Panic in the right direction

The art of thinking calmly under pressure...

When I started covering the Kansas City Royals in 2010 they weren’t very good and hadn’t been good in a long, long time so whenever they lost or did something goofy, which they had a habit of doing on a regular basis, fans would say: “Same old Royals.”

But by the end of 2011 I could see the team had a chance to be good.

By the end of that season Alex Gordon had moved to left field, Mike Moustakas was playing third, Eric Hosmer was at first, Alcides Escobar was at short, Lorenzo Cain was in center and Salvador Perez was behind the plate. In a very short time the Royals had gone from being below average on defense to having six guys who had a chance to win Gold Gloves (five of them did) and all six became All-Stars. 

Now here’s a lesson for you: it never pays to be right too soon.

In general, fans had decided the Royals sucked and didn’t want to hear me say: “Y’know these guys have a chance to be pretty good.”

So when I wrote about a team practice and what the Royals were working on, one of the Not-Ready-To-Hear-Anything-Good-About-The-Royals fans left a snarky comment (and Jesus, I’ve had it up to here with “snarky” which used to be called “acting like an asshole”) and here’s what his snarky comment said:

“Oh sure, that’s how you win championships; good practice.”

To which a Navy veteran replied in another comment:

“That’s exactly how you win championships…and battles.”

You train and train and train until you can do something in your sleep which reminds me of yet another sports story and this one’s about football not baseball, thank you Baby Jesus.

When Vince Lombardi was coach of the Green Bay Packers he’d make them run the same play over and over and always find some little thing that needed to be corrected so they’d need to run it again and when guard Jerry Kramer (at least I think it was Jerry Kramer…or maybe it was Fuzzy Thurston and I just now realized I could have named one of my kids “Fuzzy” which would have been awesome) said:

“Coach, we could run this play in our sleep” and Lombardi smiled, which made Jerry and/or Fuzzy realize: that was the point.

Do it over and over until you can do it right without thinking and most teams and people don’t want to do that because it’s hard and boring which is why most teams and people aren’t as successful as Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers.

Back then the Packers didn’t run that many plays, but the ones they ran were run to perfection. As one NFL opponent said of the Packers: “We knew exactly what they were going to do, we just couldn’t stop them from doing it.”

Why people second guess

Back to baseball, which by now ought to come as no surprise. A coach once said to me:

“Y’know why people second guess?”

“Because their first guess wasn’t worth a shit.”

Which bring us (at long last) to the point I was determined to make before you got me off track with your incessant requests for baseball anecdotes.

Some people have to make decisions under pressure when things are nuts and their heart is pounding and adrenaline is squirting out their ears (think cops, military personnel and ER nurses) and then later the rest of us get to sit back and second guess what they did under enormous pressure that we don’t feel.

Here’s a quote from Time magazine’s website:

“Earlier studies have shown that under high stress, the brain tends to shut off the cortical networks involved in creativity, contemplation, planning and thinking abstractly. While that sounds like a glitch, it’s actually a benefit — at least when you are facing physical threats. Taking time to consider your options is not advisable while being chased by a tiger or facing enemy fire.”

I’d quibble with that last sentence because considering your options quickly is a learned skill and often highly desirable, but we’re moving on so here’s another quote:

“That means, basically, that under stress, the brain automatically shifts its focus away from current activity — for example, doing homework or debating — and toward readiness for fight or flight. That’s why high stress can “make your mind go blank” at the worst possible moments. A faster but more primitive neural network takes over.”

Which means just when you need it most (car on fire, artery spraying blood, the Green Bay Packers running a Power Sweep) the part of the brain that allows you to think rationally shuts down in favor of the parts of the brain that are screaming: “Run, you incredible moron!”

Then the rest of us who aren’t suffering from a brain that’s gone on strike, sit back and second guess what other people did under pressure.

When I hear some police officer shot a kid because she panicked and used her gun instead of her Taser, I don’t automatically think “racism” (even though that may have played a role), but I do think “poor training.”

So one final baseball anecdote before we go.

When I asked the late, great Royals pitcher Dan Quisenberry whether he was considered a good fielder, he gave me a very Quiz-like answer:

“I usually panicked in the right direction.”

So when panic hits you (and panic is extremely rude and doesn’t call before dropping by) you hope your training takes over (assuming you had some and God help you if you didn’t) and you panic in the right direction.

And maybe the rest of us ought to be a little more understanding of the people who don’t.