Today we have a guest writer, Matt Sison. Matt made a wonderful contribution to the hypnosis audio world with his CD Remembrance - A Horizon Event. Here is a piece he wrote for his teammates of how hypnosis plays a role in baseball. Thanks Matt…
Matt Sison – Baseball and Hypnosis
With baseball season coming up, I have thoughts of playing in another weekend league. Man, 37 years of age and still playing baseball with the young-ins. I must be doing something right. I even made my way on the pitcher’s mound last year and did pretty darn good. And while on the pitcher’s mound I noticed some keen observations about baseball and hypnosis. Below is an email I wrote to my teammates to pump us up half way through the season. After all, we needed pumping up as we were in dead last!Â
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To my teammates: Ok, I have some keen observations while being on that mound yesterday.
This will show some things we can do as a team to keep our level of focus on following through with execution throughout the game.Â
If you’d like to help understand some mental aspects of the game to help better our team, then this will definitely give you some insight to the mental aspect of our game and how to improve our skills individually and as a team.
First some very quick background on something called hypnosis:
When someone is in a state of focus, we’ll have what hypnotists like to call “trance,†and you can have trance in a fully alert state. In fact that’s actually what trance is, a more “alert” state of awareness. As you can sense, hypnosis is a completely natural state of being and not necessarily what you may see on stage hypnosis shows with a subject in a very “relaxed” state.Â
Some examples of a “trance” state as it relates to the baseball: 1) A pitcher on the pitching mound completely involved on his next pitch, 2) a batter in the batter’s box completely involved in the moment and focused on the next pitch, 3) a fielder on the field waiting for the next pitch wondering what the batter will do with the next pitch.Â
Now as you can sense, these 3 examples involve being present to the moment and anticipating what may happen next. When you can have someone so completely involved in the moment you’ll have trance. This state alone leaves a player open to suggestions from outside himself. Now, if you can have this state in someone, plus have them anticipating what you’re going to say or do next, this increases their state of suggestibility, and the right or wrong suggestions can make the player stronger or weaker at that particular moment (more on this last portion later)
So how do we use this to our advantage?
Let’s take a batter who just swung and missed. Keep in mind he is in trance … nothing matters more to him then hitting that round ball. He’s not worried about yesterday or tomorrow. He’s involved in this particular present moment. However, upon missing the ball, everybody on the team noticed he pulled his head away. So what does someone on the team yell? “You pulled your head away keep your head in.â€
So let’s take a look at this. The batter, in a complete trance state because he’s so focused on the moment, is open to suggestions. The batter whiffs and someone yells “you pulled your head away, keep your head in” … What images do you think are FIRST impressed on the individual’s mind from this outside suggestion?
Now, I know whoever may have yelled this suggestion out would have only the thought of reminding the batter to keep his head in. But take a closer look at the suggestion… “you pulled your head away…” This first suggestion has now got the batter to imprint a visualization of him pulling his head away from the ball before he can re-focus on the intended purpose of the suggestion: which is “Keep your head in.”
A better suggestion would have been something to the effect of “keep your head in and hit the ball hard.â€Â Notice how I deleted “you pulled your head away.”
Be aware of these two suggestions, and if you’re so inclined, imagine the original suggestion ”you pulled your head away, keep your head in” with eyes closed. Do the same thing with the 2nd version “Keep your head in and hit the ball hard.â€Â Notice the INSTANT images and the tension in the body from the first suggestion as opposed to the 2nd suggestion.Â
Studies have shown that we play better individually and as a team when we have relaxed focused as opposed to nervous focus. Relaxed focus keeps our muscles loose so we can react more effectively to possible scenarios as opposed to muscles that are tense. When I say relaxed focused, I don’t mean someone who’s in a Zen-like state on the field chanting. You can still be angry on the field but still have a relaxed focus. An athlete that reminds me of this before he lost it is Mike Tyson… Think back to when he was first on the scene. We all knew he was angry even back then, but he had a relaxed focus that was unshakeable.  His punches were crisp, quick and powerful. Now, think about him toward the end of his career: He was still angry (possibly more so) yet, he lost that relaxed focus. It turned into a muscularly tight focus where he was pushing his punches and trying to muscle his wins rather then go back to what worked better for him.
But again, notice how the 2nd suggestion, “Keep your head in and hit the ball hard†creates a stronger more focused relaxed effect as opposed to the original suggestion where the batter is made aware that he pulled his away from the pitch.
Think about some of your favorite players in pro baseball, particularly short stops. Notice how they stay smooth while the ball comes to them. They have relaxed focus and they react very quickly. Now think about a shortstop that’s not as relaxed or a player with another position, for me Steve Sax comes to mind when he kept throwing the ball way over the first baseman’s head. Notice the tension he’s carrying and notice how the play has now become much more difficult for him to execute.
I know this is getting long… but if you’re still with me, I’ll buy you a beer after one of the games
Ok, a few more batter “suggestion” examples then I’ll move on to some fielding examples and onto what I consider the most important suggestions: The pitcher: helping out our pitcher and getting into the head of the other pitcher.
Batting: let’s say you notice a batter that is swinging the ball with tight muscles … simply say “loosen up” or a batter that swings way ahead of the pitch in anticipation. We can say “sit back and wait on it”       Â
Actually, I’m going to use this example to corroborate what I want to get across. Let’s say someone swings way ahead of a pitch and you say “You’re way ahead of the pitch” … well DUH! I’m sure the batter knows that, but now you’ve reinforced an image in his mind about swinging ahead of the pitch, and know that whatever our subconscious mind has an image or focuses upon will bring more of those thoughts to us. His mind is now spinning thoughts like “Don’t swing early, wait for the ball,† before he can focus on “sit back on it, and since we only have a few seconds between each pitch to stay focused, we have to utilize it efficiently and effectively. But, if he swings way ahead of the pitch and you say “sit back on it,†you’ve just helped him to focus away from the thoughts, and imprints of swinging to early and he can much quicker focus thoughts spinning around the idea of “sitting back on it”
Ok… enough batting examples.
Fielding example:
Let’s say a low grounder is hit to a fielder and moments before it gets to him you shout “DONT STAND STRAIGHT UP LIKE YOU ALWAYS DO, STAY DOWN ON IT.â€
Ok, this is exaggerated, but I did that on purpose. Notice the tension and images this creates on a fielder about to play a ball.  Instead yell something like, “Stay down on it” or “Stay low, nice and easy” … notice how much more relaxing this suggestion is.
(End of email to teammates)
Oh, and by the way, you may be wondering how our team did after this email I sent to them. Although, we didn’t make first place, at least we got out of the “cellar†and even ended up with surprising victories over the 1st and 2nd place team.
Matt Sison, CH
www.Mattsison.com
