The value of training accommodative facility for ball sports

We address the issue of training accommodative facility as a means of improving performance in ball sports. Presenting examples from the game of baseball, we show that dynamic accommodation is unlikely to play an important role in ball skills. The movement speed of the ball combined with the last possible time at which visual information can be converted to motor action means that accommodation cannot provide useful information on the time to contact of the ball. In addition, we question whether altering accommodation to provide a clear retinal image of an approaching target is necessary for most ball sport skills.