A new word

It is rare that Fantasy Bob learns a new word.  For most purposes he finds that his well worn 100 or so monosyllabic grunts are enough to sustain his daily activities.  Perhaps that has something to do with why he doesn't find social distancing such a change from his normal existence.

But this week that changed.  He found a new word.  Not only a new word, but a new word for something he never knew existed.  And that something suddenly goes a long way to explaining his ineptitude on the cricket field.  Particularly in the matter of facing leg spin bowling.  In many other areas of the game as well, but particularly in the matter of facing leg spin bowling.

The word is aphantasia.  It refers to a condition where one does not possess a functioning mind's eye and cannot visualize imagery.  A sufferer will be asked say to visualise an orange - she will close her eyes tight, purse her lips, think orange but there will be no image of orange there.  She may be able to describe it, but that is from retained knowledge, not from visualising it.

The test for aphantasia - which apple do you see?

So what has this got to do with FB's ineptitude?  Many time a coach, wrestling with the challenge of ensuring that FB can face more than one ball of the demon bowler - usually an 11 year old menacingly tossing the ball from one small hand to the other at the far end of the net - has said to him, 'You have to watch the ball out of the hand, see the rotations and visualise it landing here, and moving there.'  

There you have it.  FB can watch the ball, he may be able to see the rotations (unlikely, but give him the benefit of the doubt for now) but visualise it?  No way, Jose.  And so the inevitable comes about.  FB groping at thin air, his bat waving like the top-most branch of a tree in a gale.  He trudges back to the pavilion.

But as if one new word were not enough for one week, FB has also learned another, again for something he did not know existed.  This word is hyperphantasia and means just the opposite of aphantasia.  People with hyperphantasia see mental pictures so vivid that they find it hard to be sure whether an image is perceived or imagined.

Now, this is exactly what FB feels when he has taken his guard and stands ready to face the fast bowling.  He can see his stumps shatter, the bails cartwheeling beyond the slips.  He can see himself diving and ducking.  He can read the maker's logo on the ball as it flies past a millimetre from his nose.  He is sure it is real.  But at the end of the over he will bump his gloves with his partner, usually a 13 year old with a sublime late cut, who nonchalantly tells him, 'No worries here, Bob, that bowler's just a medium pacer......'  FB has no answer.  He looks round.  A leg spinner is coming on at the other end.

Is FB a rare medical curiosity?  Is it possible?  Both aphantasic and hyperphantasic at the same time.