dropball@ 35 ft?

[DOG310]

10 and unders are the only age group I am aware of that pitchs from 35' any longer. With a lot of 10u's, the ball will drop due to gravity and lack of speed regardless of spin.

We call that the "Exxon dropball" cuz it just ran out of gas!

 

[stephanie]

Really, a straight line right to the mitt at 10U. She must be incredible, because a ball thrown at 60 MPH has an arc of something like 8 inches. I can only imagine how fast a ball must be going for it go straight.

Its hard to really judge from the catchers position how much the ball is arcing, because the mind does the calculation and your hand puts the mitt where it needs to be without conscious thought. So it seems as if the ball is going flatter then it is.

Sarcastic much?
Jeeze, you people need to lighten up...

 

[EP Dad]

I just wish my 12 year old was allowed to throw a drop ball. Good for this 10U player to be able to experiment and have some fun.

 

[qwikvr6gti]

[video]http://youtu.be/tAtNiH9KG90[/video]

Watch this 9 year old move the ball from 35 feet.

Non sense!

 

[fastpitch91]

Geez....have to pull out the old physics books.

Assuming that DD throws 50 mph, it takes the ball about .47 seconds from her hand to the plate. If DD throws the ball perfectly horizontally, the ball will drop about 3.5 feet over the 35 feet distance. In order for her to throw a fastball for a strike, she will have to throw the ball at a slight upward angle of around 5 degrees.

yea for the engineer nerds! few peopel realize s sluggers so eloquently and correctly noted... if you pitch at 100mph and release perfect level the ball will drop about 20 inches. the amoutn it drops is simply a factor of time and gravity and due to gravity every pitch has some sort of parabolic shape to it............

so that level fastball actually starts upward ! its also the root of the "rise balls cant exist " routine becasue no amount of spin gnereated movment can offset gravity. you need a slight upward velocity vector to keep the ball level or not falling with gravity plus the spin to make it break up. physics always wins.............

 

[fastpitch91]

and i have a 10 yr odl htat i taught a roller drop

she is extrmely accomplished pitcher with great fastball and change. so she learned a drop from 35. could cross a 16 inch high string 10 feet in front of plate and land at reach of plate. not many 10Us gonna hit that one far!

dont know if its spin or gravity or what but knees to floor in 10 feet is going to be a tough ball to hit.

 

[stephanie]

See, I believe you understand Physics, because you used the term "vector."

 

[gvm]

i understand every pitch has an arc. and she does practice with the rope 10 ft away from the plate. sometimes it lands ON the plate sometimes it lands in the glove or not? it's just that the prez in our league is very arrogant and has no problem saying something sarcastic to a ten year old girl? so when he told our coach there's no such thing as a dropball at 35ft? i turned to you for answers. because you all have come though many times for us before. but like i told dd's coach "the ball doesn't have to drop on the plate"? it just has to drop under the bat? but i do realize it's probably a better pitch at 40 and 43?

 

[NVfishing]

I'm seeing some movement in my DD's pitches from 30 ft. Depending on how the ball is coming off her fingers. She had one break to the outside of the plate the other night while I was catching her. Some seemed like they were on a rope and some had a little drop when spinning 12-6.

 

[SoCalSoftballdad]

there's no gravity or lack of speed here? she's thrown with hillhouse 3 times and he said" she's already throwing a drop, but she doesn't realize how she doing it" and then he took care of that! and now this coach says there's no such thing at 35?

Who cares what this coach says. If she is getting good 12-6 spin and the pitch is effective to get most batters out, does it really matter if its technically a "drop ball" or a "fastball". Continue to work on the spin using proper mechanics and work in the change-up to keep the batter guessing. Good pitching beats good hitting, especially at this age and distance.