Getting Tough in Golf and Baseball

The border between Dr. Pirozzolo’s baseball work and his golf work is remarkably fluid. “It really is all the same. It comes down to your ability to find the motor programs you need under pressure, by blocking out of all the distractions,” he told me this week. “As the competitions get bigger and bigger, like the World Series, or the Masters and the U.S. Open, there is more noise to deal with, white noise as well as meaningful challenges and threats. Mental toughness is clearly the key. The tougher you are, the easier it is to control your central nervous system and your peripheral nervous system, to control your stress response and make adaptations.”