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whats seems like a contradiction to me. Why is it that a large girl with seemingly slow bat speed can hit one a mile but a small kid with seemingly super bat speed has very little power ? Why is this ? MD
Hitting and Hitters Discussion What is the scientific explanation for ....
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Mass = power, listening to Enquist and watching her clips she states and shows the biggest difference between a power hitter and a contact hitter is the size of the hitter and the amount of force that the bat head is brought thru the big zone with, Larger girls swing larger bats, more mass plus more force = more distance the ball is driven. A 25 ounce bat swung at 75 mph compared to a 21 ounce bat at close to the same speed will drive the ball a considerable further distance. and the equation is changed again if the enload is added to the bats. Simply put the larger the cannon, the further the round travels down range.
Tim
Tim
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In it's simplest form....
Newton's Second law of Motion
F/m = a
a = acceleration
F = Force applied to the ball; larger hitter, heavier bat, outcome is greater force. Keep in mind that the lighter bat, regardless of swing speed, is negatively impacted by the force of the pitched ball, more so than the heavier stick.
m = mass of the ball
Newton's Second law of Motion
F/m = a
a = acceleration
F = Force applied to the ball; larger hitter, heavier bat, outcome is greater force. Keep in mind that the lighter bat, regardless of swing speed, is negatively impacted by the force of the pitched ball, more so than the heavier stick.
m = mass of the ball
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so the small girl needs to carry a big stick ? thats what it sounds like to me . I ask because I saw a big girl with a terrible looking ,slow swing , go yard in a jr high game last week.
boulder--at 13-14 yrs old the difference in weight of the bat is usually one or 2 ounces. even with the same bat the big girls with slow bat speed seem to hit much further than the smaller girls. wierd to me. MD
boulder--at 13-14 yrs old the difference in weight of the bat is usually one or 2 ounces. even with the same bat the big girls with slow bat speed seem to hit much further than the smaller girls. wierd to me. MD
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Mine is a 15u so believe me not that much difference at that age either, most of the bats are 23 ounce, the 21 ounce i used as an example, the larger girl simply has more mass to drive thru the ball
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I'm sure it has something to do with global warming.
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Has to be, I'm sure that the fences on the Softball Fields next year and thereafter will need to be 500'-600'. The days of the 250'-300' fields are long gone because of Global Warming, Oh well next this time it will be sunny and 85 degrees. And once the earth start lossing it gravitation pull on things look out!;&
FASTPITCH! Anything else, And you're playing to SLOW!
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remember Chris Sabo swinging a bat as big as him....he could kill it!
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From Dr. Russells site
http://www.kettering.edu/~drussell/
"Before you run out to purchase a new bat with lowest moment-of-inertia you can find in order to increase your bat-swing speed in hopes of hitting balls faster, there is a catch. It is true that lower MOI translates to higher bat-swing speed, and that higher bat-swing speed results in higher batted-ball speed. However, a gain in batted-ball speed only results if you are swinging the same bat faster. Swinging a lower MOI bat faster does not resulting in a faster batted-ball speed. This is because the effectiveness of the collision between bat and ball depends on the MOI of the bat, and a lower MOI bat produces a less effective collision with the ball. If the bat-swing speed is held constant, a bat with a lower moment-of-inertia produces a less-effective collision with the ball such that the batted-ball speed actually decreases for the lower MOI bat. In fact, when a player switches to a lower MOI bat, the increase in batted-ball speed due to higher swing speed is almost exactly cancelled out by the reduction in batted-ball speed because the lower MOI bat impacts the ball less effectively. I discuss this trade-off between higher bat-swing speed and lower collision efficiency in my article on the BESR and MOI performance standard for NCAA baseball bats. The trade-off between bat-swing speed and collision efficiency due to changes in moment-of-inertia is also the reason that corking a bat may help a player increase his batting average, but will not enable him to hit more home runs."
This is why we use the Swing Speed Radar units to determine bat speed and then work on certain aspects of the swing to determine what affects how fast we can swing the bat and how accurate our hand path is to the ball....as I like to say sometimes it comes down to technique verses brute force and when you can prove it it is difficult to argue with. We did this when we were at the ICE clinic a month ago and several coaches and parents saw the factors that affected bat speed and when we focused on those aspects they saw the bat speed increase as much as 10 to 15 MPH.
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Another tool that Howard used at the Ice Clinic is the Whiffer Stick. Kids can hear how fast they are swinging by the sound it makes. I used this at a clinic in Cleveland so the kids could hear how fast they were swinging after we made adjustments.
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God I hate it when Howard starts applying science to hitting. LOL
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I put a speedtrac x (radar ) behind the net of the swingaway to get an exit speed.
The kid can see when she hits the ball hard (centered) or if she is getting lazy. FR
The kid can see when she hits the ball hard (centered) or if she is getting lazy. FR
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this method has worked to compare bat weight vs exit speed
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Factory,
I used to do the same thing until I realized that there is an unaccountable variable with that method. That would be the ball. They get softer the more they are used so your results are going to be inconsistent.
I place the speed trac in line with the tee at contact and measure the bat going through the zone just before contact.
Dana.
I used to do the same thing until I realized that there is an unaccountable variable with that method. That would be the ball. They get softer the more they are used so your results are going to be inconsistent.
I place the speed trac in line with the tee at contact and measure the bat going through the zone just before contact.
Dana.
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At what height to you have it set up?
For example we try to hit every ball between 39 and 51 inches from the ground up or what we term our hitting zone. We use the Swing Speed radar unit and it is set up behind the hitter to measure bat speed from the sweet spot verses end speed which is usually 10 to 15 percent faster. Because they use Doppler radar there is a zone you must keep the bat in to be accurate. I have two additional units we are putting on a tripod and put on the back side of the net and we will try to measure exit velocity when I get more time.
Thanks for telling me how you do this.
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Thanks I`ll try that, have you used this for underload/overload training at anytime? FR
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I made a whiffer stick that is basically a one inch piece of electric conduit with 22 ounces of weight in the handle end and is 44 inches long. It has several holes drilled in the tip end so it makes a whistling sound when you swing it and we try to make it sound louder on each swing.
I have also made some other bats so the weight slides internally as you swing so the weight shifts at the MOI or moment of inertia and you don't cast out or cause problems with the wrist. We have these in a variety of weights and 3 ounces moving away from you verses 8 ounces is a huge difference. Crystl uses the 8 ounce version and the normal kids use 3 ounces one handed trying to drive tennis balls in the hitting zone of 39 to 51 inches with a center line so we know if the ball is left, right depending on where they step, measure off from and placement of the tee.
Then we do a progression ball drill of a tennis ball, hard ball, regular softball and a weighted softball 10.8 ounces and start over and consider that one cycle. We try to get them to think to the ball and through the ball to extension.
Do you have a height you put your radar unit at?
Thanks Howard
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radar height is 40 inches and set 76 inches from the ball, should it be higher at that distance? I need to get a tuner so I can check/set the calibration, would like to use it in the garage for her pitching (half distance) so she can see good machanics = speed, she gets too loose /doesnt stay sharp sometimes.
Thanks for the help, FR
Thanks for the help, FR
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If it is Doppler it reads like you are looking at a funnel and there is an upper limit and lower limit...most units will give you a range to work in as to height and distance from the ball. It is neat seeing the kids trying to perform each swing correctly and feeling the flaws and correcting it and seeing the results...see it, feel it and fix it.
When you say tuner are you referring to a tuning fork?
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Yes I didnt get one w/ the unit.Your bats w/ the internail weight slides, would they speed up the bat as centrifugal force moves the weight out the barrel of the bat?