While
we were discussing pitching last week, I realized that many of the important
considerations – namely, awareness of what the catcher wants – coincide with
the acting principles delineated in Michael Shurtleff’s seminal book, Audition. In this book, Shurtleff describes
twelve guideposts that actors should think about before beginning any
scene. At least eight of these
principles, which I outline below, can apply equally well to pitching.[1]
1.
Relationship: What is your relationship to the catcher? What is your emotional attitude towards this
person, and what is his/her emotional attitude towards you?
2.
What are you fighting for? Find as many
ways as you can to accomplish what you are fighting for.
3.
Think about the biases that you and the catcher might be bringing into the
room.
4.
Use humor.
5.
Recognize that communication is a circle, not a one-way street. The catcher has to acknowledge the message by
sending a reply back to the pitcher to complete the circle.
6.
Make this encounter important and life impacting for the catcher.
7.
What are you trying to accomplish in this encounter and what role are you
playing? What does the catcher want from
you here and what do you want from the catcher?
What are you offering and what do you expect? What are the stakes?
8.
Embrace what you don’t know.
In
addition, it may be important to consider the tenets of motivation as outlined
by psychologists when trying to get a catcher to undertake a particular
action. Specifically:
Control: you want the catcher to feel in control
by seeing a direct link between his or her actions and an outcome
Interest/value: you want the catcher to have some
interest in the action or see the value of participating in it
Relatedness: you want to catcher to feel like this action
is bringing him/her social rewards, such as a sense of belonging to something
greater than his/herself
What
guiding principles from other fields can also apply to pitching?
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