Backward Thinkerss

Backward Thinkers

THE INSTINCT

Most of us fix what’s in front of us. The bad at-bat. The missed assignment. The pitch that got away. We zoom in, tighten up, and try to force the next moment to go right by gripping the current one harder.

It feels like focus. It feels like competitiveness. It rarely is.

What it actually is — in most cases — is reaction. We are responding to the last thing that happened instead of preparing for the next thing that matters. And the harder we grip, the smaller our thinking gets. The smaller our thinking gets, the worse we perform. It’s a loop most athletes and leaders know well, even if they can’t name it.

The best competitors break that loop. And they do it by doing something counterintuitive. They stop looking forward and start looking backward.

“The harder we grip, the smaller our thinking gets.”

WHAT STRIDER DOES

I read a recent New York Times piece on Braves pitcher Spencer Strider. He is one of the best pitchers in baseball, and what stood out wasn’t his velocity or his mechanics. It was how he manages his mind between pitches.

When Strider gets in trouble on the mound, he doesn’t zoom in. He steps outside himself and watches the moment in the third person — like he’s studying another pitcher, not drowning as his own. The noise quiets. The picture gets clearer. He stops reacting and starts deciding.

Then he does something even more interesting. He reverse-engineers.

He starts from the outcome he wants and works backward to what has to be true to reach it. Not “what’s wrong with my mechanics right now” — but “what does the result look like, and what needs to happen for me to get there?” He’s building the path from the destination back to the present, not stumbling forward hoping the path appears.

That is a different kind of thinking. That is a backward thinker.

WHAT JOBS KNEW

It reminded me of something Steve Jobs said at Stanford in 2005. Standing in front of graduates who were anxious about the future, he told them to stop trying to connect the dots forward.

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backward.” — Steve Jobs, Stanford 2005

We have always treated that as career advice. Trust the detours. Follow your curiosity. The dots will make sense eventually. But I think Jobs was also describing something deeper — a way of thinking the best performers use not just in life planning, but in the heat of competition.

Jobs wasn’t telling those graduates to be passive. He was telling them that clarity comes from looking at where you’ve been and where you want to go — not from staring at the chaos of the present moment and trying to will your way through it. Strider does that in real time. On the mound. Under pressure. That’s the difference.

WHY IT’S TRAINABLE

Here is what matters most: this isn’t a personality trait. It’s not something Strider was born with. It’s a skill. And like every mental skill, it can be taught, practiced, and built into how a team prepares.

The third-person perspective — stepping outside the moment to observe it — is what researchers call psychological distancing. Studies show it reduces emotional reactivity, improves decision-making under stress, and helps athletes perform more consistently in high-pressure situations. It is not a trick. It is a documented, trainable cognitive tool.

Reverse engineering is the same. When athletes and coaches rehearse outcomes — starting from what success looks like and building the steps backward — they wire their brains for clearer thinking when pressure is highest. Jobs trusted the dots would connect. Strider connects them on purpose. That is the evolution.

THE PRACTICE

Before the game, ask your athletes to reverse-engineer their performance. What does a great at-bat look like today? What does a confident first serve feel like? Start there. Then work backward to the preparation that makes it possible.

During competition, when things go sideways — and they will — give your athletes a reset cue: not “what just happened to me” but “what would I coach right now if I were watching this from the outside?” That single reframe changes everything.

After competition, connect the dots backward. What worked? Where did you trust yourself, and where did you grip too hard? The answers are already there. You just have to look backward to find them.

Leaders, coaches, athletes: the next moment doesn’t need to be forced. It needs to be built. Step outside it. Look back from where you want to be. Reverse-engineer the path. Then trust yourself to walk it. That’s how backward thinkers win.

Scott Wilder is the founder of Game Ready Mindset (TM), an emerging player in the sports mental performance field. Learn more at grmsports.com
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