Which one would go farther?

[Stever]

Right, on one test I think I read 1.2ms as well.

Is it safe to say the vibration travels from barrel to handle twice as fast as the time it takes the ball to leave the bat?

If this is true, then the Protractors been lying to me...if this is true, then it supports what I have been saying. I'm not much into the science, so it is painful for me to watch the links that have been posted, I have tried...but when I see the guys in these videos never played a sport in their entire life, then they really really don't know.

And smddad, I am tired of trying to kill your bug

 

[Stever]

Stever, since you've played the game, I'm sure you can confirm that on the balls that you've hit the best that the bat-ball impact isn't even noticeable. This is what Tewks calls a "blackout swing". I've experienced some of these blackouts, but unfortunately not as many as the other kind. These blackout swings should raise a red flag on the notion that the hands or any other part of the body play a role at impact.

I can relate to this Green. Not all HR's feel like that, but some it hardly feels like you touched it at all. But what if the hands/body did play a major roll, along with hitting the sweet spot, and the lack of feeling is contributed to that all the energy was transferred to the ball and none was lost in the bat. I don't recall a slower swing or less powerful swing claiming to feel the blackout, is this because the bat absorbed some of the energy?

 

[JJsqueeze]

I'm not much into the science, so it is painful for me to watch the links that have been posted, I have tried...but when I see the guys in these videos never played a sport in their entire life, then they really really don't know.

At what level do you have to play to pass your BS experience threshold? Using your logic, couldn't I just as simply say that since you have never hit an MLB home run then you don't know squat?

Your mindset is so limiting and narrow minded, it discounts whole swaths of people that have contributed to the game in various ways. I would actually flip the script and say that if you have no interest in science or background in it then you should not comment on a collision problem because it is ALL Physics. Nothing about the collision is baseball experience at all. So you handle getting the ball to the bat and then let the smart folks take over for a couple of milliseconds, and then you can come back in and deal with follow through and running to first base. But you, by virtue of your lack of a science background, can never understand what is going on during the collision.

 

[smddad]

And smddad, I am tired of trying to kill your bug

I've swiped at it a time or two.

As for the physics; I was an athlete, a college physics major (but dropped out) and now I coach. I love physics and ate the information in that video up. To me, it makes perfect sense and I can relate it back to my days of playing baseball, even though I didn't play at a high level. I also understand that generally, bigger and stronger kids are able to get more bat speed. They can swing heavier bats faster, which creates more inertia that is transferred to the ball. This equates to a further hit ball. However, many of us have seen smaller kids who can swing a bat and also hit the dingers. Whether we understand it or not, the physics is true.

 

[Stever]

At what level do you have to play to pass your BS experience threshold? Using your logic, couldn't I just as simply say that since you have never hit an MLB home run then you don't know squat?

Your mindset is so limiting and narrow minded, it discounts whole swaths of people that have contributed to the game in various ways. I would actually flip the script and say that if you have no interest in science or background in it then you should not comment on a collision problem because it is ALL Physics. Nothing about the collision is baseball experience at all. So you handle getting the ball to the bat and then let the smart folks take over for a couple of milliseconds, and then you can come back in and deal with follow through and running to first base. But you, by virtue of your lack of a science background, can never understand what is going on during the collision.

You my friend are the ones I am talking about, you will never never really know. I don't need a science background to know what makes the ball fly far, something you never experienced. I am trying to use your terms so you might learn something, but your hopeless. Why don't you go see Stith, Rico, Tyson, Hanning, Denio, Myers, Richardson, and their are more good ones around you, so they can tell you are full of BS. Your right, I have never hit a HR in a MLB game, but I have hit 100's in a MLB park.

 

[JJsqueeze]

You my friend are the ones I am talking about, you will never never really know. I don't need a science background to know what makes the ball fly far, something you never experienced. I am trying to use your terms so you might learn something, but your hopeless. Why don't you go see Stith, Rico, Tyson, Hanning, Denio, Myers, Richardson, and their are more good ones around you, so they can tell you are full of BS. Your right, I have never hit a HR in a MLB game, but I have hit 100's in a MLB park.

Never really know what? That stronger girls tend to hit the ball farther? I had sussed that out a long time ago. And that is really all you are saying...that the stronger girl will hit the ball farther, do you actually think this basic observation is new knowledge and people are hitting their foreheads and going "of course, why didn't I see it? The big girls hit harder...Stever is a friggin genius!!" So you keep on believing that the big girls are muscling through contact, and I will keep on believing that they get the bat going faster in the end it really doesn't matter because everyone is trying to get the kids stronger anyway so the results will show up with the greater strength. The difference is that while you spend time on teaching your hitters to muscle through, the smart coaches are teaching mechanics to improve bat speed.

 

[BadMonkeys]

One more question. How long does the ball contact the sweetspot for? I think I read 2 ms.
I saw in the video that the vibration takes 0.6ms to go from barrel to handle.

The ESPN video showed the pitch speed at 82 mph, the bat speed at 69 mph, the collision time at .0011 seconds and the vibration time from barrel to handle and back at .0012 seconds. I haven't watched Dr. Nathan's video in this thread yet if that's what you were referring to.

 

[slingnit]

I'm trying to figure out how the "protractor guys" are getting a bad rap? From the way athletes train to the equipment they use the protractor guys are on the ground floor of development. While Lenny Dykstra was a pretty good player in his day I bet he was not the brainchild who invented the composite bat. I'm not the smartest guy in the world either but I realize laws of physics are laws because if you do something the EXACT same way every time you will get the same results. Saying I have 2 girls with same bat speed and one hits it farther is not EXACTLY the same. Where, when, what trajectory, what was the revs on the ball, which direction was the ball moving..... all those things make a difference in how far the ball goes of the bat. There are reasons that coaches and trainers are using these all scientific thingies that measure bat speed, revolutions, pressure points, ball speed,.... Because they trust what the guys in lab coats are telling them. Some of the reasoning behind these guys sound like Joe Dirt's daddy. How's a posi trac rearend work? It just does! What some are arguing makes as much sense as saying a big girl and a small girl both throw 65 but the big girl throws a harder 65 because she's puts more weight behind it. I'm not a protractor guy, i actually work for a living. But I'm smart enough to know that if you take the embankment out of a NASCAR track and maintain the same speed the cars would go flying off the track, I'm not so sure every NASCAR driver could tell you that.

 

[ian]

If this is true, then the Protractors been lying to me...if this is true, then it supports what I have been saying. I'm not much into the science, so it is painful for me to watch the links that have been posted, I have tried...but when I see the guys in these videos never played a sport in their entire life, then they really really don't know.

And smddad, I am tired of trying to kill your bug

The protractors taught me what time of collision was and taught me how long it takes a super ball to bounce off a beam. Got no beef with the protractors, I respect them. Now the wannabe protractors... I cant say anything nice so...

You might like the Nathan Crisco write up on baseball bat performance (JJ might have the link). On the bottom of page 8 he referances a study done by Adair, in which they talk about the arm/bat system and how the arms factor into the mass of the swing. maybe big arms do matter. I'll take popeye over olive oyl! He does say that more studies need to be done with the biomechanics and physics of the baseball swing.

 

[ian]

The ESPN video showed the pitch speed at 82 mph, the bat speed at 69 mph, the collision time at .0011 seconds and the vibration time from barrel to handle and back at .0012 seconds. I haven't watched Dr. Nathan's video in this thread yet if that's what you were referring to.

Bat and ball speed are important factors. I bet ESPN hired good physicists to perform their tests. I have no problem going with their data. When it hits the sweet spot its gone! Did ESPN do any tests that didnt have the ball hitting the sweet spot?