Pete Crow-Armstrong lets his mind wander during games. He might be onto something

This story is part of Peak, The Athletic’s desk covering the mental side of sports. Sign up for Peak’s newsletter here.

There are plenty of reasons why Pete Crow-Armstrong, the center fielder for the Chicago Cubs, is a frontrunner for the National League MVP award.

He hits for power, runs like the wind and plays premium defense in center field. But last week, I came across an interesting mental approach he revealed on a podcast earlier this year.

Crow-Armstrong was discussing the grind of playing a full season in center field and the challenges of mastering the psychological side of the sport when he said something athletes usually don’t admit.

“The time in between pitches — like if nobody’s on — I’m letting my mind wander,” Crow-Armstrong said on The Old Man and the Three. “I’m looking up into the bleachers, seeing who’s there. You got to check out sometimes so you can lock it back in.”

The interview took place in February, before the season. In it, Crow-Armstrong admitted that he struggles with the mental side of baseball the most, and his comment flew in the face of conventional athlete talk about intensity and focus.

But at the core is a deeper scientific concept. His instinct to look around and zone out for a moment tapped into a mind state which experts call non-directional attention — or the soft, loose focus that occurs when your mind is wandering.

“It is a great strategy,” said Justin Anderson, a sports psychologist and the author of “Intentional Attention: The Science and Practice of Focus Under Pressure.” “It recharges the attentional batteries a little faster. Attention takes a lot of energy. The real skill becomes, can I get to be locked in and then can I unlock and relax in between?”

Anderson has worked with athletes across all professional and college sports, including Major League Baseball. What was particularly interesting about Crow-Armstrong’s idea, he said, is that researchers have found that looking out at objects on the horizon — skylines, clouds, water, trees — can be particularly restorative, which could make it useful for baseball players, who can, depending on the stadium, look at all four.

Scientists are still trying to understand exactly what’s happening in the brain, but the research aligns with Attention Restoration Theory, which was developed by psychologists Rachel and Stephen Kaplan in the 1980s and proposed that viewing natural environments could help aid our ability to concentrate following mental fatigue.

Looking up at the clouds — or even a random scene in the Wrigley Field bleachers — produces what experts call a “soft fascination,” a mental state which requires little mental effort. Even a small burst can be restorative.

“That’s a renewal state,” Anderson said. “And we’re finding that there are behaviors that we can do — attentional cues that we gravitate towards — that can help that happen faster and make us feel better.”

It’s one reason that Anderson warns athletes against the practice of scrolling on their phone, which is commonplace in clubhouses and locker rooms and pretty much every other place on earth.

It’s not just that athletes could be exposed to unfiltered feedback or messages on social media, which may impact their mood. It’s that phones are actually a poor way to tap into non-directional attention.

“It might sort of feel a little relaxing from a behavioral standpoint,” Anderson said. “But it holds our attention, so people tend to feel a little more fatigued after being on social media.”

Baseball players, of course, are not the only athletes who can benefit from letting the mind wander. It’s common in golf, where players are required to keep focus for hours during a round. Earlier this year, Colin Morikawa dealt with an excruciatingly long wait on the 18th hole by intentionally staring off into the Pacific Ocean. He said it helped take his mind off the pressure, and he went on to win his first tournament in 847 days.

It could also be beneficial during a changeover in tennis or as the quarterback sits on the sideline when the other team has the ball.

Anderson has worked with golfers who use crossword puzzles or word games on their phone in the middle of a round. Others have gone as far as reading romantic fantasy novels.

The latter may not be a perfect example of non-directional attention — reading takes quite a bit of focus. But it’s likely better, Anderson said, than scrolling social media’s algorithms.

For athletes like Crow-Armstrong, the next step, of course, is moving from the renewal state and using the recharged battery to concentrate. In other words: it’s about locking back in.

To toggle between the states and regain your focus, Anderson recommends a consistent routine — a deep breath or two, paired with a behavior or thought. Think about the next play. Take a deep breath. Take two steps in as the pitcher releases the ball.

“The breath kind of brings our attention back to our core — our center,” Anderson said. “Deep breaths can relax us a little bit more, so it also has a physiological component to it.”

“The key is to be intentional. Where are my eyes? What do I want to say to myself?”

The process of concentration is important. But so are the little mental breaks. The baseball season is long. The mental strain is daily and arduous.

Sometimes the best way to find a deep focus is to take a moment to let your mind drift.