Have you ever wondered whether or not a curveball is good to throw. I've played baseball for many years now and my coaches always said "Don't throw curveballs." As the years progressed more and more kids on different teams started to throw curveballs. I want to find out the science and physics of the curveball, the effects on the arm from a curveball, and if curveballs can even help your pitching. If I would want to throw curveballs some day I should find this out. Are curveballs good to throw? We need to know about how a curveball actually moves before we can learn about its effects on the arm. The movement of a curveball is based off of these two theories: the Bernoulli principle and the Magnus effect. The Bernoulli principle is where a spinning ball creates a slower airspeed over the ball and a faster airspeed on the bottom. This creates a difference of pressures from top to bottom where the high pressure on top flows towards the low pressure on the bottom …show more content…
In 1864, William Arthur "Candy" Cummings developed the curveball while studying at Falley Seminary. Cummings made a career out the curveball, and he ended up being inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame (Candy). In the 2011 MLB season, 1,749 home runs were hit off of fastballs by right handed batters. Also the right handed batters swung and missed at 16,622 fastballs. The right handed batters versus fastballs were 9.5 times more likely to swing and miss against fastballs (Karakolis). Also in the 2011 MLB season, 178 home runs were hit off of curveballs by right handed batters. They swung and missed at 3,532 curveballs. The right handed batters versus the curveballs were 19.8 times more likely to swing and miss against curveballs (Karakolis). From this we can tell how the curveball played a substantial role in baseball, and the curveball helped pitchers against the
Simply stated, sabermetrics uses statistical analysis to analyze baseball records to determine player performance. Bill James himself coined the term sabermetrics to honor SABR, the Society for American Baseball Research (Jaffe). SABR was formed on August 10, 1971 at the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library. The 16 founding members who met in the Baseball Hall of Fame library on August 10 defined the following objectives: To foster the study of baseball as a significant American social and athletic institution, to establish an accurate account of baseball through the years, to facilitate the dissemination of baseball research information, to stimulate the best interests of baseball as our national pastime, and to cooperate in
With that ball pitchers were allowed to scuff, cut, and spit on it, affectively being able to make the ball “dance” and harder to hit. People put the end of the “dead ball” era on the 1919 season when Babe Ruth hit an unheard of 29 homeruns. People began to pack the stands to see the long ball, so owners decreased the dimensions of the fields thus increasing the odds of someone hitting a homerun. They also added rules to the pitchers against scuffing and cutting, and the balls were switched out more frequently too.
Many baseball players like to know how well they bat; they usually look at their batting average difference between right-handed and left-handed pitchers.
For Newton's first law of motion which states that "every object remains at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless compelled to change its state by the action of an external force" is seen in both pitching and hitting. When the game is on going pitchers wait for a signal from the catcher before throwing. While they are waiting they hold the baseball in their glove or hand before throwing. Once they receive the signal they windup their arm and send the ball into motion down to home base. Pitchers uses Newton's first law of motion in order to throw fastballs, sliders, and curve balls. When you are up at bat you wait until the pitcher sets the ball in motion. Once the ball is in motion the hitter sets the bat in motion by swinging at the
Besides the velocity of the ball coming off of the bat there is also the reaction time to look at. “Baseball Rules Committee believe that a collegiate pitcher needs approximately .4 seconds to react and move to avoid being struck…a pitcher is between 51 and 52 feet away from the point of impact between the bat and ball at the time of impact” (3). Dempsey also states that “at 94 mph the ball will travel 52 feet in approximately .371 seconds… with high power aluminum bats speeds well in excess of 100 mph the ball will
When baseball first started, the scores would be very low because no one knew how important the mechanics of the baseball swing were. This period of
The start of the game of baseball is unknown, but some people believe they know when it started. The game of baseball believes to start in England. The start of baseball was around 1760, the game was called Rounder. Rounder had the same rules as baseball today, but it had its difference. The biggest difference was that a fielder had to throw the ball at the runner to get them out. The game changed in 1845. A group of people got together to talk about the game. They wanted to make the game safer. They changed the rules of the fielder. He would not throw at the baserunner anymore; they must tag the baserunner with the ball. The equipment changed as well when they made the rule change. They started to use a harder ball.
After having gained all the materials needed and having the proper instruction, you can now begin learning to throw different pitches. However, you must first know what each pitch does, what the pitch is used to do, and how the pitch is most effective for you. The three main pitches are the fastball, change-up, and curveball. To start, the fastball is a pitch that has the most speed out of any other pitch. While the pitch is called a fastball, there are two different types of fastballs: the two-seam and the four-seam. The two-seam fastball is relatively similar to the four-seam, however the two-seam will move into a right handed batter and away from a left handed batter. The fastball is used to get a strike on the batter, set the batter nup for an offspeed pitch, and often, it is used after an offspeed pitch to disrupt the hitter’s timing. Now, the curveball is often the pitch with the lowest velocity. A curveball also has the most movement among all pitches.
It is extremely difficult to maintain arm health for a full season. Because of the increased average velocity and innings thrown throughout pitchers in the major leagues, a higher percentage of pitchers have encountered injuries in the elbow and UCL reconstruction is necessary to continue their baseball career. Tearing of the Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL) is a very severe injury and requires surgery or reconstruction of the ligament in order to throw again.The recovery process is long and grueling and can have an effect on the mental aspect of throwing a baseball with intent or maximum effort. In “ Biomechanical Performance of Baseball Pitchers with a History of Ulnar Collateral Ligament Reconstruction” Fleisig, Laughlin, Aune, and colleagues claim that this tentative attribute inhibits biomechanics of throwing the baseball such as stride length, tilt of pitch, velocity, and noticeably different shoulder and elbow mechanics (Fleisig, Laughlin, Aune, et. al., 2015, page 1045). However, these Orthopedic Surgeons and Baseball Medical Officials performed a study that demonstrated that there was no significant difference in the biomechanics of pitchers with reconstructive surgery and those without it. Being able to return to an equal or higher level of play after surgery and rehabilitation is possible and players are not at a
Baseballs are hit into the outfield for base hits and extra base hits on a regular basis and the need for proper mechanics to accurately
Baseball throwing is not as simple as we all think it is. It involves the movement of our entire shoulder and arms, elbow and wrist. Thus, it is important that your exercise program will focus on these areas to gradually
Many give credit to Abner Doubleday and his contribution to the game as the father of baseball. But many discredit Doubleday of his work and say that he didn’t invent the game. But what most people don’t know is that Doubleday actually made the rules to the game we know as baseball. According to the baseball of fame Abner
is physical). What caused the arm to throw the baseball? The muscles in the arm
The authors conducted this study to see how and when this ability in humans evolved by studying the mechanics used in throwing. They compared the mechanics of throwing of humans to that of chimpanzees. The authors said that previous studies found that the internal rotator muscles are responsible fort the power of the human throw. The investigators hypothesize that the elastic energy storage is the important source for this power. They also stated that other features of the human shoulder are important in storing this energy and
Aside from being one of the most accessible (and best!) sports out there, many aspects of bowling can be expressed with physics. Achieving maximum power, throwing a hook ball, and getting good pin action can all be broken down into physics issues and represented with equations. I will cover four aspects of bowling that can be explained with physics terms and show you how to use this knowledge to optimize your game.