Do you like baseball ?
…
If you are American I believe you have a chance to like baseball – more than rugby or soccer. I am french and not very familiar with baseball but since I live here in the US I have learned to know and appreciate it a little.
Anyway let’s assume that you like baseball, or at least know how to play it (which I don’t).
Imagine you are a hitter about to get the ball from the pitcher. What do you think will give you the best chance for a successful shot ?
What about consciously thinking something like “watch the ball to come, how to move the relevant muscles in my feet and then in my legs and my hips to ignite the motion, then how to do the same with the muscles from my arms, my wrist and also how to keep an eye on the coming ball whilst figuring out the very place to hit it and at which strength…and how to make the relevant timing adjustment for each muscle motion depending on if the ball is a slider a fastball or a knuckle-ball… etc, etc…” ?
Do you think that will be effective ?
… Or instead – and because you have spent hours an hours of training before – you just think about nothing and confidently let your body responds and coordinate to this familiar experience of hitting a ball thrown by a pitcher.
What do you think ? And now what do you think about pre-visualization in photography ?
I got that from a great interview of photographer Stephen Shore which is transcribed here. I used baseball instead of basket ball because I don’t like basket ball.
… And incidentally I can figure out the very reason why I don’t like composite photographs and it is just because in the little baseball diamond that my head uses to evaluate photographs such a shot can’t be a home-run.
Because it's there 