The Many Cognitive Processes of Baseball

The Many Cognitive Processes of Baseball
Baseball is a sport that is played by two teams of nine players with the motive of scoring the most runs by hitting a baseball that is thrown by a pitcher, using a baseball bat. Both teams take turns hitting against the pitcher of the fielding team, who tries to prevent runs by getting hitters out. Baseball is actually a simple and direct sport. Though it may be simple, it takes a lot from our body. It requires good motor-skills, hand-eye coordination and uses many different areas of the brain.
The main skill that one needs in order to play baseball, for any sport in that matter, is good motor-skills. Motor cognition is defined as “a mental processing in which the motor system draws on stored information to plan and produce our own actions, as well as to anticipate, predict, and interpret the actions of others”. (Smith, 2007) Without motor cognition one cannot play baseball at all. The most important factors in the game such as being able to make contact with the ball, whether it involves batting or catching the ball, would not be performed. One must plan what to do and react on it, quickly, when in the moment of the game. All these tasks have one thing in common, movement and action. Movement is a “voluntary displacement” of a body part which is needed to perform an action. An action is a series of movements that that are needed to fulfill a task. An example of this in the game of baseball is when the player is at bat standing in the batter’s box, grips the bat, twists torso, and swings the bat with the goal of hitting the ball as far as possible. Motor cognition is basically what controls our movement. When action is put together with perception, which is known as the perception-action cycle, it allows us to know where we are in physical space and plan our next movements. Without this the baseball player will not be able to catch the ball then touch the base to get the player from the opposite team out.
To be an adequate baseball player you need to practice. The more you practice the better you would be at it. Baseball is not a one man sport so it would be best to practice with another person. Preferably someone who already knows how to play, that way you can learn from them. When your partner is showing you what to do and how to do it, you are using your shared motor representations. This allows us to learn by observing the experiences of others. Shared motor representations help us understand the meaning of others’ action and how to respond to them appropriately.
Many baseball players believe that mentally rehearsing their movements before executing them on the field helps them to perform better, which is true based on research. It has been proven that motor imagery, which is a mentally stimulating action without actually producing it, has a positive effect on performing that action. Motor imagery and motor cognition work hand-in-hand.
Another major part to baseball is having the precision and right timing.