Baseball - Systematic Player Development 

Are You a Right-brain or a Left-brain Baseball Player?

Read the following list of words.  Say the color of the word instead of the word itself.  For example, if you see this: RED - say "blue" (the color of the word) instead of "red".  See how fast you can do this whole list:

RED   GREEN   YELLOW   BLACK   BLUE   RED   BLACK

GREEN   RED    PURPLE   GREEN   BLUE   YELLOW

BLACK   PURPLE   RED   GREEN   BLUE   YELLOW

PURPLE   YELLOW   GREEN   BLACK   RED   BLUE

What you just experienced was left-brain / right-brain conflict.  Your right brain saw the color but your left brain insisted that you say the word.  The conflict made this activity cumbersome, slow and often frustrating.  You have been forced to be this way because it is how you learned how to read.  You have read this way for many years and it is ingrained in you.  Your left brain first wanted to say the word, but then it analyzed the color.  Meanwhile, your right brain knew all along the color, but was dominated the whole time by the left brain trying to do a simple right brain job.

How does this apply to baseball?  First, let’s look at common right / left brain traits.  The right side of the brain is where many subconscious functions are.  Right brain functions and traits include imagination, circular motion, creative thoughts, flowing thoughts and actions, and rhythmic movement. The left side rationalizes and analyzes.  It is linear, dogmatic, practical, and logical.  Things like counting and verbalizing are left brain activities.  Things like focusing on images and movements are right brain activities.

A baseball player wants to be a right brain player as much as possible.  The problem is that our left side makes easy jobs hard.  How can we develop a system to put the left side at bay?  How can we keep the left side quiet long enough to get the right side to carry out the baseball task?  As baseball players we need balance.  We still need the left brain to stage the event (the pitch, the fielding play or the swing) but then need to "turn it off" just long enough to carry the event out - a right brain activity.

Baseball is the most "on" then "off" again sport. Left brain, right brain, left, right...etc. The problem comes when the left side won't shut up.  It can be distracting – just like the colored word samples above.  You can practice the words above over and over and train your left side to tone it down and let your right side get to work.  You still need your left side to verbalize (even if just in your own head) the color at the end. True (learned) balance will eventually occur. The same is true with baseball.  We practice and practice until we get to a point where the right side is flowing and the left side keeps track of the things it needs to. Then comes all the variables in a game that takes us out of the flow.   In exchange, we get the slower left sides dominating attempt to play the game.  The left side can't just sit idle and allow the situation to self correct.  It starts chattering (self talk) and slows everything down to the point where the at bat or the pitch is lost (thrown away).  Yogi Bera’s, “You can think and hit” at the same time is actually very profound. 

What the player needs is to develop a system that will put him in the right mindset where he can let his natural ability play the game undistracted when it needs to.  The players that develop such systems and that also have the physical ability keep getting to advance to higher and higher levels of baseball.  Even those advancing faster than others can use some help in the development of this part of their game.  Such development is beyond the scope of this introduction to right-left baseball. The “how to” will be discussed in future articles.

The 3 R’s of Pitching

Realize the basic premise that the pitcher has the advantage. This is the foundation for a successful pitcher. Hitting a baseball is said to be the hardest thing to do in all of sport. The pitcher needs to remember that. "If the swing by a right-hand batter is seven milliseconds (.007) too late, the squarely hit ball will sail foul past first base." - Robert Adair, a Yale physicist who has studied the science of baseball, referring to a 90mph fastball.

Recognize when you, as the pitcher, lose your focus. How do you avoid a big inning? You avoid it by recognizing that you have been taken out of your game and only then can you adjust and refocus to the task at hand. Many pitching plans include some avoidance of "the big inning". It is easy to talk about, but after one of these "big innings" takes place, the pitcher usually only understands it when reflecting back on it after the game and on the chaos that surrounded him while it was going on. The pitcher needs a thought-stopping cue from himself to help recognize that he has lost his focus. It is important to do this so he can pitch in the present and not in the past. The thought stopping cue could be as simple as "STOP", or "play in the now".

Refocus to the task at hand. Once the pitcher "snaps out of it" and concentrates on the present, then he can pitch to his potential and win the situation. The pitcher who analyzes and frets on how all those guys got on base will not be able to refocus into the present to do the job. A routine or mental cue can help with focus. The pitcher needs to let it flow and let the right side of the brain take over. He can only do this if the mind in clear and free of distracting thoughts. Here is an example of how a pitcher can get back into the now by letting his left brain guide him and set his right brain up for the actual pitch. Use the dirt circle of the mound as the positive / negative ground. Whenever he catches himself being negative he goes into the grass. At that time, he can tell himself anything he wants, he can worry about all the runners, the errors and walks that got them there, whatever he wants. However, the second he gets back onto the dirt he is positive and ready to get the next guy out! A routine like this combined with some proper breathing can get the pitcher to stay in a positive, non-distracting mode. Hopefully he spends most of his time in the dirt and stays in the now.

Every pitcher needs a plan. There is not one pitcher in the history of baseball that has gone through his career, let alone a season, or even a game, without adversity. No matter how good a pitcher is he will face dilemmas in games that he needs to have a plan for. It is too easy to say, "Be a bulldog, go get them". Sure successful pitchers have bulldog characteristics and competitive success models built in that they do not even know about, but there is no need to analyze that. It is the pitcher's past experiences, successes, and failures that have given him those built in characteristics. It is the future challenges that the pitcher will face as he progresses to higher levels of competition in his career that he needs the above to help advance his success rate.

Copyright 2009

Rick Harig

Cognitive Advantage Program

Privacy Policy           Contact           Terms and Disclaimer            Security