Noise, and Bat Speed”

Collegiate Athletics and Title IX

Title IX has been controversial sense its inception by Congress on June 23, 1972.  What has caused the controversy is not the law itself, but how colleges and universities have chosen to implement their compliance with the law.  There are numerous scenarios in which Title IX has benefited female athletes.  However, inconsistencies in enforcement byContinue reading “Collegiate Athletics and Title IX”

Neuroscience and Hitting: Part 1 Vision

Key Points -Monocular occlusion training optimizes gaze performance of novices in complex skills -Monocular occlusion training improves kinetic visual acuity & binocular fusion -Having access to speed & time of a moving object improves object location predictions -Visual working memory can contaminate visual perception -Visual perception is 80% memory based -Improving visual working memory wouldContinue reading “Neuroscience and Hitting: Part 1 Vision”

The Use of Proprioceptive Training for Skill Acquisition

            In this literature review an explanation of proprioception and proprioceptive training will be presented.  Various skill acquisition theories will be examined and the correlation of the proprioceptive system to the visuomotor systems will be analyzed.  Current research into the use of proprioception for skill acquisition/motor learning will be discussed.  Finally, an examination of whatContinue reading “The Use of Proprioceptive Training for Skill Acquisition”

BASEBALL BAT ATTACK ANGLES AND THEIR IN-GAME CORRELATIONS

Thesis Committee Members Dr. Youngmin Yoon- Eastern New Mexico University Assistant Professor, Kinesiology Dr. William Andersen- Eastern New Mexico University Professor of Physics Dr. Weizhong Tian- Eastern New Mexico University Assistant Professor of Statistics External Member: Dr. Alan Nathan- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Professor Emeritus of Physics Abstract The proper way to swing aContinue reading “BASEBALL BAT ATTACK ANGLES AND THEIR IN-GAME CORRELATIONS”