That's what the Astros' ace did with his pitching mechanics after Major League Baseball shut down spring training in March due to a global health crisis.
Verlander was able to dissect and study his movements, how he was releasing the ball far higher than he wanted.
It was causing a strain on his groin, which Verlander had surgically repaired during spring training. The issues with Verlander's groin were related to a lat injury he also sustained in spring training.
The time off allowed him to use fresh eyes and really work on shortening that delivery.
Longtime baseball minds like Dusty Baker and pitching coach Brent Strom, both 71, can tell how much smoother Verlander pitches now, versus his American League Cy Young campaign last year when he struck out 300 batters.
But that's not the only area in which Verlander has done some soul-searching.
Four years ago, when the Black Lives Matter movement carried over into sports with Colin Kaepernick and other NFL players kneeling during the national anthem in protest of systemic racism, Verlander was a vocal critic.
In October 2016, when the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Texas Rangers to move on to the ALCS, he tweeted "Just sang the Canadian national anthem on TBS and we here in America can't stand together for our anthem. #alllivesmatter #TogetherStrong."
Verlander later apologized for using "All Lives Matter" in a hashtag, unaware of its racial implications in attempts to undermine the message behind black lives mattering.
Nearly four years later, Verlander can look in the mirror and acknowledge his privilege.
"Over the past six, seven years that's shown that it's not enough," Verlander said. "There needs to be change in our culture. And I think bringing attention to that the way we did I think is a good way to do it."
Baker, wearing a Black Lives Matter t-shirt before the game, said the team met in Kansas City about how to approach Opening Day demonstrations.
They met again as a team before Friday's game, kneeled before the anthem and then players were free to express themselves how they felt during the anthem.
Astros pitcher Lance McCullers spoke before the game about players, teams and the league using their platform to help people understand why all of this is so important.
Hopefully, it makes a difference.
"It's brought people to ask the right questions, and myself included," Verlander said. "To have conversations that maybe you weren't comfortable having before but now it's necessary. You have to have those conversations, because I understand I wasn't brought up a black man. I understand that I had some privilege to me and that was hard to realize, to be honest.
"I think that's what this whole message has been about, is to understand even if you do everything the right way, that might not be enough. And we can stand up and we can say, 'hey, things need to change.' And I think they should."