not a cricket fan, but i knew this would relate to a great article i once read where elite sportspersons have an ability to see time slower. An example being f1 drivers - their perception of time is just 'different' to everyone else. Similarly skateboarders- those multi-flip kicks are a result of the same.
I have wondered, of late, if politicians etc function in a different 'time'. I've met a few, and their ability to 'think fast' is often staggering.
/still a bunch of twats tho.
I think it’s a combination of adrenaline, focus, and ignoring the unimportant.
For example, I can do this in the boxing ring. Been training for 10 or so years, never competed. Most obvious when sparring with a beginner. While they’re just trying to survive, I’m fighting on the level of tactics and strategy. The technique for punches and footwork is automatic, and in those split seconds between the opponents punches I can see where the openings are, how they’re flowing, which punches I need to throw so certain openings show up, where to step to drive the opponent towards the ropes, etc.
You really have time to think and analyze the situation during a 3 minute round. Feels almost like playing chess.
Adrenaline really is a fun drug. When I was super into downhill mountain biking in high school, flying down a single track inches away from trees at 50km/h, yet you have time to notice every tiny detail on the trail. Every loose pebble and tiny twist of the trail, texture on every tree root … feels like you notice and process orders of magnitude more information per second than you can at walking speeds.
I was lucky enough to have dinner with Stirling Moss once, winner of the 1955 Mille Miglia and many other races. He spoke of this ability to slow down time, and how it was “automatic” and didn’t require conscious effort. He said that after his 1962 crash and brain injury… he could still drive fast but it was no-longer automatic. Instead it required tremendous concentration. He said he knew then that he must quit racing or would very likely kill himself with a momentary lapse.
I’m curious whether this is a time perception thing, or very specialised thought processes. If I were to take an F1 driver and put them in front a cricket bowler would they be able to spot the spin on a ball? Can a skateboarder react quick enough to drive an F1 car?
Anecdotally, it's specialized. In the past five years I've put a tremendous amount of effort into improvising variations for 18th-century Scottish music (…don't ask) and have noticed that things slow down and from my point of view I have all the time in the world to think about what I've played and what should come next. But for the audience I'm zipping along at 480 eighth notes per minute.
Meanwhile, I'm absolutely useless at anything involving sports or a fast reaction time.
I'm reminded of the section of Peak (Anders Ericsson) where chess grandmasters were excellent at remembering board positions from real games and completely average at remembering impossible board positions.
An excellent article. I'm not a cricket player (I did try it once), but I think there's a lot here that a baseball or softball hitter could benefit from.
You hear about "red dot sliders" in baseball: a slider that's spinning in such a way that the seams appear to form a red dot. A good hitter can see that and predict where the ball's going.
I've also heard (not sure about this) that a lot of baseball players have better than 20/20 vision, enhanced by Lasik, just so they can see the ball better.
One thing that I don't see here was a recent issue with Shohei Ohtani of the Angels, where they suspected he was "tipping" his pitches. A pitcher always tries as hard as he can to make every pitch look exactly the same when it comes out of his hand. If he does even the slightest movement differently for an off-speed pitch versus a fastball, the other team will notice it and start hitting him. Otherwise, the batters have to do what Chappell does and pick it up from the ball.
Nice narrative-style intro to this, Greg Chappell curing his batting with introspection.
Amazing that a top-class batter sees the details of the ball to the extent of the direction of spin as it approaches, and assumes everyone can. As a poor player who nevertheless had good eyesight I only ever had a vague idea of where the ball was, let alone seeing it clearly.
I'm a decent leg spin bowler, but I'm a terrible batsman. I know a big reason is that I don't watch the ball after the bounce. I didn't learn the skill as a child and I find it very difficult to learn as an adult.
When I do force myself to watch the ball onto the bat, my head position lags and it throws my balance off, resulting in worse shots.
A few thousand deliveries in the nets not worrying about regression to worse shots while you work on it will probably get you there. I believe there is no such thing as too old to learn technique. I've learned new technique to compensate for serious injury completely and permanently altering my balance - so I did it because I had no choice which engenders a certain commitment to the new thing. I'm now a rubbish bat but clearly, at least according to the scorebook, less rubbish than I was! Do you have much to lose? Hope you have an enjoyable and successful season either way.
Amazing article - he probably trained his mind to be focussed for marathon level periods of time, a test match lasted for 3-5 days, and a batsman could bat for an entire day of 8 hours - the scoring rate is really low, to keep your concentration for that long is tedious and exhausting.
