Hitting with backspin- Fact or Fiction?

[Sweet Lou]

The human eye cannot see the spin of the ball off the bat.

You also can't see the spin of the ball in most high speed footage from major league baseball games.

You're just assuming that what's going on is backspin, and that hitters should therefore strive to create backspin, when in truth you have no basis for your belief other than that's what everyone believes.

I'm sorry, but that's not how progress is made.

I was an outfielder for most of my baseball career. You can see the direction of the spin just fine and feel it hitting the leather of the glove and I can tell you the ones that carried the best nearly universally had backspin.

And I don't think hitters should "strive for backspin". The better HR hitters in MLB will hit a HR roughly every 20 to 25 ABs (assuming 30 HRs per 650 ABS) so trying to generate backspin on an event that takes place roughly 5% of the time even for the best HR hitters doesn't seem like a good idea. Again I think that backspin is naturally generated by a well struck ball hit a fraction of an inch below the center of the baseball. It isn't that you are trying to have a swing that generates backspin, rather it is a by product of a well struck long flyball.

I agree that you should "aim for the center of the ball." But no one can always hit the center. If they could you would see MLB hitters hitting line drives 90% of the time and producing BAs in .600s. That's just not realistic. The best MLB hitters hit line drives at a rate of about 20 to 25%.

 

[Sweet Lou]

What's your basis for this belief?

I just showed two home runs that were hit flat, and those were two of the few clips where I could see the spin of the ball.

Several decades of playing ball?

Sure you can find plenty of examles of top-spin HR, no spin HRs, side spin HRs but the vast majority are still going to have backspin.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

This was a HR ...

 

[Chris O'Leary]

Can anyone make out the spin on this ball?

I know I can't.

 

[lhowser]

Based on this video you would probably hope to hit it pretty close to across the center

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/pQ9NiazPYI8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Chris O'Leary]

Sure you can find plenty of examles of top-spin HR, no spin HRs, side spin HRs but the vast majority are still going to have backspin.

I think I can make out the spin on three clips so far.

Of those three, two were knuckleballs and I believe that this one was hit mostly flat but with just a tick of topspin (which is probably why it was a squeaker).

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

HR swing .....

 

[Sweet Lou]

Based on this video you would probably hope to hit it pretty close to across the center

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/pQ9NiazPYI8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

On a totally unrelated tangent, the video of what happens when you drop a bowling ball on a bouncy ball is funny but I kept expecting the bowling ball to go through that computer screen in the background which would have made it hysterical.

 

[Mr T]

HR swing .....

Why the re-post?

 

[Mr T]

From physics of baseball...

Balls hit for distance usually have appreciable backspin. About 2000 rpm.

Spin generates force perpendicular to motion, in this case basically upward, creating lift.

Lift means reduction in the degree of optimum hit angle. I.e. instead of hitting ball 45', 35' is more optimum.

Lift means ball in the air longer, which means more distance for the type of hits we are talking about.

However, there is a countering force, increased drag on ball due to spin.

Author calculates ball hit 385 without backspin, hit at 35' angle, would travel roughly 400' with 2000rpm backspin.

Author gives caveat that neither backspin or drag effect is precisely known, so his calculations aren't exact, but within a small error.

Later in the book the author states that backspin add distance to long drives at the rate of about 1 foot per 100 rmp of backspin.

A critical point is then made: according to the author, the batter has little control over the spin imparted on the ball (do we believe this?) He says that generally any great swing, e.g. a fast swing where the ball is struck on the good part of the bat, propelling the ball upward at a desirable angle, will likely generate the typical beneficial backspin.

A final note is that author claims that batters who attempt to groove their bat surface in order to generate more bat spin are in reality likely doing little