Can hand-eye be taught/learned?

[CTgolf]

Would guess at the highest levels it comes down to prodigious innate talent, but how far can someone get with just average hand-eye coordination, and can it be taught or improved?

 

What age does it become evident that a child has “it” or not? Is there a difference between girls and boys?

[heavy_hitter]

I think it can be taught but there is a ceiling when taught. I think those that come by the gift naturally have a higher ceiling.

 

Honestly think you can tell by the age of 7.

[leezer99]

At bedtime give your kid a pair of balled up socks. While laying down on his back have him toss it straight up in the air almost touching the ceiling and catch it with that one hand. Do the same for the other hand. Make it a contest to see how many he can do in a row. Progress to tennis ball then baseball.

 

Tennis ball (add a degree of difficulty with a Reaction Ball from SKLZ) against the garage with barehand rebound catch on only one bounce. Alternatively you can use a rebounder net from SKLZ or Rukket. This is not only a hand eye coordination drill but a full body awareness drill.

[darter79]

At bedtime give your kid a pair of balled up socks. While laying down on his back have him toss it straight up in the air almost touching the ceiling and catch it with that one hand. Do the same for the other hand. Make it a contest to see how many he can do in a row. Progress to tennis ball then baseball.

 

Tennis ball (add a degree of difficulty with a Reaction Ball from SKLZ) against the garage with barehand rebound catch on only one bounce. Alternatively you can use a rebounder net from SKLZ or Rukket. This is not only a hand eye coordination drill but a full body awareness drill.

 

How many black eyes did your kid get. Kidding. This is really a great drill.

[leezer99]

At bedtime give your kid a pair of balled up socks. While laying down on his back have him toss it straight up in the air almost touching the ceiling and catch it with that one hand. Do the same for the other hand. Make it a contest to see how many he can do in a row. Progress to tennis ball then baseball.

 

Tennis ball (add a degree of difficulty with a Reaction Ball from SKLZ) against the garage with barehand rebound catch on only one bounce. Alternatively you can use a rebounder net from SKLZ or Rukket. This is not only a hand eye coordination drill but a full body awareness drill.

 

How many black eyes did your kid get. Kidding. This is really a great drill.

 

He regressed to marshmallows. LOL

[wildcatden]

At bedtime give your kid a pair of balled up socks. While laying down on his back have him toss it straight up in the air almost touching the ceiling and catch it with that one hand. Do the same for the other hand. Make it a contest to see how many he can do in a row. Progress to tennis ball then baseball.

 

Tennis ball (add a degree of difficulty with a Reaction Ball from SKLZ) against the garage with barehand rebound catch on only one bounce. Alternatively you can use a rebounder net from SKLZ or Rukket. This is not only a hand eye coordination drill but a full body awareness drill.

 

That's a great drill. I had been having my kid use one of those "balls on a string attached to a cone/cup thingy" that you fling in the air and catch the ball in the cup. Seems good for hand/eye coordination and tempo.

[leezer99]

This thread popped back in my head last night and reminded me of all the racket 'sports' I played growing up... table tennis, real tennis, smashball at the beach, etc. I think lacrosse would also help develop your hand eye coordination.

[jmiller2]

This is a bit of a spin off from the original question.

 

Hand-eye coordination is more useful for a dynamic situation. For example a baseball being pitched towards a batter or a tennis ball being served across the net. Both situations require the mind of the batter or the defender of the serve to process a trajectory for the ball visually and make the hands move accordingly.

 

Golf has some different parameters. The ball doesn't move, it is stationary on the ground and the intended target doesn't move it is still X distance from the ball. Vision is only used for set-up and picking a target after set-up you can close your eyes and make a golf swing. A person can use their ability for proprioception (sense of body orientation) to swing a club without seeing the golf ball and still make contact.

~ Orientation of your body positioning at address gives someone a sense of where the ball is compared to their body.

~ Orientation of the hands on the grip will give a person a sense of the club face orientation.

~ While in-motion a person can feel what part of the body is the primary source of movement.

~ Near impact a person can feel the orientation of the hands/ wrists to control the club face.

 

For me closing my eyes and making golf swings did a couple of things

~ Using vibrations of the head and sound of impact I got a closer to being able to predict when to impact would occur in my sequence of motion.

~ Knowing where impact was improved my tempo and ability to feel the orientation of the club head into impact.

 

 

There are two organizations out there USBGA and IBGA that have tournaments for blind golfers. They use caddies to line them up and describe the hole for them, once the caddie has set-up the player, the blind golfer makes the swing (Blind Golfer Example). By closing your eyes and making a swing you are tapping into other senses that most would call "golf feel" or "golf touch".

 

Sorry for the long winded response and being a little off topic for the OP.

[leezer99]

This is a bit of a spin off from the original question.

 

Hand-eye coordination is more useful for a dynamic situation. For example a baseball being pitched towards a batter or a tennis ball being served across the net. Both situations require the mind of the batter or the defender of the serve to process a trajectory for the ball visually and make the hands move accordingly.

 

Golf has some different parameters. The ball doesn't move, it is stationary on the ground and the intended target doesn't move it is still X distance from the ball. Vision is only used for set-up and picking a target after set-up you can close your eyes and make a golf swing. A person can use their ability for proprioception (sense of body orientation) to swing a club without seeing the golf ball and still make contact.

~ Orientation of your body positioning at address gives someone a sense of where the ball is compared to their body.

~ Orientation of the hands on the grip will give a person a sense of the club face orientation.

~ While in-motion a person can feel what part of the body is the primary source of movement.

~ Near impact a person can feel the orientation of the hands/ wrists to control the club face.

 

For me closing my eyes and making golf swings did a couple of things

~ Using vibrations of the head and sound of impact I got a closer to being able to predict when to impact would occur in my sequence of motion.

~ Knowing where impact was improved my tempo and ability to feel the orientation of the club head into impact.

 

 

There are two organizations out there USBGA and IBGA that have tournaments for blind golfers. They use caddies to line them up and describe the hole for them, once the caddie has set-up the player, the blind golfer makes the swing (Blind Golfer Example). By closing your eyes and making a swing you are tapping into other senses that most would call "golf feel" or "golf touch".

 

Sorry for the long winded response and being a little off topic for the OP.

 

Yep - proprioception is most probably what OP was wanting to know about which is why I had given the 'full body awareness drill'. I was going to mention it by name but it's a pretty deep rabbit hole to go down.

[jollysammy]

My younger son was born with a hearing defect in 1 ear. My older son did not have this problem. My older son is in graduate school pursuing his Phd in Astrophysics. He was not proficient in sports, but loved music. The younger son was into sports from age 18 months on. He excelled in all sports but especially in hand eye coordination which I believed he developed more so because he was hearing impaired.

 

He was especially good at baseball. He started competitive golf at 9 but didn't play full time until 13. I believe the greatest teacher for him in hand eye coordination was his first Mizuno MP-33 muscle back blades that he used when he was 10 years old. They will teach you hand eye coordination fast. he used them with S300 shafts, any mishit and you know right away without even seeing the ball flight because you will feel them in your hands.

[leezer99]

Seeing the HECOstix (https://hecostix.com/) pop up these days.

[chrissdc]

Ping pong all day long. Tennis is awesome, but is time consuming.

[BeerPerHole]

I certainly think it can be improved upon with effort.

Reminds me of something I experienced as an adult. In my 40s (too old for boxing) I got serious into boxing. After a couple years into it there were a couple times my hands would react to something unexpected like my keys slipping out of my hands, or dropping a tool while working over an engine. My hand, with no conscious thought from me, would fire out and snatch whatever was falling on the way down. It was funny to experience. Every workout the total number of jabs thrown had to be over 1000, and apparently the neuro system adjusted for it.

My uncle (may he RIP) had amazing hand-eye coordination and could play ping-pong like nobody's business. He also had several hole-in-ones.