Posted by: Louy Louy () on Sat Jul 10 06:03:31 2004

To All,

I noticed last’s month’s discussion about the bat’s angle of approach to the ball and how it effects distance. You might find this true story interesting.

I have been studying the science of hitting for a few years. I read any study I can find and read every abstract on the Internet about studies. One study explained that to obtained maximum distance the ball must be struck on an upward angel on a line throughout the center of the ball. I won’t get into all the numbers because they are not part of the point I want to make.

I had questions so I located the scientist who did the study and sent him an email. I asked, “In most, or all, batting stances the hands are held above the level of the highest strike. To hit a ball on an upward angle the batter would have to lower the hands below the height of the ball and swing upward through the ball. Wouldn’t this require him to swing in a swooping motion, first down then up?”

The professor was kind enough to answer me. I don’t have the exact quote in front of me but the answer was something like this- We did not use a batter, bat and ball for this study. We produced our results using mathematics.

My point is that you must be very careful using information without knowing how it was produced.

Louy Louy