| Batting slumps occur one or more times during almost all baseball players' playing careers. Being in a slump can be a trying and frustrating time for a batter as well as coaches, family members, and friends. While anecdotal testimony of batting slumps has always been a staple of the popular media and the talk of fans, existing evidence and scientific discourse is meager at best. In fact, the explanations and cures of batting slumps within these sources often point to physical and technical aspects, and sparingly discuss any of the mental and emotional dimensions of batting slumps. Due to the illogic of proposing cures for an experience which is not yet soundly defined, this study explores and describes what a batting slump is in terms of its mental and emotional dimensions. This enterprise is divided into three parts. First, the external and internal sights, sounds, and feelings perceived by baseball batters during their superb batting experiences and during their slump experiences are identified. Second, the content and quality of the sensory representations perceived during respective batting experiences are contrasted. Finally, the differences between superb batting experiences and slump experiences are interpreted utilizing Mackenzie's (1988) MetaSkills model of sport performance and semantic analysis of the language used by the batters to describe their experiences. |
