Baseball Development: Mental Imagery - Part 1

Today's post will focus on an alternative component within the game of baseball – the mental aspect. As discussed in previous blogs, postural evaluating and conditioning are undoubtedly beneficial regarding baseball performance^3,4,5,6. Improving range of motion, correcting postural asymmetries, and strengthening weakened musculature is not a magical recipe for success. Any baseball fanatic will tell you that in the game of baseball a pitcher can deliver a pitch perfectly, with perfect balance and perfect motor control, but still experience the sinking feeling of failure deep within his gut as he watches that perfect pitch leave the ball park. In other words, physically you can do everything 100% completely correct and still manage to miss. Learning how to manage that miss is a different subject. 

Yes, I am talking about the 6 inches of space between the ears, underneath the ball caps: the brain. Mental training is indeed a broad topic, so to be specific ‘mental imagery’ will be the subject examined and explained.

Mental imagery has been incorporated into multiple disciplines, from rehabilitation to performance on the playing field. Conducted research¹ in the neurological rehabilitation field has discovered a magnitude of improvement when integrating mental practice into standard rehabilitation methods. Multiple sports psychologists include mental imagery into their training schemes as well. Sports psychologist Brian Cain helps define mental imagery in his statment²:

Mental Imagery is seeing yourself perform in your minds eye before you go out and perform physically. What imagery does is create the physco-neuromuscular blueprint that your body wants to have happen. The brain cannot tell the difference between what you physically do and what you mentally imagine – it is processed very similarly.

If individuals with basic functional movement impairments can benefit from mental imagery, the impact this type of training can have on athletic performance conceivably should be significant. Stay tuned in next week for the revealed significance and implementation methods.    

 

 

 

 

 

¹Jackson, P. L., Lafleur, M. F., Malouin, F., Richards, C. & Doyon, J. (2001). Potential role of mental practice using motor imagery in neurologic rehabilitation. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 82 (8), 1133-1141. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003999301042915 

²Cain, B. M.  PRIDE: The Peak Performance System. Richmond, VT: Brian Cain Peak Performance, LLC.  

³Myers, J. B., Laudner, K. G., Pasquale, M. R., Bradley, J. P. & Lephart, S. M. (2004). Scapular position and orientation in throwing athletes. American Journal of Sports Medicine, 33 (2), 263-271. http://www.pitt.edu/~neurolab/publications/2005/Articles/MyersJB_2005_AmJSportMed_Scapular%20Position%20and%20Orientation%20in%20Throwing%20Athletes.pdf 

⁴Voight, M. L. & Thomson, B. C. (2000). The role of the scapula in the rehabilitation of shoulder injuries. Journal of Athletic Training, 35(3), 364–372. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1323398/?page=8 

⁵Lewis, J. S., Wright, C., & Green, A. (2005). Subacromial impingement syndrome: Theeffect of changing posture on shoulder range of movement. Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy, 35 (2), 72-87. Retrieved from http://www.azpt.com/sis.pdf

⁶Young, J. L., Herring, S. A., Press, J. M., Casazza, B. A. (1996)The influence of the spine on the shoulder in throwing athletes. Journal of Back and Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation, 7, 8. http://elitetrack.com/article_files/throwingspine.pdf