Posted by: Curt () on Thu Dec 7 18:09:15 2000

In a way I agree with you. The make better contact you should be inline with the flight of the ball. But what about power, according to a Home Run simulator, if you bat speed is 90MPH, with no wind, and the ball comes off the bat around 11 degrees the ball will only go about 130 feet . So how does McGwire hit high 450 foot homers?

Madmax,

I am not a physicist, just a high school coach. But if the bat was moving upward at 11 degrees, the ball was moving downward at 11 degrees, and you hit it "dead center" (ball exiting at 11 degrees), you might get the effect that you referred to (ball only traveling 130 feet). But if you hit the ball just under dead center (would depend on how much) the ball would exit at a higher angle and would have backspin, thus creating more lift and distance. I don't know what McGwire's bat speed is, but is it possible that he could achieve those monster home runs in this way? Or, does he have to slightly "cross" the flightpath of the ball (from underneath) to get the lift and distance needed? I'm not sure. That's why I am posing these questions.

My argument with others (on another site) had to do with hitting the "top half" of the ball and how that was achieved. We all agreed that line drives gave a hitter the best chance to reach base and unless you were a power guy, they preferred to teach their hitters to hit the top half of the ball (better chance to keep the ball out of the air). Their thinking was that you should take your hands "directly" to the ball and aim for the top half. Seems like to me that this flightpath would produce a "cut" ball (bat's flightpath moving across (from above) the ball's flightpath).

Whether you get topspin (hit just above dead center), no spin (dead center), or backspin (just under dead center), my point was; to give yourself the best chance to make solid contact, you would want the flightpath of the bat "inline" with the flightpath of the ball just before and at contact. The farther you stray, the more precision required.

Am I way off on my thinking? Are there any studies on this? Is there any video proof? I have read a lot of posts on here from people that use a lot of "physics" terminology. What are your thoughts?