The other day I came across some
info that was reinforced by your comments:
"Schmidt's always worked on his hitting,
everywhere. Mike talked about it from the locker room 5 hours before game time, at the
cage, back at the locker room to get
game ready, then after the game, then
until wee hours in the parking lot at the Vet, until nobody was around except the
ball boys and security.
(Behind Rajah & Teddy Ballgame, 'Mikey' probably
asked the next tons of questions
on hitting.) It should also be remembered
the Schmidt 'adjusted' his stroke more often, and more frequent than
...................???... Cal Jr."
An article in the October 1994 issue of Scientific
America by Neurophysiologist William Calvin hypothesized that the brains planning of
ballistic movements may have played a major role in the development of language, music and
intelligence over the ages. He contends that ballistic movements and language processes
involve some of the same regions of the brain, in particular those associated with
sequencing and planning. He emphasizes that ballistic movements unlike cognitive slower
movements, require a great amount of pre-planning and problem solving. Slow movements may
be corrected with readily by on going feedback information. But ballistic movements
require the brain to plan all actions in advance my mentally determining (motor program)
all muscle actions in advance. The implication is that learning to produce new
sounds/word/combinations involves ballistic planning (same regions of brain). The emphasis
placed by Russian and East European coaches on being able to accurately describe, draw and
visualize sporting movements take on a new light when viewed from this prospective.
Your comments about great hitters talking, talking and
more talking about hitting would have the same implications.