Never met a baseball player who didn’t want to be a good hitter, yet we tend to destroy any hope of being successful. Focusing all our mental energy believing things we have no clue if they are true or not, they just sound like they are. .
“Hitting a round object with another round object as it is moving, is the hardest thing to do in all of sports.” Even though Ted Williams was one of the best hitters in major league baseball, when I asked a Physicist if he agreed, “Bull-Hockey,” was his response. “If you swing incorrectly it doesn’t matter if you are hitting a square object with another square object…frustrated he went onto say, “quit wasting your time describing and spend more time on what it takes to hit!”
So, rather than investigate, or to understand why, it’s easier to believe and attempt to react to every fallacy a coach blurts out…”let it get in on you,” …”take it the other way,”… “shorten up your swing.”
Why? crickets…..I can’t answer it either.
THE REALITY:
The Physicist is correct.
Most hitters really do not understand what it takes to hit. Scientist defines this type of decision making as the Cognitive Mental Processes of Perception, Memory, Judgment and Reason. When we don’t do it, it is called, “Cognitive Limitations.” When something is hard most have the tendency to settle for the least path of resistance. Therefore, making decisions based upon inaccurate learning or direction forces a player to be at best, a mediocre hitter.
And we are comfortable with that. It is easier to convince ourselves why hitting is so difficult to do.
We do it because it’s easier!
Dan Ariely, Professor of Behavioral Economics and Decision-making believes our “intuition is fooling us, “ and [thus] creating cognitive illusions which limits us from finding out [what it really takes to hit]. He went onto to say, these “visual cognitive illusions are those that go against what we perceive as logic, and can continue to confuse us even when we know the trick.”
Without seeing the lines side by side, it is hard to believe the two lines are the same size. Our eyes are deceiving us in much the same our lack of understanding what it takes to hit fools us into thinking, hitting is complicated. It’s not.
In fact, accurate decision-making does not necessitate supernatural mental powers; it just requires us to focus on the right things.
Ignore the fallacies and focus on what it takes to hit.
Check out “Hitting is Simple…Have You Figured it Out Yet?”
Until next Blog,
Al McCormick
