Barry Bonds - The Art of Mindful Hitting

I came across this blog post about Barry Bonds today. As a long time baseball and Giants fan, this home run record chase has been an interesting story.

Robert Seidman has some interesting thoughts about the steroid "asterisk" issue and whether Bonds is a better hitter than Hank Aaron.

I assume Bonds used performance enhancers (just as I assume many if not most of his peers and the pitchers he faced), I assume the Giants management and ownership knew this, and I also assume Selig and MLB knew as well.

The way it worked out is that I have far more respect for Bonds than I do for ownership, Selig or MLB. Selig can say or do whatever, as can ownership, but at the end of the day, McGowan and Selig don't have to stare down a 91 MPH fastball.

I am a numbers guy: whether he was svelt or extra bulky, he always has had tremendous plate discipline. This year marks the 14th season (and he has not been bulky nearly that long) that Bonds drew over 100 walks. Aaron NEVER had a season with 100 walks (his best was 92).

Barry Bonds is the best hitter of my lifetime. His plate discipline, even at 43 years old is nothing short of amazing. With all the pressure of the world on him, hated by almost everyone the man uses all that to motivate him and then steps up to the plate, and delivers. On top of that he's one of the most entertaining performers to ever pick up the lumber.

If you watch the clip of #755, you'll see the ball lands near a woman who was holding up an "*"(asterisk) sign. You'll also see this same woman jumping up and down, cheering and giddy as the ball came her way.

He can even entertain and delight those who would mock him. He may well be the best there ever was.

This struck me - reading the sports page about Bonds hitting 754 to tie Aaron at Petco Park in San Diego. The crowd jeered Bonds when he stepped to the plate. After he hit the home run, they cheered and gave him a standing ovation. This is how Jeff Fletcher of the Press Democrat put it:

Although the milestone homer came at San Diego’s Petco Park, amid a sellout crowd that jeered him as he stepped to the plate, the homer was greeted by raucous cheers and a standing ovation.

In spite of all the pressure and scrutiny, he manages to stay focused and in that mindful state that I've spoken about in a previous post. Now, THAT'S a performer.

The Path to Presentation Peace - Mindfulness and Stillness

I was fascinated by Patricia Leigh Brown's story in the NY Times about mindfulness practice being used in public schools:
In the Classroom, a New Focus on Quieting the Mind

Mindfulness, while common in hospitals, corporations, professional sports and even prisons, is relatively new in the education of squirming children. But a small but growing number of schools in places like Oakland and Lancaster, Pa., are slowly embracing the concept — as they did yoga five years ago — and institutions, like the psychology department at Stanford University and the Mindfulness Awareness Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, are trying to measure the effects.

The techniques, among them focused breathing and concentrating on a single object, are loosely adapted from the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn, the molecular biologist who pioneered the secular use of mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts in 1979 to help medical patients cope with chronic pain, anxiety and depression. Susan Kaiser Greenland, the founder of the InnerKids Foundation, which trains schoolchildren and teachers in the Los Angeles area, calls mindfulness “the new ABC’s — learning and leading a balanced life.”

At Stanford, the psychology department is assessing the feasibility of teaching mindfulness to families. “Parents and teachers tell kids 100 times a day to pay attention,” said Philippe R. Goldin, a researcher. “But we never teach them how.”

Angela Haick, the principal of Piedmont Avenue (one of the piloting schools), said she was inspired to try it after observing a class at a local middle school.

“If we can help children slow down and think,” Dr. Haick said, “they have the answers within themselves.”

This is the very practice that I teach participants to use in our presentation skills workshops.

When the slightest thing goes awry (we forget one point in our "script", a cell phone rings, the wrong presentation slide pops up), it's easy to descend into a downward spiral of panic.

We begin to think: "Oh, sh*t! That wasn't supposed to happen. This is horrible!" This inner dialogue is often followed by a physiological manifestation of anxiety and stress: sweaty palms, physical tremors, accelerated heart rate, etc. Then we begin to focus on the feeling of anxiety and another round of self-talk begins: "OH, SH*T! I am feeling really nervous right now! How can I make this feeling go away? I hate this! Everyone must be able to see how nervous I am. This is a DISASTER!!! OH, God, give me the power to dissapear!"

We want our mind to be still and settled so that we can think clearly and communicate effectively. The metaphor than I recently found was this: It's a bit like enjoying the stillness of a beautiful pond. Suddenly, a large stone drops into the pond, ruining the stillness of the water's surface. So, in response to this, in our panic and frustration, we throw a handful of pebbles into the pond, shouting, "Hey, you stupid pond! Settle down!"

This cycle of thought sets off the stress response and the stress response sets off another round of negative self-talk, spiraling downward into lower and lower levels of Hell.

What's the solution?

Follow this process:
1. Awareness
2. Practice Stillness and Silence
3. Breathe
4. Think
5. Speak

Here it is in more detail:
1. Awareness
You become aware there is a problem - you catch yourself saying "um", you say the wrong thing, the media projector malfunctions, etc.

2. Practice Stillness and Silence
Stop moving and speaking. DON'T comment on what is happening with inane remarks such as, "I forgot my point." or "Oops - wrong slide!" No fidgeting, grimacing or nervous laughter. Just be still and silent.
This takes discipline and practice but will pay off in spades. The audience won't invest much import in whatever happened if you appear poised.

3. Breathe
In moments of stress, a typical reaction is to become tense and stop breathing deeply. The brain is the bodily organ most dependant on a fresh supply of oxygen. If you are not breathing deeply, your thinking will suffer. You will make poor decisions.

4. Think
Ask yourself, "How can I recover from this without making it seem important?" Even better, ask, "How can I turn this into an opportunity?" Often the most inspired moments in workshops and presentations were the direct result of a 'mistake'.

Once you've made a rational decision about how to proceed ...

5. Speak

Taking a moment to become still and mindful is the best antidote to the panic that many feel when presenting.

Here's the broader learning that I arrived at - this technique will help in ANY stressful situation when panic tends to take over. I've used this technique when I locked myself out of the house, on turbulent airplanes, and on difficult calls with clients. Invariably, things go better and I make better decisions when I remember to do this practice.

Mahatma Gandhi said, "The only tyrant I accept in this world is the 'still small voice' within me." We can only hear that voice when we can still the din of our own mental chatter.

To paraphrase Dr. Haick, “If we can slow down and think, we have the answers within ourselves.”

The Power of Stillness and Silence

I am becoming a big fan of Garr Reynold's blog, Presentation Zen. His most recent post is titled, "When there is no quiet, there can be no loud." He uses an interesting YouTube video called the "Loudness War" to demonstrate that "dynamic range" not only applies to the impact of good musical audio engineering but presentation style as well.

The Wikipedia entry on dynamic range states:

"... a good quality audio reproduction system should be able to reproduce accurately both the quiet sounds and the loud; and a good quality visual display system should be able to show both shadow details in nighttime scenes and the full brightness of sunny scenes."

The presentation analog is the dynamism of a presenters communication style. If the presenters range of dynamism is narrow, their presentations have a flat quality and our attention will drift. When the presenter has a more compelling quality. As Reynolds says:

"Great presentations too make us 'turn up the volume' ... There is immense power in the quiet bits and the silent spaces in music and in speech, just as the empty spaces (negative space/white space) in visual forms of expression can make or break the effectiveness of the design."

One of the first points I make in my workshops on presentation is that great communicators have developed a comfort with stillness and silence. Rookie presenters often speak constantly afraid that silence will betray their self-perceived lack of credibility. In addition, their constantly fidgeting, swaying or pacing (My wife Robin calls this the "Caged Lion") betray their lack of comfort and confidence. It's as though they feel compelled to speak and to move in order to mask their discomfort. In fact, it has the exact opposite effect.

Observe the presenters that you admire the most. You will see and hear them being still and silent.

They will take long pauses to give their words impact.

They will hold a gestured position while they speak to create a sense of movement even in stillness.

Notice statuary. My observation is that the subject is either in motion or in an interesting pose. Be willing to assume a dynamic pose and hold that in stillness.

Take pauses after key points to give those points impact, to think about what comes next or how to make your next point most effectively. Take in the audience's reaction in those silences as a form of non-verbal feedback and guidance.

As Thomas Carlyle, Scottish author, essayist, & historian, said:

"Under all speech that is good for anything there lies a silence that is better. Silence is deep as Eternity; speech is shallow as Time."

As Indira Gandhi, the former Prime Minister of India said,

"You must be still in the midst of activity, and be vibrantly alive in repose."

The Value of Freaking Out

On Friday, April 27, USA today ran an article about leaders who jump from planes, surf, ski, climb mountains in order to reach "the freakout point."

The idea is to learn to cross the fear threshold and form a more useful relationship with fear:
"crossing it provides lessons useful in business and life. There's the significance of knowing that what frightens can be survived, as well as the importance of concentrating when concentration is all but impossible."

"Perhaps the most common freakout point comes with public speaking, and Iron Mountain CEO Richard Reese remembers being drafted early in his career to do a last-minute presentation on a technical subject he knew zero about."

This resonated deeply for me. Having now lead workshops for 10 years on interpersonal communication and presentation, I've often wrestled with fear. This is especially true when I've encountered what I envisioned as worst-nightmare scenarios. For example:


1) The Psychotic Supporter whose sweet demeanor is replaced by the face of Gollum when you offer candid feedback that her style might be perceived as condescending.

2) The Socially-Myopic Sales Rep who misses all the non-verbal cues that indicate that his colleagues think he is a moron.

3) The Wax-Eared Trainer Candidate who required a metaphorical two-by-four upside her head to get her to stop defending herself when given the feedback that "you are coming across as defensive."

4) Realizing it's 30 minutes before the start-time of a gig and you are in the wrong city.

5) Flight delays result in having to lead an 8-hour workshop on 2 hours sleep.

Each time one of these scenarios has happened, it's like being visited by an old, familiar enemy ... "Oh, fear. It's YOU again." Each day the scream of fear becomes fainter and fainter.

As Eugen Herrigel says in "Zen in the Art of Archery": “Like the beginner the swordmaster is fearless, but, unlike him, he grows daily less and less accessible to fear.