Former professional pitcher Kazuhisa Kawaguchi once said:

“No matter how well you understand something in your head, if your body can’t execute it, it’s the same as not knowing it at all.”

According to Kawaguchi, throwing a perfect inside pitch in a critical moment requires more than theory. A pitcher must train the lower body, arm action, and mechanics repeatedly until the movement becomes part of muscle memory. Only then can the ball truly go where the pitcher intends.

Shohei Ohtani shares a similar view.

Ohtani says he often has a very clear mental image of how to create the ideal swing path and launch angle. He understands how to enter the zone, how to move the bat, and what kind of contact should produce the desired result.

And yet, even with that understanding, there are still times when his body cannot reproduce it.

That gap between understanding and execution frustrates him.

If he could simply perform exactly as he imagines, the ball should naturally carry into the air. But baseball is not that simple. Knowing something intellectually does not guarantee being able to execute it consistently under real conditions.

That is why Ohtani believes endless repetition and practice are essential.

As he put it:

“If being able to do something immediately after understanding it makes someone a genius, then I’m not one of them.”

Ohtani says he is actually fairly good at turning understanding into execution compared to most people. Even so, it still takes time. And pitching, he says, requires even more time than hitting.

That is why practice is non-negotiable for him.

His greatness does not come from believing he is naturally gifted enough to skip the work.

It comes from understanding that mastery is earned through repetition until knowledge becomes instinct.

Source

This quote comes from a Japanese book published in Japan and is not currently available in English.

Number 980, p.18