Assessing Hitting Skill in Baseball using Simulated and Representative Tasks

Previous research has demonstrated that the ability to accurately anticipate the outcome of dynamic and representative situations under standardized conditions is an effective predictor of skill-level in many complex domains, including sport (for a review, see Suss & Ward, 2015). Moreover, skill at anticipating the outcome as early as possible, in addition to making the correct anticipatory decision, and skill at recognizing the play are equally important (e.g., Fadde, 2006; Jones & Miles, 1978; Savelsbergh, Williams, Van Der Kamp, & Ward, 2002). The current research aims to leverage this body of research in developing and evaluating a commercially available software tool designed for the assessment of such sports skills developed by Axon Sports. In this research we use the Axon Sports Baseball Hitting Assessment tool to measure anticipation and recognition skill in an NCAA baseball team. The results provide support that recognition and anticipation accuracy are useful indicators of skill in sport and extend the application of this body of work into a real-world setting