Does the riseball really rise???

[Mark H]

Not just you . Asking anyone. Pitching is a secondary interest to me but this rise grip question has long been a puzzle to me.

 

[sluggers]

Well...the results are in. A riseball doesn't rise. This is a picture of Osterman throwing a riseball using Stromotion. Click here for Stromotion video The red line shows the initial angle of the ball when released. If the riseball did in fact rise, the ball would end up above the red line. It doesn't. In fact, it is well below it.

Science is right, again.

 

[Mark H]

As an aside, I've seen "science" change it's mind about any number of subjects several times in my lifetime so I take anything science says with a healthy dose of scientific skepticism.

As to the rise, someone with greater technical expertise than mine re-evaluated Scott Sarginson's study of the rise using Sarah Pauly as the subject and found it did rise briefly and slightly above the initial trajectory not long after it left the hand thereafter beginning to sink from said trajectory. Just to keep the discussion going, Cat's rise gave the appearance of more rise back in her high school and gold days than it does now so who knows.

 

[bigdaddy]

Science changes it's mind EVERY day. But the Laws of Physics remain pretty stable. We may refine our understanding of these laws. We may find new applications for these laws. But they don't really change!

 

[halskinner]

What seems to also be a constant is the number of people in this day and age of this sport, that have lousy vision. I mean the ones that are blind enough to still think there is only ONE way to throw a riseball.

You know the ones, they are the people that refer to 'one' of them as 'The riseball' or even 'A riseball'.

Sad.

 

[BusterT]

As bigdaddy says, the laws of physics are constant. One thing that DOES change is new methods of presenting an illusion. The best illusionists can make you believe that they just made a building disappear, or a softball rise. Your eyes and brain told you so, but physical laws will prove you wrong every time. But then, people also once believed that Earth was flat!

Any way you slice it though, an upward slanted pitch with lots of backspin, that doesn't drop as much as a regular fastball, is VERY effective - regardless of what you call it!

 

[halskinner]

As bigdaddy says, the laws of physics are constant. One thing that DOES change is new methods of presenting an illusion. The best illusionists can make you believe that they just made a building disappear, or a softball rise. Your eyes and brain told you so, but physical laws will prove you wrong every time. But then, people also once believed that Earth was flat!

Any way you slice it though, an upward slanted pitch with lots of backspin, that doesn't drop as much as a regular fastball, is VERY effective - regardless of what you call it!

So you have never seen a real one?

The laws of physics are correct. For the cut rise, extremely difficult to get the number of spins per second using ONLY the wrist. Unfortunately, I think that is the only riseball that has ever been put to that test and had those laws of physics applied to it.

Again, this was done by people that only know one way to throw a riseball, a cut riseball.

 

[Mark H]

Well good. It's about time someone got a ball on tape curving upward. Find'em and shut up all these non believers Hal. I personally really want it to turn out that the riseball, a riseball, any riseball curves upward. That would put a smile on my face.

 

[golancers]

I'm with Mark H.

C'mon Hal, Let's see a side version tape of a rise ball with the "Flick Finger' rising, not just dropping less than another pitch.

 

[BusterT]

So you have never seen a real one?

The laws of physics are correct. For the cut rise, extremely difficult to get the number of spins per second using ONLY the wrist. Unfortunately, I think that is the only riseball that has ever been put to that test and had those laws of physics applied to it.

Again, this was done by people that only know one way to throw a riseball, a cut riseball.

I've seen many thrown - maybe they weren't really rise balls? I've even offered to video ANY volunteer throwing any flavor of rise and telestrate it in RVP. So far, no takers. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm starting to think we'll see proof of Bigfoot before we see video proof of a rise ball (or whatever you want to call it) actually rising. If we can get video from the surface of Mars, you'd think getting video of a rise wouldn't be THAT hard!