Keep Your Eye On The Ball... If You Can

It is impossible for even the best professional baseball hitters to keep their eye on the ball from the time it is released from the pitcher's hand until the point of contact. The best hitters are able to track the ball, that is keep the ball centered on his or her fovea (responsible for visual detail and acuity), up until the last 6 ft of flight [1]. This phenomenon is due to the fact that humans are only capable of tracking objects moving at angular velocities of up to 90 degrees per second [1]. If a baseball is thrown at 100 mph, one would require head and eye movements exceeding 1000 degrees per second as it crosses the plate. Although the ball travels at a constant linear velocity (100 mph) from the pitcher to home plate, the angular velocity with respect to the batter increases drastically. The angular velocity is the rate of change of the angle θ as shown in Figure 1 [1]. To illustrate this point, one finds it easy to track an airplane flying at 5000 ft, but would find it nearly impossible to track if it were flying at 100 ft overhead. Both planes travel at the same linear velocity, but different angular velocities with respect to the observer.


Figure 1. The horizontal angle of the ball defined as θ, is the angle between the line of sight pointing at the ball and the line perpendicular to the batter's body. This angle is about 0 degrees when the pitcher releases the ball, and increases to 90 degrees when the ball crosses the plate.

Remarkably, even though hitters essentially cannot see the ball in its last 6 ft before contact, they are still able to make contact most of the time. A major contributing factor to the likelihood of hitting the ball has to do with how well the hitter can predict where the ball will end up when she wants to hit it. This "prediction" is in direct relation to the 5 questions a hitter must answer. If a softball pitcher were to be pitching from 43 ft, and releases the ball at 65 mph 6 ft in front of the mound, the hitter would only have 31 ft or 0.33 sec to get her bat to the right point of contact. Also, taking into account the time for the hitter to swing, she will start her swing approximately when the ball is 9.25 ft in front of the plate. So, the hitter actually has 27.75 ft or 0.29 sec to decide whether to swing or not. This is not a lot of time to answer 5 questions, therefore it is imperative that a hitter must focus on the pitcher's release point (hip) to give herself the most time to see the ball.

Hitting a baseball is one of the hardest things to do in sport. Not just anyone can pick up a bat and hit live pitching. As hitters, we are trained to swing at strikes and let go balls without thinking. Also, hitters subconsciously create mental pictures in their mind of where the ball will end up, and then gets her bat to that spot to hit it. Hitters create the mental pictures by answering the 5 questions.

This mental picture comes from the experience of hitting soft toss, full pitching and pitching machines. When it comes to the game, most hitters can make contact and be successful by swinging just like they do in practice. However, the best hitters are able to read spin, and therefore adjust their mental picture of where the ball will end up. Those who are unable to recognize spin are more likely to be fooled by pitches that have more movement than what they've seen in practice.

Let's examine what makes different pitchers successful. First, pitchers who throw fast are more likely to strike out hitters than those who throw slow. The simple fact that the ball takes less time to get to the plate, gives the hitter less time to react. And according to golden rule number 2, the faster the ball is traveling the less it drops, which also makes it more difficult to hit. This explains why most fast pitchers are also riseball pitchers, as they use their speed and spin to minimize the time the hitter has to react.

Note: When facing a fast riseball pitcher, hitters must swing higher than they think. That is, swing to a spot where the ball will be, instead of where the ball actually is (NOT EASY!). Hitting a riseball is sometimes a difficult concept to grasp, as the hitter's brain must make an adjustment that goes against the instinctual hand-eye coordination. Going back to spin recognition, the earlier the hitter can recognize the spin, the earlier she can make the adjustment and overcome gravity to get her hands above the ball to make contact. Practice, practice, practice!

On the opposite end of the pitching spectrum, a pitcher who throws a slow change up that drops more than a faster pitch will have hitters swinging over the ball. While change up and dropball pitchers might not strike as many hitters out as fast riseball pitchers, they can be equally as effective. Although hitters are more likely to make contact, they may not be able to get the bat head low enough to hit drop balls for line drives, or wait long enough to hit the change up.

Generally it is harder for hitters to hit higher pitches than lower pitches because a hitter has to hit the ball further out front of her stance. From a low outside pitch to a high inside pitch a player has to hit the ball about 2.5-3 feet closer to the pitcher (more in the front of their stance) which would mean the high inside pitch would appear to be about 8-11 mph faster (reaction time) even if they were the same speed on the radar gun.

References

[1] R.G. Watts and A.T. Bahill. Keep Your Eye on the Ball: The Science and Folklore of Baseball. New York: W.H. Freeman and Company, 1990, pp. 151-175

The 3 Elements to Hitting

The three basic elements to hitting are (in the order of increasing importance): Mechanics, hand-eye coordination, and mental makeup, where the mental makeup of a hitter is divided into mental preparation, and focus. No matter what the hitter, the latter element will always override the previous, and will determine how hitters perform in different situations. There is a large spectrum of hitters out there, and each one is strong or weak for different reasons, and in different situations. Situations range from hitting off a tee, to a pitching machine, in an exhibition game, and in a tight championship game, with each being effected by the 3 elements of hitting.

Mechanics are what a player works on the most, taking many hours in the batting cage to work on creating the most efficient swing. Unfortunately, when it comes to game time and live pitching, mechanics is the least contributing factor when it comes to making contact. We try to train ourselves to take the same swing from practice into the game, but it's not very often we can replicate it perfectly since it is our natural reaction in a stressful situation is to simply make contact. Stress is any situation where the chance of success is reduced and therefore giving the player the opportunity to perform less than perfect. Perfect is a relative term that is in the eyes of the player, and effects the element of mental makeup which will be discussed later.

We rely more on hand-eye coordination when presented with higher stressed situations (aka games). This is why someone who has poor mechanics can still be a good hitter if she has great hand-eye coordination. This is especially true if she is big and strong, because whenever she makes contact she is still able to hit it hard enough to hit it through the infield to produce scored hits. However, this does not make her the most efficient hitter. Therefore, when faced against pitchers who cannot exploit her weaknesses, she is very effective, but as pitchers get better her ability to hit for average drops more rapidly than the hitter with a more efficient swing, or better mental makeup.

As mentioned earlier, the mental makeup of a hitter is broken up into two parts, mental preparation and focus. The mental preparation is related to how a hitter approaches her at bats. Being prepared includes scouting the pitcher, and knowing what her tendencies are. A hitter should always be prepared, and have a plan before each at bat. Again, this preparation will ALWAYS override both the hitter's hand-eye coordination and swing mechanics. The art of hitting is not how well one swings, it is knowing WHEN to swing. Refer back to the "Hitting vs Pitching" post. The mental focus of a hitter is the ability to block out extraneous things that would distract her from the game. Examples of distractions include fans, school, weather delays, or conflicts with friends or teammates. The better one can block out distractions, the more focused the player is on the game and on his or her performance. Many books and professions are devoted to teaching athletes better mental focus, but it should be noted that if one puts too much effort into blocking out extra emotions or thoughts, this effort can be a distraction in itself. Those who perform well at the highest level are able to manage their emotions, and maintain a high level of focus.

Hitting is a balance of physical and mental skill, but without the mental skill a great swing is just a swing without a purpose. A less efficient swing can become more effective if the hitter understands how and when to use it. In other words, using her swing to her own strengths. For example, if a hitter has a swing that is good at hitting low pitches, but bad at hitting high pitches, she would be most successful if she only swung at low pitches. She would be very unsuccessful if she was unaware of her strength and only swung at high pitches, or if she were to face a pitcher who only throws high. This is a simple concept that often eludes a hitter during a bout of a dreaded slump. Therefore, hitters should assess an unsuccessful at-bat with the question, "Did I swing at the right pitch?" before, "What went wrong with my swing?" Most likely she will come out with a more definitive answer, and a plan for next time to improve.

One could argue that baseball/softball is the hardest sport out there due to the high level of skill and mental ability that is required. After all, the best hitters only get a hit in 3 out of 10 at bats, and on average a player will swing 39 times in 10 at bats therefore a swinging success rate of 1 out of 13 swings. This is quite a significant rate of failure, which can go as far as deter a player from the sport. Those who choose to play this sport know that one can never be perfect, so learning how to deal with failure is very important in learning how to improve and be successful.

Stepping It Up

A hitter's step is simply something that a hitter does before her swing. It is something that starts the hitter's momentum, like a running start to a sprint instead of a static start from the blocks. While some hitters prefer a no step swing, it is not recommended for smaller hitters with less strength since they need to have the extra momentum to keep their hands from dropping. Referring back to the "Throwing Bows" post, a hitter's hands will drop if they need to help get her hips around faster to hit the ball hard. A hitter who is bigger and has more upper body strength does not need to use their hips as much to hit the ball hard, and therefore will be less likely to drop their hands. While using your hips is the most efficient way to hit, it is an unfortunate fact that stronger hitters don't use their hips as much because they are successful by simply using their arms. It's not saying that bigger hitters can't benefit from a good step however, details will be described in the following.

A good step can be separated into 2 phases: Striding forward towards the pitcher, and the heel drop. Striding forward is automated, it happens as a reaction to the pitcher releasing the ball. The heel drop is the trigger for the swing, when the front heel drops the back heel comes up which is the start to "elvis" (refer back to the "Squishing Bugs" post) and in turn the start of the swing. Remember, a swing is a flow chart, and it is very important to have a good step in order to stay on the most efficient path. Therefore, a good step should have 3 characteristics: 1) The stride must be closed 2) The front foot should land on the inside of the big toe, with heel up 3) When striding forward the front foot should be lifted a few inches off the ground, avoiding kicking front knee up too high.

Although not completely necessary, it is a good idea for a hitter to start with an open stance. With an open stance, she is able to open her shoulders and turn her head so that both eyes are able to look at the pitcher. Compared to a closed stance, an open stance is far more comfortable, as the hitter does not have to strain her neck and eyes to see the pitcher. Figure 1 shows the start of a good open stance and closed stride towards the plate. Striding closed about 6 inches past the toes of the hitter's back foot towards the plate provides a wall, or base for her back leg to drive against and decelerate rotation. Without this wall, the hitter is more likely to fall off balance over the plate.

Figure 1: Open stance and closed step for left handed hitter. Click to enlarge image.

The second characteristic of a good step is landing on the inside of your big toe creating an approximate 45 degree angle with your foot, also shown in Figure 1. It is also very important the hitter's hands load back while stepping forward as shown in Figures 2 and 3, as well as in the video in Figure 4. We'll call this the stretch. Refer back to the “Making Adjustments” post to learn more about loading hands. By having the upper and lower body going in opposite directions, the hitter is in control and is able to freeze in this position. Conversely, if a hitter did not load her hands, and upper and lower body moved in the same direction at the same time, she would create a net momentum towards the pitcher, making it harder to stop. It is very important to be able to stop/pause during our swings because all pitches are not the same speed, and not all pitches are worth swinging at.

Note: The key to hitting a change-up well is the ability to pause and stay on your front toe so the ball can travel far enough into your stance before swinging. Remember golden rule number 1 states that if the ball is low and outside (where most good change-ups should be), the hitter must hit it farther back in her stance aka stay on her toe for the longest time.

Figure 2: Green and blue dots show initial position front foot and hands. Click to enlarge image.

Figure 3: Hitter steps forward landing on the inside of her big toe, hands load back at the same time. Click to enlarge image

Figure 4: The stretch: Loading hands and closed step forward. Note that the hitter lands on the inside of her big toe.

Lastly, it is important that the hitter's front foot not get too high when striding forward. An over-zealous knee kick results in excess downward force from the weight of the hitter's front foot, making it harder to leave his heel up, and making it very difficult to wait for a change up.

Pitching vs Hitting

Pitching and hitting are complete opposites of one other in that their objectives are adverse to each other. Basically, whatever the hitter is trying to do, the pitcher is trying to not let them do that. Consider these examples.

1. Pitchers throw riseballs to get hitters to pop up, and dropballs to get hitters to ground out. Therefore, it is the goal of a hitter to swing higher than normal to hit a riseball, and lower than normal to hit a dropball well. In fact, if a hitter were to over-compensate and hit a riseball on the ground for example, it is likely the pitcher won't throw that pitch for a strike again. If a hitter is able to get her bat over top of a riseball, she will be fully capable of hitting it square, and over the fence.

2. Both pitchers and hitters have bad games. A bad day to a hitter is one that he cannot hit pitches that he normally hits well. Whereas a bad day for a pitcher is one where he has no control over his pitches. He throws pitches that normally paint the corners of the plate either miss the plate completely, or worse, go down the middle. The best pitchers don't have very many bad games, and don't miss over the plate very often. They are able to throw "marginal" strikes which are thrown a ball off the plate, or ones which curve on then off the plate. Their mistakes are usually pitches thrown off the plate, where the hitter can't hit them. Conversely, the best hitters are consistently able to hit these marginal strikes hard, and don't often mishit pitches thrown over the plate.

Note: Most of the hits we see are a result of a poorly thrown pitch, one that is left too far over the plate, and a mistake by the pitcher. Average hitters are able to hit a pitcher's mistake, great hitters are able to hit pitches that are thrown well.

3. Pitchers and hitters both have strengths and weaknesses. A pitcher's best pitch is one that she gets ahead with, it is one she is able to throw for a strike. A pitcher will win the game if her best pitches are thrown well throughout the game and the other team is unable to hit it. The distinct advantage that the pitcher has over the hitter is that she is able to decide which pitch she wants to throw and when. The hitter is therefore in a reactionary role, and must react to whatever the pitcher throws. The way she chooses to react is the art of hitting.

A hitter's weaknesses can be classified into 2 types, physical and mental. Physical weaknesses are often considered to be "holes" in a hitter's swing. Dividing the strike zone into 4 quadrants, inside, outside, high and low, depending on the efficiency of the hitter's swing will cause them to hit pitches thrown in certain quadrants harder than others. Every hitter has strong and weak quadrants, and no hitter hits every pitch well. What separates a great hitter from a good one is the ability to adjust to the pitcher when she is trying to throw to the their weakness.

A hitter's mental weaknesses are related to her physical weakness. A mental weakness is when a hitter doesn't recognize her physical weakness. Again, no hitter can hit every pitch well, therefore it is a poor approach to an at bat to try and hit every strike. Smart hitters only choose to swing at pitches which they know they can hit well, and swing at their weak pitches when they have to. What separates the great hitters is the recognition of their own weaknesses, and the ability to formulate, and execute their plan of only hitting their own good pitches in an at bat. A hitter will be successful if she is able to recognize and/or anticipate when a pitcher is throwing to her strength/weakness, and even more successful when she is able to force the opposing pitcher to throw to her strength. By doing so, the hitter shifts the roles between her and the pitcher, and is now in a less reactionary position. She then only has to react to 1 or 2 pitches, essentially shrinking the strike zone, and the pitcher has lost the advantage of being able to throw whatever she wants.

Note: If you have any ideas on how to force a pitcher to throw a certain way, post a comment!

Throwing "Bows"

Did you ever think that someone's hitting problems could be due to their body shape? Try this test on yourself, straighten your arms out in front of you with your palms facing up as shown in Figures 1 a) and b). Notice how in Figure 1 a) the subject's arms form a straight V shape, while in b) the subject's elbows are more inverted, coming closer together when their arms are straight.

a)

b)

Figure 1: Example of straight elbows a), example of inverted elbows b). Click to enlarge images.

But what does this have to do with hitting? Well, someone having inverted elbows will be more likely to slot their back elbow incorrectly. As your hips start to rotate and your elbow starts to slot, your back elbow should come in close to your body with a small gap between your elbow and torso. From a side view, you should see your hands lead your elbow as shown in Figure 2 a) through f), or the blue dots (hands) are always leading the red dots (elbow).



a)

b)

c)

d)


e)

f)

Figure 2 a) - f): Hitter 1. Frame by frame beginning of swing. Representation of properly slotted elbow, with hands leading elbow. The blue dots mark the hitter's hands and the red dots mark the hitter's elbow. The green dot marks the bat head, and the yellow line marks the height of the bat head. Click to enlarge images.

If you have inverted elbows your elbow is more likely to lead your hands as you slot them, because this position feels more natural. As shown in Figure 3 a) through f), the red dot starts to lead the blue dot as the hitter starts to bring her hands forward.


a)

b)

c)

d)

e)

f)

Figure 3 a) -f): Hitter 2. Frame by frame beginning of swing. Representation of an incorrectly slotted elbow. As the hitter starts her swing, her elbow (red dot) drops in to her side, and leads her hands (blue dot). Green dots mark the bat head and yellow line marks the height of the bat head. Click to enlarge images

There are several ill effects of letting your elbow lead your hands. First and most importantly, it causes your top hand to go away from you over the plate creating a circular swing, also known as casting (refer to older post). Notice in Figure 2 f) how straight Hitter 2's front arm is, resulting from her top hand going away from her body. Also, from what we know about casting, it doesn't allow the hitter to reach forward to the pitcher with their top hand, also known as extension. Instead, the hitter's swing is "cut off," and her top hand rolls over early as shown in Figure 4 a) and b). Notice the yellow line marking the height of the bat head, and how high it comes up upon rolling over. In fact, from one frame to the other, the bat head raised almost 14 inches! Now imagine if a hitter rolled their wrists earlier in their swing, closer to contact, how hard it would be to hit the ball!


a)

b)

Figure 4: Subsequent frames of Hitter 2's swing after contact. Lack of extension due to casting. The red circle in b) shows the top hand rolling over causing the bat head to raise up, marked by the yellow line. Click to enlarge images

Figure 5 a) through c) below show Hitter 1's extension. Due to properly slotting her elbow, her top hand is able to face up and reach toward the pitcher.

a)

b)

c)

Figure 5 a) - c): Hitter 1 frame by frame after contact extension. Notice how the hitter's top hand is facing up in all 3 frames. Click to enlarge images

Also, dropping your elbow into your side, as seen in Figures 3 c) and d), causes to bat head to drop considerably. In fact, comparing Figure 3 c) and d) (Hitter 2) to Figure 2 c) and d) (Hitter 1), the bat head drops approximately 5 inches more in Hitter 2's swing than Hitter 1's. This downward momentum thus makes it harder to hit higher pitches. Since momentum is a vector quantity (mass x velocity), Hitter 2's hands must overcome a greater downward momentum than Hitter 1 in order to adjust to the higher pitch, as shown in the schematic in Figure 6.



Figure 6: Schematic of vector addition of momentum. Properly slotting your elbow causes the bat head to have less momentum in the downward direction, therefore less momentum to overcome to hit the high pitch.

There is also another reason why one would slot their elbow incorrectly, with or without inverted elbows. If a hitter rotates their hips too slow, their upper body naturally wants to help them out in order to be in the right position to hit the ball square. The most efficient way that your arms can move your hips is by dropping down lower, aka dropping your hands and tucking your elbow into your side. The most efficient way to move an object is to apply force closest to the center of mass. By lowering your hands and bringing them closer to your waist, the centripetal force applied during swinging is therefore acting on your center of mass more efficiently. The result is that that hitter has opened her hips, but an incorrectly slotted elbow, back to square one.

So how does one fix this problem? Try taping a football on the inside of your bicep as shown in Figure 7, and swing as normal. The football prevents your elbow from getting too close to your body, and making it harder for your elbow to lead your hands. View the 3 swings in slow motion here, you should be able to see the hitter's hands leading her elbow.


Figure 7: A football taped to a hitter's inner bicep prevents her elbow leading her hands. Click to enlarge image

Slapping

As a left-handed hitter, being able to execute all 3 levels of offense, hitting, slapping and bunting truly makes one an all rounded player and that much harder to defend against. And contrary to popular belief, slapping and bunting aren't exclusive to faster players.

Even having 2 out of the 3, hitting and slapping for example, can cause headaches for the opposing defense, due to the fact they can't play in one spot. Playing a power hitter is easy, back everyone up and expect a deep fly ball. With a power hitter who also slaps, you can't assume a hard hit all the time, you also have to defend a high bouncer, by keeping the infield in. A shallow infield and a regular depth outfield creates a larger space between them, allowing bloopers to fall more often. A shallow infield also makes it easier to hit grounders past the infielders who have less time to react. Probably the most important and valuable aspect of slapping is that it moves the defence and makes them think. Showing slap in early at bats opens up for hits later in the game. Even an unsuccessful slap, makes the defense aware of it and they will position themselves accordingly for next time. It sure makes life easy when a defense is expecting you to slap when your plan is really to hit instead.

As mentioned before, anyone can slap! Just as anyone can hit, bunt, catch and throw. Much of slapping successfully comes from being able to read the defense and choosing to slap at appropriate times. These times would include, when the middle infield is playing deep, and the corners are playing in. Leading off an inning with a slap could also be effective when the defense isn't expecting it. If there's a fast runner on first base, a slap will hold the shortstop in their position for longer, allowing for an easier steal. As well as if there's a runner on third with less than 2 out, a high chopper with the runner going on contact can yield an easy run.

An ideal slap is one which first bounces close to the plate, because bouncing closer to the plate makes for a sharper downward angle, and therefore a higher bounce in the air. The higher the ball bounces in the air, the more time you have to run to first base. A good slap will take 2 seconds from the time it first hits the ground to travel its maximum height and fall back down again. Then, we have to add in the time it takes the shortstop to field the ball, transfer and throw (approx 1.4sec). This gives a total of 3.4 seconds which is generally a slow time from home to first, especially with a moving start. Therefore as a general rule, if you can make the ball bounce twice before the shortstop can field it, you have a pretty good chance of getting a base hit.

Many of the same concepts applied to hitting are the same for slapping, except the goal is different. Slappers want to hit the ball into the ground, and hitters want to hit line drives. Therefore, it is a good idea to teach slappers to have a split grip with their bottom hand a little bit choked up from the end of the bat and the top hand just above the grip. This gives them a different feel than that of a regular swing, keeping them from trying to hit the ball too hard. Remember, a slapper is trying to SLAP the ball down and make it bounce as high as possible so they have time to run to first base.

A major difference between slapping and hitting is that slappers move through the box. It is important to move through the box SLOWLY, and DO NOT RUN. Remember, a well slapped ball will give you plenty of time to run to first base. You do not want to run through the box for two reasons, it increases the relative velocity of the ball, and it takes too much momentum towards the pitcher.

Relative velocity is like vector addition, the faster you move at an object moving at you, the faster it seems to be going. In fact, if you were running 3 mph at a pitch going 65 mph, its relative velocity is 71 mph, adding double the velocity you're running at. Like if you were riding a train, looking out the window you see another train flying by, it seems to be going pretty fast. However, if you were standing at the train station and saw the same train go by, it wouldn't be seem to be traveling as fast.

Momentum is also a vector quantity, mass times velocity. The more velocity you have moving through the box and at the pitcher, the more energy and steps it will take to overcome your inertia to run to first base. These are the slappers that make an "S" curve to run to first. An average home to first time is 3.0 sec, and an average female runner will take 14 steps to run to first base, making each step 0.21sec. Therefore, the two extra steps to run in an "S" instead of a straight line will increase your home to first time by 0.41 seconds, which could be the difference between a base-hit and an out.

A good slap in real time should look something like this. Analysis of it is to follow.

Footwork should start at the same time as the pitcher starts her motion. The front foot steps back to make a 90 degree angle with the back foot, lining up the front heel with the back heel as shown in Figures 1 and 2 below. This 90 degree angle starts to open the hips and shoulders just like hitting.

Figure 1: Side view. First step back by front foot, toe pointing forward with heels lined up making a 90 degree angle. Click to enlarge image


Figure 2: View from behind of first step back as pitcher starts motion. Click to enlarge image.

At the same time as the front foot steps back, the top hand slides up the bat just above the grip as shown in Figures 1 and 2 above. Notice her hands also move over the plate and off of her shoulder. This puts her hands in the right position to hit the ball to the shortstop. If her hands stayed by her shoulder, if would cause her to pull the ball.

Next the back foot comes forward with heel to toe step (important) to the front corner of the batter's box closest to the plate as the pitcher releases the ball. This step is quite big because the slapper wants to stay low to be able to slap the low outside pitch, where slappers are often thrown. Just as the front foot lands, the ball should be just about to the plate. And since the slapper's hands are already over the plate, they have a short distance to move to slap the ball into the ground. From here, you just need to make contact with the ball and start running! This is why the heel to toe step is important, it allows a smooth transition from making contact to running to first base in a straight line.

Note: It is unnecessary to hit the ball hard when slapping. The whole idea is to bounce the ball close to the plate so it bounces high enough in the air to be able to run to first base.

As discussed in an earlier post, the reasons for opening up to the pitcher to hit the ball are the same for slapping. Completely opening up your hips and shoulders to the pitcher will yield better results in hitting the ball to the shortstop by giving you the biggest window possible to hit the ball, much like extension.

Being able to slap the ball to the shortstop while being completely open to the pitcher and hitting the ball out in front of the plate is achieved by proper hand, and bat position. Your top hand's palm should be facing up with your wrist cocked back, so the bat is always angled toward the shortstop. Just like hitting, having your hips and shoulders open to the pitcher allows your top hand to keep from turning over and hitting it at the pitcher. A good drill is to go through the motion of a slap without a bat but instead a ball in your top hand. Practice "slicing" the ball into the ground at the shortstop, like skipping a rock. Make sure your top hand is always facing upwards as shown in Figure 3 below, so your hand always stays under the ball. As you release it, the ball should spin with a vertical axis in the clockwise direction. The drill is shown here.

Figure 3: Proper hand position for slapping. Palm is facing up and underneath the ball "slicing it". Keeping your wrist cocked back keeps the bat angled towards the shortstop.

Spin Class

So what's the big deal about spin? Most of us understand that different pitches have different spin, but there is some misunderstanding as to how much the spin affects the flight path of the ball, and above all the effects of gravity.

First off, some background. The Magnus Effect is the phenomenon of a spinning object flying in a fluid (air) experiencing a force perpendicular to the line of motion in which it's flying. As in Figure 1 below, the ball spinning like a fastball or dropball causes the air at velocity V to travel
a little bit faster than V underneath the ball, and a little bit slower than V on top of the ball, causing a difference in pressure. And in accordance to the Bernoulli Principle (google it!), the side of the ball in which the air is traveling slower will experience more pressure than the side with the faster moving air. Thus, the resulting force F will be in the direction of the side with least pressure, the ball drops.

Figure 1: The Magnus Effect on a spinning ball. V is the air's initial velocity, more lines underneath the ball indicate the increase in the air's velocity, and hence less pressure. F is the resultant Magnus force towards the side of least pressure.

Ok, so we know that a ball that has topspin will go down, and a ball that has backspin will stay up. But, what about side to side curveballs and screwballs? The Magnus Effect is not exclusive to the vertical direction, but as far as the limitations of humans are concerned, it's impossible to throw a true curveball or screwball with complete horizontal spin. No matter what, the ball will always have a tilted axis of rotation, this is because your hand is always going to be either under or over the ball. It is impossible for your hand to be completely on the side of the ball to spin it. Therefore, most screwballs and curveballs you see are riseballs or dropballs that have some component of side spin making the ball move in or out. What makes the ball go side to side is how much pressure you apply to one side of the ball. Like pushing a big box across the floor, the only way to push the box straight is to push from directly behind it. Pushing just a little off to the side, will make the box turn or spin.

But even with all these fancy terms and differences in air pressure, we cannot forget about the principle force gravity. The forces on the ball due to gravity greatly outweighs the effects of the forces from the Magnus Effect. Gravity is a powerful thing, it acts on all objects all the time, and accelerates them at 9.8 m/s2 or 32 ft/s2. In fact, ignoring the forces from air pressure, if a pitcher were to throw a pitch at 65 mph from a 37ft release point, by the time it gets to the plate, the ball would drop a total of 29 inches! This is why pitchers must throw the ball upwards to compensate for the drop from gravity so the ball ends up in the strike zone. See Figure 2, the green line always has an upward angle regardless of pitch.

Basically spin can be thought to help or hinder gravity, changing the ball's path just enough to make hitters miss. Dropball spin helps gravity, the ball drop a little bit faster than a fastball would, hence hitters generally swing over them and ground out. Riseball spin hinders gravity, the ball drops a little bit slower than a fastball would, and hitters swing under them and pop up. Take a look at Figure 2, from top to bottom, the pitches are: 1. Fastball 2. Roll drop 3. High Rise 4. Strike Rise 5. Low Rise. The red dots are the path of the ball. As you can see compared to the fastball, the drop has a steeper descent. The strike rise which is aimed higher is not quite on its way down because the upward spin is hindering gravity, making the ball plateau slightly at the top of its flight path. The low rise is aimed lower, and if you look closely it's actually going down.

Figure 2. From top to bottom: Fastball, Roll drop, High Rise, Strike Rise, Low Rise. The red dots are the actual path of the ball, the green line how the ball would travel without gravity, the blue lines are the strike zone.

Along with affecting the movement of the pitch, spin also affects the speed of the pitch. Dropballs are always faster than riseballs for the following reasons: The vector addition of the forces on the ball, a larger radius of circular motion, and the amount of force by the pitcher's fingers in the direction of horizontal motion.

Forces and velocities are vector quantities, or they have direction. If two forces are in the same direction, they are added and the ball speeds up, opposite direction, they are subtracted and the ball slows down. When all the force vectors in all directions on an object are added through vector addition (google it!), an overall velocity can be determined. In our case, once the ball leaves the pitcher's hand, the only forces acting on a pitch are gravity and the Magnus force from the spin. Adding these forces will give us the acceleration and velocity in the vertical direction, then adding the initital horizontal velocity using vector addition, we can determine the overall velocity of the pitch. Therefore, since riseball spin produces a force opposite of gravity, a riseball is traveling in the downward direction at a slower velocity than a dropball. So if we assume the same horizontal velocity for a riseball and dropball, through vector addition we can conclude that the overall net velocity for a riseball will be slower.

Try thinking of vector addition like this. Imagine a North, South, East and West coordinate system drawn on a table. A ball is rolled from one end of the table towards the North. As the ball is rolling, it is nudged slightly from the South-West. As you can imagine, the ball changes direction slightly to the North-East, but it also speeds up. If the same ball traveling North were nudged from the North-East, the ball would change to a more North-West direction, but it would also slow down.

The velocity of an object traveling in a circle is directly proportional to the radius of the path it is traveling. So, the larger the radius of the circle, the pitcher's arm, the faster the ball is going at the point of release. When throwing a dropball, the pitcher releases the ball off of her fingertips with her wrist straight to make the ball have topspin. To throw a riseball, the pitcher must get her hand underneath the ball to create backspin, so her wrist is in a bent position at release, a shorter radius of motion. This bent position versus the straight position of the wrist can be the difference of a couple miles per hour.

Note: If you want to know more about wrist position for different pitches, go talk to a pitcher! Talking to pitchers is a good way to learn more about spins as well. Know how the ball spins, know where it's going, know how to hit it.

Finally, a last contributing factor to the speed of the pitch is how much force you apply to the ball in the direction of motion, the plate. Like the earlier box analogy, if you push from directly behind the box, all your force will be used to push the box in the direction you want to go. Any force a little off of centre will cause the box to turn, you have to push harder to slide the box the same distance as the box that slid perfectly straight. When throwing a peel drop, your hand is completely behind the ball spinning it downwards. For a riseball, all your force is applied underneath the ball on the seam to make it spin in the opposite direction. Again, if you can't understand me, go talk to a pitcher.

So what does this all mean? Well from the earlier 5 questions we can use the spin we see to make an adjustment with our hands to hit the ball square. For those hitters who can't see spin, they are put at a disadvantage because their eyes can only recognize the height of the ball. They then swing to where they assume the ball to end up, however if the ball is spinning in a different direction they might miss. Good pitchers are able to throw the ball that is able to spin up or down, as well as have some component of side spin, a curve rise, or a screw drop for example.

Also, as discussed earlier riseballs are slower than dropballs, therefore you should have more time to hit it right? This is not necessarily true, although the ball is moving slower through the hitting zone, as far as reaction time is concerned you actually have less time to hit a riseball than a dropball. Remember, the golden rule says that higher pitches must be hit more out front, lower pitches farther back in your stance. So, for the simple fact that you must hit a high inside riseball approximately 2 feet farther out in front than that of a low outside dropball, the less distance traveled by the ball provides an illusion of increased velocity. The less distance the ball travels, means there is less time to react, an equivilant to an increase in speed. In fact, if a riseball were to be thrown at 65mph high and inside, you would have to have a quicker reaction time of .021sec, equivilant to an increase in speed of 4mph.