Pitching speeds

[BoardMember]

Speaking of horizontal AND vertical...........As the ball begins to fall it APPEARS to break more........

As the ball approaches the hitter, the hitter loses the ball in about the last 10 ft........Which also causes it to cross the vision path.........

 

[Ken B]

Madsdad,
I'd also throw out that the inconsistencies of younger kids leads to more surprises. Sometimes a kid will just nail perfect spin orientation and RPM and it drops like a rock. A mask, shin guards and stiff-toed shoes...

 

[Madsdad]

Ken,

I'm just confused, and was looking for more clarification. A down pitch has to drop, are Sluggers and BM telling us that the amount is an optical illusion? Or is gravity and spin a bigger part of a drop ball?

 

[BoardMember]

Ken,

I'm just confused, and was looking for more clarification. A down pitch has to drop, are Sluggers and BM telling us that the amount is an optical illusion? Or is gravity and spin a bigger part of a drop ball?

Not what I said at all..........I said the perception of late break has more to do with vision then people think.........Doesn't mean break has nothing to do with spin/velocity/gravity.............

 

[Ken B]

Madsdad,
The debate is questioning whether there is late break, or if the ball somehow progressively changes trajectory. Science is saying that for the most part, from the moment a projectile begins flight, it's path will remain constant. Spin and speed affect the arc of the of the trajectory. The ballistic science is important to understand along with the art of using it to your advantage to maximize the perception of the eyes and brain.

Yes. Spin and speed cause the trajectory to have more arc, but that arc does not magically change along the 40 feet as much the brain thinks it does.

 

[starsnuffer]

Deceleration has some part in this. As the ball nears the batter the speed of the ball will decrease dramatically but the rate of spin will remain nearly constant. This is why the arc is not consistent from the pitcher to the batter.

-W

 

[sluggers]

The "late break" is the result of a pitcher doing many little things correctly like hiding the ball, avoiding patterns in pitch selection, and keeping the same motion from pitch to pitch.

(1) The ball breaks based upon spin, spin orientation (6 to 12, or 12 to 6) and speed. The flight path for a drop does not radically change from pitcher to pitcher.
(2) If the batter believes, either intellectually (i.e., thinking to herself, "she will throw a curve this time") or perceptually (e.g., a slight difference in the motion of the batter, a slight hand movement, the release point) and her belief is wrong, she will see a "late break".

My own experience: Most pitchers throw a drop and it initially looks like a knee high fast ball. My DD's drop looked like a belt high fastball, so more batters were "fooled" by it. An untrained batter would swear DD#1 had a late break because they had never seen a pitcher start a drop ball so high in the strike zone. On the other hand, a trained batter familiar with my DD's pitching could say, "Ok, if I see a belt high fastball, I'm going to look further down in the zone."

Can part of the illusion come from the delivery?

Part of the "late break" is a result of the pitcher fooling the batter. If the batter figures out the pitch, then (surprise!) the ball doesn't break late. Look at Chamberlain's HR in the CWS--did Renfro throw a bad pitch right down the middle of the plate? No...it was a really good pitch. But, Chamberlain anticipated the location and crushed it.

Any hints as to what the pitcher is throwing help a batter anticipate the pitch.

Yes. Spin and speed cause the trajectory to have more arc, but that arc does not magically change along the 40 feet as much the brain thinks it does.

Exactly.

 

[Ken B]

Here's a link that addresses drag:
http://home2.fvcc.edu/~dhicketh/DiffEqns/Spring11projects/Brett_Burglund_Ryan_Street/Diff%20Q/pdfscreen/projectoutline.pdf

 

[Madsdad]

Thanks Guys,

That helped clear things up. Could you send this to Michelle Smith

 

[Ken B]

Contact Information for Michele Smith Fastpitch, Inc.