The Power of the Present in Baseball and Presentation

I recently came across an op-ed article in the New York Times by David Brooks that struck me as significant for the art of presenting. In his piece, Brooks examines "The Mental ABC's of Pitching" by the sport psychologist H.A. Dorfman. While the book is geared towards professional pitchers, I feel that Dorfman's advice can be extended quite naturally to presentations.

As told by Brooks, what Dorfman "offers is to liberate people from what you might call the tyranny of the scattered mind." This sort of tyranny is not closeted to baseball however: any highly demanding activity can be undermined by a lack of focus. The everyday mind is like an out-of-control chariot: without direction and jumping from one thing to the next, it is almost impossible to prepare for anything important. This is where mental discipline comes in.

I had a coach in high-school tell me that "you play the way you practice;" as I've grown older, I continue to see the truth of this statement. Through practice comes mastery. This is consistent with the story I tell in my workshop about Eugen Herrigel from "Zen in the Art of Archery." Herrigel spent 1 year learning how to stand, how to hold the bow and how to breathe before he ever put an arrow to the blow string. That intense practice frees up the mind from other distractions. This is also necessary in presenting. Now while I don't suggest you take a year to learn how to introduce yourself, nonetheless, master presenters must own their material and their technique in a way that they don't even have to think about it. There is simply no substitute for this type of practice. Mark Twain said it best, "It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech."

Returning to Brooks analysis of Dorfman, "by putting the task at the center, Dorfman illuminates the way the body and the mind communicate with each other." This is the essence of the teaching of our workshop: motivation follows action, not vice versa. If you change your behavior then you will change the way you think. As E. Thomas Berr PH.D put it in the The Tao of Sales: "It is easier to act yourself into a new way of thinking than think yourself into a new way of acting." Indeed, this is the essence of the Zen way: through intense practice of mindfulness (being present right here, right now) the mind can be calmed and focused.

Just like a baseball game, a presentation is a spectacle, with a thousand points of interest. Nonetheless, master presenters reduce it all to a series of simple tasks, and at the center is the task of presenting well, nothing else. By putting the task at the center, the presenter helps to push away their expectations, nerve and ego, and by doing such they can calmly and adeptly connect with the audience, their material, and deliver a masterful presentation every time.

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