PitchCommand and Biofeedback

An article published in the April 10, 1971, issue of Saturday Review entitled "Brain Power - The Case for Bio-Feedback Training" by Barnard Law Collier has a section in which he describes the process of learning to putt.

" . . . If you want to sink a twelve-foot golf putt, for instance, there is nothing anyone can offer you, not a lemon or $5,000, that will get your body to hole the ball out with Pavlovian sureness. But by the process of trial and error . . . you can learn to coordinate your muscles and other responses. You stroke the ball toward the hole and it glides by. You try again and again. Each time you get closer. You are not aware of precisely what you are doing to improve; you cannot say which muscles are contracting or relaxing and in what order. But you get closer nonetheless, and each near success is a reward that is likely to keep you trying. At last you are in control of your muscles, your responses, and the golf ball. It plunks into the hole."

PitchCommand can be used in a similar manner. The pitcher's target is more complex than trying to sink the putt. The pitcher's target involves precisely locating a certain pitch type (fastball, change, etc.) with a defined velocity. PitchCommand clearly presents the target and resulting locations and speeds. Now that the pitcher has access to the real result of his pitch he will be able to adjust his delivery mechanism and get closer and closer to consistently hitting his targets. This is the very essence of pitch command.