Vizual Edge

What is vizual edge?

EDGE SCORE & ASSESSMENT

Vizual Edge is an industry-leader in visual skills assessment and training using its web-based program, the Edge Trainer. Athletes from all sports have the opportunity to improve their visual skills using the Edge Trainer, which Vizual Edge has found has led to improved athletic performance.

Every athlete begins their Vizual Edge journey by completing a baseline evaluation. The web-based evaluation allows for better insight into where an athlete’s strength and weaknesses are in their core-six visual skills. The Vizual Edge assessment is widely used in youth, high school collegiate and professional baseball, including several MLB scouting departments who look for additional metrics when making drafting decisions.

UNDERSTANDING THE EDGE SCORE

During the evaluation, an athlete is assessed on six individual exercises, each one testing a core-six visual skill:

Alignment – Proper alignment creates no difference between the perceived location and actual location of an object.

• Timing of swing

• Crispness and decisiveness in movements

Depth Perception – Uses both eyes to locate objects in space to judge their distance, speed, and direction.

• Timing of swing

• Judging the ball’s spin, speed and trajectory

Convergence – The ability to focus on objects within close proximity and judge their movement and impact.

• Ability to focus on incoming pitches

• Hitting high-velocity pitches

Divergence – The ability to locate objects in the distance, impacting an athlete’s ability to anticipate and react.

• Ability to locate the ball out of the pitcher’s hand/early pitch detection

• Ability to pick up spin/movement early

Recognition – The ability to observe, process and recall a series of visual targets, and respond properly.

• Ability to pick up pitch type and pitcher cues

• Baseball IQ and anticipation

Tracking – Allows an athlete to process and follow an object while always monitoring all aspects of the game.

• Overall reaction speed

• Monitoring of a developing play & tracking of the ball

Each of the above skills are tested separately during an athlete’s evaluation, and each is weighted based on reaction speed, accuracy or station score, depending on the exercise.

An athlete’s Edge Score is a comprehensive score out of 100 that takes all core-six visual skills into account. The Edge Score is calculated into one weighed overall score that provides athletes, parents, coaches and scouts with a benchmark number for assessing the athlete’s overall visual ability.

Vizual Edge’s database of more than 15,000 MLB draft prospect evaluations has allowed us to draw correlations between on-field performance and visual skills. In nearly every statistical category during the 2019 MLB regular season, players with better visual skills performed better at the MLB level, particularly in overall plate discipline, hard ball %, OBP and more.

TOP 10 SUPER 60 EDGE SCORES

SUPER 60 EXIT VELOCITIES AND EDGE SCORES

Exit velocity is a metric used to measure the speed at which the ball comes off the bat. The table below shows a breakdown of various exit velocity ranges, and the average visual skills associated with players whose peak exit velocity during the Super 60 event fell into that range. Nearly every visual skill from the Vizual Edge evaluation is better in the top exit velocity category, compared to the other ranges.

EXIT VELOCITY (MPH)	105-100	99-94	93-88
Edge Score	77.0	74.9	73.3
Eye Alignment	1A	2A	2A
Depth Perception	50%	55%	52%
Convergence	41	37	32
Divergence	23	21	23
Recognition	0.88s (91%)	1.05s (85%)	1.04s (81%)
Tracking	0.52s (92%)	0.53s (90%)	0.56s (89%)