- May 17, 2012
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Generic term I've heard used since the pitching distance was moved from 40" to 43" feet to describe how it allowed the US pitchers who relied on movement pitches more time for their pitches to do what they do. I used "break" as a single word to avoid having to explain:
a) before the forward spin on a dropball causes gravity to affect the ball more than the brain estimates the trajectory of the ball when the brain determines which bat path to use to hit the ball.
b) before a riseball's backspin has time for gravity to start having the ball dropping slower than the brain estimates the trajectory of the ball, causing the swing to use the wrong bat path to hit the ball.
c) I've never learned how to throw a curve ball, but it is a pitch that the natural path of the ball is to cross the front corner of the plate, so a batter neutral to back in the box cannot make good contact on the ball when it reaches even to where their bat path is as a pitch off the plate. Someone up in the box can hit it where it crosses the corner of the plate, or foul it off if there are 2 strikes. I don't like calling curve balls because it does not have as much up or down movement to trick the brain if the batter is up in the box.
d) Similar description of how the movement of a change up tricks the brain.
That the batter sees the ball from the pitchers hand until it hits the bat is a myth. According to the article linked below from Sports Illustrated, the baseball batter doesn't see the ball the last 8" to 15" feet. The batter makes an educated guess on the path of the ball from what they see and projects the path of the ball to hit it. That is why Jennie Finch and Paige Parker can strike out baseball players. Their brain doesn't have the database to estimate the path of the ball. Give them a day or two of hitting practice against softball pitchers they will hit, but may mess up their baseball swings some. That is why a submariner pitcher is effective at least once through the order in MLB. I've seen 11 year old girl softball pitchers scare over-confident 11 year boy baseball players in the batter's box. It is why girls switching from baseball to softball have an adjustment period before they are good hitters. Why most batters have an adjustment period when they move from the 11' ball to the 12' ball. They need to add more/different information to the database.
YOU CAN'T KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE BALL
A Hundred years or so ago an early baseball coach waggled an admonishing finger at a chin-whiskered rookie and said, "The first rule in hitting a baseball is:vault.si.com
Pitcher on DD's team last year ruined her curve ball near the end of the summer because she had been doing strength and conditioning work during the summer and was throwing the ball harder, causing the curveball to miss the front corner of the plate by ~2 inches.
I am an engineer, been on this board for over 11 years, started coaching in 2005, umpiring around 2010. I've stayed at the same hotel as Rick Pauly, Bill @Hillhouse, Brandon Carr, Mike Mulhleisen, Doug Romrell, @Ken Krause, Chris Delorit, Dave Edwards, Jamie Carr, James Clark, and Rich Balswick-- plus I bought the t-shirt to prove it! Do you think I'm making things up? .
Pitching is the art of deception and disrupting timing. Ideally a pitch looks the same from hand separation, going through the same window in space, until roughly halfway between the pitcher and home, before the spin on the ball caused by the release out of the pitchers hand takes over to move the ball the way that spin does. A good hitter recognizes spins out of the hand, tells the pitcher has, makes educated guesses on what pitch the pitcher will pitch in that situation, and tries to recognize pitch call patterns of the other team.
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Case in point, in the game I umpired this evening the good hitters could hit the pitcher throwing 47ish without a lot of spin. The pitcher throwing 43ish with more spin on the ball won the game. It's why as an umpire a fair amount of the time I know if a pitch will be a strike with a high rate of success when it is 10 to 15 feet from the pitcher's hand.
That's great, and I stayed at a Holiday Inn last night...
It's a simple question...can you explain this in detail: "My DD is neutral to up in the box to decide whether to hit the ball before it breaks."
I would also encourage you to update your visual hitting research. There has been clarity since the 1954 Sports Illustrated article.