By: Tyler Osterday

Watching a game of baseball from the bleachers, baseball can seem like a simple game of visual cues. In reality, that couldn't be further from the truth. Processes, interactions, and behaviors of the brain has been extensively studied due to the complexity and difficulty of the game of baseball. Hall of famer, Yogi Berra, put the mental stresses of the game into words when he said “Baseball is 90 percent mental.” The psychology of baseball can be summed up into 2 major categories: recognition/science of hitting & Confidence.

Recognition, Science of Hitting/Reaction Time

The human brain processes visual cues from your eyes like shutter speed photography. The brain processes these "pictures" by piecing them together into smooth motion. The game of baseball pushes your brains ability to do this to the limit. The brain has four major keys to read to predict the motion of the pitch and to deal with the brains inability to keep up with the speed of the motion.

The brain's keys to predicting the motion of a baseball in flight

Pitchers release point
Pitch trajectory
Spin of pitch
Velocity of pitch

These keys can sometimes be misleading and errors can occur throwing off a batters ability to read the pitch. One anomaly in the game of baseball is the "rising fastball" but this is actually instance of an error and the brain is actually trying to make up for the error in this instance. The only way for an object to rise while moving through space is for the amount of lift to exceed the weight of the object. It is physically impossible for a human to produce the amount of spin and velocity on a baseball necessary to induce this rising action. So, why does this occur? When the brain is piecing these mental pictures together, it misjudges the velocity of the pitch and expects the ball to drop as drag pulls back on the ball. Since the pitch is moving faster then expected the brain must reevaluate, creating the illusion of the ball rising.

Confidence

Confidence is by far one the most coached concepts in all of baseball and it also one of the hardest to develop in players. In the words of the one of the all time greatest players, Derek Jeter, "You have to be confident. If your not confident you might as well go home." This speaks to how players must approach the game in a day in and day out basis. To capture success in a game a failure a individuals confidence must remain unshaken in situations of extreme stress and repeated failure. The benchmark for success in the game of baseball is to have a batting average of .300. To put that in prospective you can consider yourself successful when you fail 70% of the time!

The Yips

According to Mayo Clinic the yips are an involuntary jerk of the wrist. The yips are believed to be cause by extreme anxiety to the point of distraction or such extreme self focus that the ability to do simple tasks is impaired. One of the most famous cases of the yips is in former rookie of the year, Rick Ankeil. Rick Ankeil took Major League Baseball by storm when he dominated the regular season and won the rookie of the year award in the year 2000. During the postseason Ankeil he lost the ability to constantly throw strikes due to the yips.

"I felt like i could hit because of mind, I believed I would have success"

-Steve Springer

Works Cited

Gray, Rob; Beilock, Sian L. Hitting is Contagious: Journal of Experimental Psychology. March 2011.

Tull, Thomas. CMU Scientists Study "Fasball". 20 Apr. 2015.

Kuzoian, Alex. The Science of Hitting. Business Insider, BI Science, 8 June 2016.

Brenkus, John. FSN Sports Science: Hitting. FSN Sports Science, 26 Nov. 2006.

Murphey, Troy. Catchers View of Chapmen. New York Yankees.

Springer, Steve, director. The BIGGEST MIstake Baseball Parents Make. Quality At Bats, 15 June 2016.

“Yips.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 25 Apr. 2014.

Hubbard, A. W., & Seng, C. N. Research Quarterly. 2008.

Gray, R. Behavior of College Baseball Players in Virtual Batting. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance. 2002.

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