sleep and "hole in your swing"

[Olerud363]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/21/showbiz/jackson-death-trial/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

 

Some interesting comments from a sleep expert at the Michael Jackson trial.

 

Note that he's consulted for the Portland Trailblazers.

 

The next revolution will not be superscouting or a statistical breakthroug, super-war or something. It will be in player development. It won't be one thing it will be a series of things, designed to create an optimal environment for taking an 18 year old, transforming him into a 22 year old mlb player, transforming him into a consistent star at 27.

 

Note he talks about how nba players actually learn their shot while sleeping, the part of their brain that activates while shooting, also activates during REM sleep.

 

I think it's pretty obvious this would be relevant to baseball, a baseball swing is even more complicated then a basketball shot.

 

You have these guys like Travis Snider, who talks freely about having past anxiety and anger management issues (admittedly stemming from family trajedy)... guys like Alex Rios who people claim struggled with alcohol, guys like Colby Rasmus who struggles with every failure (see recent Jon Lott article).

 

To get these guys to develop properly you have to get them in a good head space. Starting when their 18.

 

So these "hole in the swing"s that everyone loves going on about shouldn't be viewed as a permanent unfixable things... but as a symptom of other problems. Not taking instruction properly for one thing. Or if people's heads aren't in their right spot, if their not sleeping well, if they have anxiety or drink to much, or take 200 swings after every bad game... they will not be able to learn complicated physical tasks properly.