Challenge Series: Defining Perceptual Distortions
In the coming months, I will present a series of articles examining different types of perceptual distortions I encounter the most with athletes. I am calling this the "Challenge Series" because I will challenge you to examine yourself to see if you struggle with the selected distortion and challenge you to take action to overcome it. To get this series started, let's examine what a perceptual distortion is and how it can affect your performance on the softball field.
What Is A Perceptual Distortion?
To define a perceptual distortion, I want to first examine the meaning of both of these words separately. The word "perceptual" refers to your brain's process of using your five senses to gather, organize, and interpret information to better understand your environment (Merriam-Webster, 2025). The information you gather determines how you perceive your situation. Now let's review the definition of "distortion."
A distortion is an alteration of something from its true or natural form. A distortion produces an inaccurate representation of the original object. Distortions can happen to physical objects, situations, and perceptions. When you put the two words together, a perceptual distortion happens when we use our five senses to gather information about a situation, person, event, object, etc. In other words, what you think about the situation or what's happening may not be the reality of the situation or interaction. There are all types of distortions that we will examine in the coming months (i.e., fear, size, time, distance, height, spatial).
What Does A Perceptual Distortion Do To Me?
During a perceptual distortion, your brain's processing of the information is influenced by either inaccurate sensory information, your emotions, or your personal preferences for certain people or things. All of this leads to the distortion—you create a reality of the situation for yourself that is not accurate, meaning your distorted reality is different from the observable truth of the situation. Y'all alright? This can be hard to accept. Let's look more into what can happen if we allow perceptual distortions to continue.
If you allow yourself to view a situation or event with a distorted view of the reality of the situation, then you are functioning, reacting, and responding in ways that may not set you up for success. The way you think, act, respond, react, and behave is dictated by what you believe is happening, versus what may actually be happening.
Let's put this into context. Suppose your team is playing against one of the best teams in the area, and that team has a pitcher who throws 62 mph to 65 mph. The pitcher has good stuff, but she's been consistently clocked in that range. During the first few innings, you felt like you saw the ball well, and you made solid contact.
Now, let's say it's later in the game and your teams are tied. You're up to bat in a pressure situation with runners in scoring position, and you strike out. You make the comment to your coach that you "swear" the pitcher was throwing 70 mph in that at-bat. When you review the speed gun information, you see that her top speed all game was 66 mph. You may have experienced a perceptual distortion related to time (Sarigiannidis et al., 2020).
The intense pressure situation had you speeding up the pitch in your mind. In reality, the pitcher didn't throw the ball any faster or harder. You just perceived she did, which caused you to be late in your timing. Techniques and tools to help you stay calm and focused could have helped you in that moment to keep the moment in perspective, rather than the anxiety distorting your perception.
There are many types of perceptual distortions, and this series of articles will focus on the distortions that I encounter the most often with athletes that affect performance, and mental performance tools to help you shake off those distortions. Now, here's your first challenge: Reflect back over the season so far. What examples do you have that could indicate you were experiencing a perceptual distortion?
Dr. Megan Buning is a Certified Mental Performance Consultant (C.M.P.C.) with over a decade of experience training the mental game.
References
Merriam-Webster. (2025). Distortion. Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/distortion
Merriam-Webster. (2025). Perceptual. Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perceptual
Sarigiannidis, I., Grillon, C., Ernst, M., Roiser, J. P., & Robinson, O. J. (2020). Anxiety makes time pass quicker while fear has no effect. Cognition, 197, 104116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2019.104116
