Heavy Breathing on the Mound

Anyone interested in the mainstreaming of Eastern philosophy will find this New York Times Sports section article by Lee Jenkins fascinating. It's about the yoga and meditation work some pro-ball pitchers are incorporating into their training.

“If you can calm yourself down in the middle of those poses, you can do it in the middle of the game,” said Errol Simonitsch, a pitcher for the Minnesota Twins. “That’s why, before every pitch, you’ll see me take a deep breath.”

By thinking about his breaths, Simonitsch is limiting how much he thinks about his pitches, and he has a better chance of blocking out distractions. He simply rocks and fires. By the time he reflects on the pitch, it is already released.

This technique was popularized by [the Giant's Barry] Zito, who takes so many deep breaths on the mound that it can look as if he is hyperventilating. When [the Tiger's Joel] Zumaya made his major league debut last season in Kansas City, he ran down the tunnel for a moment to do his breathing exercises.

No one laughed at him, at least not after he touched 103 miles an hour on the radar gun. And no one laughed at Zito, not when he signed a contract in December for $126 million.

“I thought it was a little kooky at first,” said Jason Hirsh, a pitcher for the Colorado Rockies. “No one does mental training. Everyone just tells you to get big and strong. But I always thought, If it works for those other guys, why can’t it work for me?”