MLB Thursday night read:
04/26/2007 4:15 PM ET
Seeing success, and achieving it
Visualization methods help rookie pitcher Hirsh
By Thomas Harding / MLB.com
Rookie right-hander Jason Hirsh leads the Rockies with two victories and 23 strikeouts. (Lenny Ignelzi/AP)
DENVER -- In childhood, all Rockies rookie right-hander Jason Hirsh wanted to do was learn to ride a bike. He had no idea his method of learning could be honed into a new-age procedure that has helped him get off to a strong Major League start.
No one taught him or younger brother, Matt, now a pitcher for the York Revolution of the independent Atlantic League. They just watched until they saw themselves wheeling along before they tried.
"Matt didn't even use training wheels; I did for just a little," Hirsh said. "He could watch somebody riding a bike, do it once, mess up and realize what he did, and never mess up again. But that's the way we've always learned. I've always been a visual learner."
Now, part of Hirsh's preparation is the mental trick of visualizing proper mechanics and accurate pitches. It's not child's play, but part of his daily preparation as he follows a method that's honed by his offseason trainer, Alan Jaeger. He hopes it works on Saturday, when he faces the Braves and veteran right-hander John Smoltz at 6:05 p.m. MT.
The Jaeger Sports studio in Los Angeles is a destination spot for several professional pitchers, such as the Giants' Barry Zito and the Dodgers' Brett Tomko. They saw an immediate turnaround after studying with Jaeger, and so have players who play other positions. The program incorporates the use of tubing as well as stretching exercises for strength and flexibility, yoga and meditation training.
This past winter during his six-week camp, Jaeger urged his players to keep up with some of the mental exercises. He even burned compact discs for them to use as a daily training aid. Hirsh took it to heart.
Hirsh struggled during Spring Training, his first with the Rockies, who made him the key figure among the three players they obtained in an offseason trade with the Astros in exchange for pitcher Jason Jennings. Jaeger said he asked Hirsh after a rough spring start to "take his visualization to a different level" for five days -- from the day after one start to the morning of the next.
Jaeger purposely waited a while before checking with Hirsh, but the pupil stuck with it. It showed in Hirsh's changeup, a pitch Jaeger emphasizes in the winter and Rockies pitching coach Bob Apodaca stresses constantly.
In Hirsh's first start, he struck out a then-career-high eight batters in 6 2/3 innings of a 4-3 victory over the Padres and Greg Maddux -- the first of Hirsh's two victories already over the same team and pitcher. Hirsh has been in frequent contact with Jaeger ever since.
Hirsh is 2-1 with a 3.16 ERA, and the Rockies have won three of his four starts.
"He's such a good student, and he really loves to learn and has no ego," Jaeger said. "He's like a sponge."
ONLY THE BEST
Rockies rookie right-hander Jason Hirsh dreams of facing baseball's best-known pitchers are coming true quickly.
Hirsh already owns two victories over the Padres and future Hall of Famer Greg Maddux. In those games, Hirsh has compiled a 1.98 ERA, achieved 15 of his 23 strikeouts this season and held the Padres to a .200 batting average.
His next assignment will be Saturday night at Coors Field against the Braves and another future Hall of Famer, right-hander John Smoltz.
-- Thomas Harding
Here's roughly how it works:
Hirsh visualizes himself at first from the outside, first from behind the mound, then from a close-up view of his upper body "almost like the camera angle on TV, but I'm seeing it closer, but it would be closer." He is viewing the proper arm angle and release point. Then the vantage point becomes personal.
"I'm seeing the path I want it to follow," Hirsh said. "Say I'm throwing the slider. I'm seeing the arc of the slider. I'm seeing the arc of the curveball."
Jaeger said that under his method, the ball will produce a light that will follow the proper path, depending on the pitch. He can see and follow the pitch acting as it should.
"Then I can go out to the mound on game day, and I can focus on the catcher's glove," Hirsh said. "I say, 'I'm going to throw the curveball,' and I don't have to think of my mechanics or anything like that. I will throw that curveball to that point more often than not."
Hirsh has not given up more than three runs in any start. The visualization method doesn't guarantee all will be smooth, but it helped him overcome trouble in his last start, a 4-2 home victory over the Padres.
Hirsh yielded a Khalil Greene home run to open the seventh inning.
"I snapped into some kind of zone," Hirsh said. "I remember I saw the catcher's glove and that was it."
Hirsh struck out Russell Branyan, Geoff Blum and Rob Bowen in order to complete the strong outing.
Jaeger mentioned several times during a phone interview that the tool is a scientific way for an athlete to reach what's known as "the zone," and that it was not "hocus-pocus" -- an obvious nod to baseball's traditional fear of methods that step out of the physical realm.
The studious Hirsh, who holds a bachelor's degree in multimedia from Cal-Lutheran, is a walking example that one can try non-traditional methods but remain grounded. Apodaca doesn't see a guy who's head is in the clouds.
"Jason is very structured," Apodaca said. "I'm sure he was structured in school. He was structured in the Minor Leagues. His workouts are structured -- so much time devoted to this, his stretching exercises, with the tubing, his long-toss. It just seems to be a science with him. During his side work, he analyzes and digests everything."
In fact, in an effort to study the value of visualization and visual learning, Hirsh studied the work of David McDivitt, who teaches history and sociology at Oak Hill High School in Converse, Ind.
According to a 2006 story on the Web site of Government Technology, McDivitt had five classes totaling 110 students. Some in the classes studied World War II using traditional textbook and class discussion methods, the others used a historically accurate video game from a massive database developed by Boston University professor William Keylor.
"The people who played the video game actually scored [higher on multiple-choice tests and essays] than the people who read the book," Hirsh said. "You're immersing yourself in the action, seeing it happen. You remember it a lot more vividly than you can actually seeing words.
"I think that's the way the society is going. Everything's technology-based -- TV, movies and stuff like that, if you get stuff that's accurate and not Hollywood-ed up."
If Hirsh's performances end up in a movie, he won't have to see it. Not only will he have lived his feats, but he will have seen them before living them.
