Posted by: Melvin () on Mon Oct 22 10:52:41 2001

The Dusty Baker thread is very instructive reading on what some people think about athletics.

People want to cling to artificial descriptions such as linear and rotational. They are meaningless because they are so broad.

People want to believe that great hitters can be relied upon to accurately describe the reasons for their success. They cannot, as is amply demonstrated in books, newspapers, and most convincingly, upon video analysis.

People want to believe that good hitters have mastered the proper shorthand, or `cues.' It doesn't matter, because good athletes play, they don't think.

People want to believe in magic, that some divine grace allows some to swing in ways that others can't. This despite overwhelming evidence that strength, reflexes, eyesight, muscle-fiber type,
training regimen and body proportions have nothing to do with skill attainment. Their argument becomes circular, self-defining and collapses.

I hope perhaps to concentrate more on what great athletes do -- not what their coaches do, not what they say, not what others say about them. What they do. That is what is important and interesting.

Melvin