April 2, 1999
Mira Mesa — With baseball spring training in full swing for 1999, Miramar College is planning a timely, fun, free lecture filled with tips and techniques which could improve your batting average or just improve your vision. "Vision Therapy for Peak Performance" continues the popular "Evening with the Experts" series' on Friday, April 9 at 6:30 p.m. in lecture hall I-101 on the college campus.
When Mark McGwire smashed Roger Maris' home run record recently, it was probably thanks in part to help from an unlikely and unheralded source —Miramar College's Bill Puett, a philosophy professor, of all things. No, Puett didn't help him explore the meaning of baseball. Rather Puett's "visual therapy" taught McGwire to see those fast balls better and sooner.
Visual therapy is a series of eye exercises that improve the teaming of the eyes and mental processing of information received visually. It corrects two types of vision problems: conventional —nearsightedness and farsightedness— and sports demand, when the static vision is accurate, but the "dynamic acuity" or ability to track an object quickly is not at peak performance.
"In baseball, a 90-mile-per-hour fast ball takes four tenths of a second to reach home place (distance of 60'6"). Most big league hitters first see the ball three-dimensionally when it is half way to them," said Puett.
"Through visual training, betters learn to see the ball as soon as seven feet out of the pitcher's hand, gaining an extra tenth of a second to track the ball," he added. "When you watch Mark hit, his eyes get really big and they follow the ball all the way to the bat."
Puett first coached Mc-Gwire in 1991, when the Oakland Athletics sought help for the slugger's worst season ever —batting 201 with a skimpy 22 home runs. "Mark had eye teaming problems and couldn't track the baseball three-dimensionally very well," explained Puett.
In 1992, following an off-season of visual instruction from Puett, McGwire won the title of "Comeback Player of the Year," doubling his home rum production from 21 to 42 and increasing his batting average by 80 points.
Vision therapy uses a regiment of eye exercises customized to address the indi-vidual's problems. "For example, consistently having trouble hitting an outside curve ball is a vision problem," said Puett, "and we would design a therapy specifically to solve that."
Puett's parallel career in vision problems and their treatment evolved out of his long-time interest in health issues, particularly alternative therapies. He originally develop his vision program in 1982 to help brain damaged children and adults. Vision problems are a frequent manifestation of brain damage.
Already on campus at Cal State Dominguez Hills teaching preventative medicine and health as well as philosophy, Puett's vision therapy work with college athletes spilled over to minor leaguers. Then in 1985, Terry Whitfield of the Los Angeles Dodgers stepped up as the first major leaguer he coached, visually. Across town, his work with Bob Boone of the California Angels helped Boone earn four consecutive Gold Gloves and break the major league record for games caught in a single season.
Former San Diego outfielder and slugger Greg Vaughn worked on his sports vision during the off-season prior to his phenomenal 1998 success and, although Puett didn't work directly with Vaughn, the optometrists who did was encouraged by Puett in the early 90s to enter the vision training field.
Evening with the Experts presentations are held in lecture hall I-101 and are free. Miramar College is located at 10440 Black Mountain Road, just west of I-15, between Carroll Canyon Road and Mira Mesa Blvd. For more information, contact the Miramar College Public Information Office, 536-7876.
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