What factors really affect the results of a baseball swing? Is it vision, speed, balance,
equipment, human anatomy or the laws of nature? All of these seem to play a key role, but which
one is the most critical to success? Without vision, you can’t see the ball. Speed and quickness
are desired in every sport, including baseball. Balance helps players have a solid stance and the
right posture at the plate. Without the right equipment, you can’t hit the ball far. A strong,
healthy, human body could help athletes hit the ball further. The laws of nature definitely affect
the distance the ball will travel.
Vision
Everyone has heard people say when you swing a baseball bat to “keep to your eyes on
the ball.” Vision is surely a major part to hitting a baseball. If you don’t have
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your eyes on the ball, your results will be not productive. Hall of Famer Ted Williams had amazing eyesight, helping him be a great hitter. Ted Williams eyesight was reportedly about 20/10 or equivalent to 1 in every 100,000 people have the outstanding vision he did. Ted Williams once said “people always told me that my natural ability and good eyesight were the reasons for my success as a hitter, they never talk about the practice, practice, practice.” Simply put, if you hit the ball with both eyes closed your results won’t be productive. However, using both eyes with great focus should produce maximum results. Equipment Different bat materials, lengths, and weights can affect how far a hit will travel. If you swing a plastic bat to hit a standard baseball, the bat will break from the force of a much harder baseball. Alternatively, if you swing a quality metal bat with a quality baseball the results will be very productive. For example, if a little leaguer swings a major leaguers bat, that is not a good fit for small players and vice-versa, for the major leaguer using a little leaguer bat. Aspects of each bat have characteristics that can be suited to a player’s preference. Wood or metal are the most common bat material. Bat length can vary from a very short 25” for a little leaguer, or measure 34” which is the most common length for professionals. Bat weight varies based on length of the bat and commonly ranges from 15 ounces to 34 ounces. Ted Williams said in his book that he swung a 33 ounce bat, but the bigger you are the heavier the bat will be.
Speed
Experts debate whether bat speed is the single greatest factor affecting hitting, but some
say hand speed is more impactful. Time to impact is very important for a baseball swing. If your
time to impact is too slow, your bat will cross the plate after the ball is in the catcher’s mitt.
Some players cheat and hollow out the bat and replace it with cork material to gain a lighter bat
(and faster bat speed.) According to Pocket Radar.com data has shown that every one mile per
hour of bat speed increases the length of a hit by five feet. If you have faster bat speed, your exit
velocity will increase the distance the ball travels. Hand speed is also a component of bat speed
and is known to be very important to a good baseball swing.
Laws of Nature
Sir Isaac Newton’s discovery of the concept of gravity comes into the picture every time
baseball players take the field. Many baseball coaches instruct hitters to ‘hit down on the ball’ to
produce ground balls and avoid hitting fly balls which results in outs. Very steep upward swings
result in pop flies while downward swings produce ground balls. According to Zepp
baseball, you want your hands to be going faster than your bat barrel at the start of your swing. Ball players who understand forces of nature such as gravity and wind stand the best chance to consistently get on base. Human Anatomy It is often thought that the best hitters are big, strong, and fast. Human anatomy plays a key role in hitting a baseball. If you are big, strong, and fast you should hit the ball the farther than someone lacking those traits. If you are short, weak, and slow you could produce less impressive results. For example, former major leaguer David Ortiz is big and strong and hit a lot of home runs and singles, but was a slow baserunner. Recent MVP Jose Altuve is short, strong, and fast and has lot of singles and doubles. Which one is better? People who are short will have a smaller strike zone then a tall person who will have a bigger strike zone. People with stronger muscles and better bat speed don’t always hit the ball farther than a short, powerful hitter, possibly because they lack other swing characteristics, such as good vision. Balance Your balance constantly changes throughout your swing. How can a batter know what stance is the best from beginning to end? In “The Art of Hitting” by Tony Gwynn, he says at the beginning of your swing “your weight should be about 50-50 or maybe 45-55” on both feet. Slow motion video of major leaguer Hunter Pence swinging shows his weight shifts nearly 100 percent to his front foot at impact, so much so that his back foot comes off the ground at impact. This trait is common among all good hitters, and is a new development in modern hitting philosophy now that slow motion video is available to most everyone. Conclusion We don’t know which one factor is the key, but we know they are all important for hitting a baseball. Major flaws in any one of the factors discussed here could reduce the chance of hitting a baseball to zero. Bibliography Works Cited Gwynn, Tony. Art of Hitting. Diane Pub Co, 1998. “Http://Ljournal.ru/Wp-Content/Uploads/2017/03/a- 2017-023.Pdf.” July 2017, doi:10.18411/a- 2017-023. RichmondOptometry. “The Myths and Facts about Ted Williams' Vision.” RichmondOptometry.com, 28 Jan. 2011, richmondoptometry.blogspot.com/2011/01/myths-and- facts-about- ted-williams.html. “TOP 25 QUOTES BY TED WILLIAMS.” A-Z Quotes, www.azquotes.com/author/15725- Ted_Williams. Williams, Ted, and John 1934- joint author. Underwood. The science of hitting, by Ted Williams & John Underwood. Simon $ Schuster (c1971) 88 p. illus ( Part col.)., 1970. Zepp Training Center | Get The Most Out Of Zepp, And Your Swing, Zepp, 2017, www.zepp.com/en-us/training- center/baseball/.
High tech aluminum baseball bats aren’t quite as new to the game as many people may think. Author, Patrick Hruby, wrote in Sports Illustrated, “introduced in the mid-1970’s… metal bats have become increasingly potent, forged with alloys… pressurized air chambers” (Hruby 42). Over the last few decades these aluminum ‘killer bats’ have evolved to be even more potent. “Some coaches and players claim these powerful bats are ruining the integrity of the game and placing pitchers at undue risk” (42). Every college, divisions I through III, are using these bats religiously. Each year bigger and better bats are at each team’s fingertips. A few of the more popular bats this year are the TPX C555 Platinum, TPX Omaha, and the EASTON Redline, just to name a few. These bats are so advanced that almost everything about them has changed, for instance, “…an
The game of baseball can be divided into three broad categories: hitting, pitching, and defense. No other facet of the game gets as much attention as hitting. For example, every year the MLB puts on a home run derby. No other part of the game draws as much attention. The traditional statistic that measure hitting ability is batting average (BA or AVG). To find a players batting averag...
Torque is another key ingredient to a good power hitter, or even a good hitter. Torque is the result of two forces being applied to an object in opposite directions. In this case the two forces are being applied from the hands and wrists onto the bat. As you start your swing, instead of moving your hands directly at the ball, you want your hands to start a rotation. The top hand begins to move backwards while the lead arm drives the end of the bat towards the ball. The torque invloved is created around the point of the bat that lies between your hands. This torque greatly accelerates the head of the bat which will have act with a greater force when (or if ) it comes into contact with the ball.
There are a few ways to cheat in baseball, the big one is steroids or HGH (human growth hormone). Another way is corking your bat, and that’s what my experiment is all about. Now I am not using wood bats like the MLB does I am using 2 aluminum bats, one corked and one normal. One bat I will take the top off and put some type of ball or substance that will make that bat bounce more, like a few racquet balls or something like that. The theory is to make the ball go a lot farther than with just a regular bat. The experiment calls for wood bats but I altered it just a tad and used aluminum bats because that sounds more interesting to me. I chose this experiment because I really like baseball and this one stood out to me more than anything else on sciencebuddies.
For any catcher being prepared is always the first step, and one of the more important steps, in playing the position well. Along with the right preparation, it will profit a catcher greatly if he or she can communicate to other players and is willing to take charge of the field. Last, every catcher must be physically able to play the position and in addition to that must have the athletic ability. Not every catcher is the same. Ones weakness might just happen to be another catcher’s strong point, but where they are similar is they all have met these few
The researcher has chosen to write this paper on hitting because she has played softball for twelve years and the perfect softball swing has always eluded her. The softball swing is one of the most difficult softball skills to achieve greatness in. There are a number of great hitters all with different batting stances and styles, each one comfortable to them. There are many different tactics and coaching ideas out there to help improve hitting. In fact, there are several videos now on the market to help the softball player perform better. Coaches often teach hitting drills to improve batting techniques and ability. Confidence is an important factor in hitting. If the player lacks confidence then she will not be a good hitter. Softball is not only a physical game but a mental game.
Hitting a baseball is not nearly as hard as it seems. The professional baseball players make hitting a baseball either look very easy or extremely hard. To begin the process the following items are needed: a bat, a baseball, and baseball gloves so that the hit baseball can be caught. Once all the items listed are collected there is one more thing needed, a place to play. Make sure that the teams are even that way it is a fair game.
Baseball is not a difficult game to comprehend, but it can a very long time to achieve a high level of performance. Usually one starts playing this game at a very young age and the first thing they start out with is throwing. Throwing a baseball involves exploiting all major muscle groups in the body to generate a large torque on the arm that will in turn create a high potential for speed when it is released.
"Think. Don't just swing. Think about the pitcher, what he threw you last time up, his best pitch, who's up
It not only demands physical strength, but a great mindset as well. A great mindset includes qualities such as mental preparedness, concentration, and a positive attitude. These qualities show significantly when a baseball player is playing his best, and without them, he cannot play to his full potential and must change his mindset in order to reach
The most common off speed pitch is a curve ball because it has a lot of movement if it is thrown correctly. To throw this pitch you use the same wind up but when you get to the point of throwing the ball, instead of throwing it regularly you snap your wrist to make the ball spin. In order to get a lot of movement you have to throw the ball with a little bit less velocity. It is important to be able to throw a curve ball while pitching.
Throwing a baseball is a lot like throwing any other object. Children grow up throwing things around the house, and it very similar to how you throw a baseball. From a young age, I grew up throwing objects around the house. My father was smart enough to recognize this trend and sign me up for baseball later on when I was much older. To throw a baseball you first need to understand the shape of the object. The baseball has seams around the circumference which are placed around the outer edges of the baseball for added grip. Before we get into the types of pitches and grips, we need to understand the arm and body movement. The movement of your body and arms happens in many steps that follow a fluid form to increase accuracy
Baseball has always been America’s natural past time. Many fans love watching baseball but do not realize how hard it is to prepare for a season. Most fans think the players just show up on the first day. I think this belief is completely false. I feel that preparing for a baseball season requires much preparation. The preparation I use includes working on my swing, working out, and studying other people’s ideas on hitting. These steps are necessary for me to have a successful season. These steps have proven to be a valuable aid in helping me to prepare for the season. I believe these steps are the basic steps to becoming a great baseball player.
First off, the knuckle ball. It is called the hardest pitch to hit. A pitch that seemingly floats like a butterfly and then magically drops into the strike zone, dumbfounding the batter and almost always resulting in a strike out. But how is this pitch actually thrown? The name of the pitch essentially entails how the pitch is thrown, the pitcher curls his fingers into his hand, placing the knuckles of his fingers on the ball, and releasing the ball in this manner and fashion. But why does this work? It comes down to the position of the laces. By throwing the ball off the pitcher’s knuckles, the ball exhibits no spin throughout the entire duration of the pitch. This allows different lift forces within the air is passes to exert themselves upon the ball. By doing this, the ball is subject to different planar movements as a result of different lift forces manifesting themselves upon the baseball that is thrown. In a simplistic explanation, this is why a knuckle ball “knuckles” as it is thrown.