| SOFTBALL TIPS |
|
|
|
| SITE STUFF |
|
|
|
|
ARCHIVES
|
| • |
June 26, 2005 |
| • |
July 03, 2005 |
| • |
July 10, 2005 |
| • |
July 17, 2005 |
| • |
July 24, 2005 |
| • |
July 31, 2005 |
| • |
August 07, 2005 |
| • |
August 14, 2005 |
| • |
August 21, 2005 |
| • |
August 28, 2005 |
| • |
September 11, 2005 |
| • |
October 02, 2005 |
| • |
October 09, 2005 |
| • |
October 23, 2005 |
| • |
October 30, 2005 |
| • |
November 06, 2005 |
| • |
November 13, 2005 |
| • |
December 04, 2005 |
| • |
December 18, 2005 |
| • |
December 25, 2005 |
| • |
January 08, 2006 |
| • |
January 15, 2006 |
| • |
January 29, 2006 |
| • |
February 05, 2006 |
| • |
February 12, 2006 |
| • |
February 19, 2006 |
| • |
February 26, 2006 |
| • |
March 05, 2006 |
| • |
March 12, 2006 |
| • |
March 19, 2006 |
| • |
March 26, 2006 |
| • |
April 02, 2006 |
| • |
April 09, 2006 |
| • |
April 16, 2006 |
| • |
April 23, 2006 |
| • |
April 30, 2006 |
| • |
May 07, 2006 |
| • |
May 14, 2006 |
| • |
May 21, 2006 |
| • |
May 28, 2006 |
| • |
June 04, 2006 |
| • |
June 11, 2006 |
| • |
June 18, 2006 |
| • |
June 25, 2006 |
| • |
July 09, 2006 |
| • |
July 16, 2006 |
| • |
July 23, 2006 |
| • |
July 30, 2006 |
| • |
August 13, 2006 |
| • |
August 20, 2006 |
| • |
September 03, 2006 |
| • |
September 10, 2006 |
| • |
September 17, 2006 |
| • |
September 24, 2006 |
| • |
October 01, 2006 |
| • |
October 08, 2006 |
| • |
October 15, 2006 |
| • |
October 22, 2006 |
| • |
November 12, 2006 |
| • |
November 26, 2006 |
| • |
December 31, 2006 |
| • |
January 14, 2007 |
| • |
January 21, 2007 |
| • |
January 28, 2007 |
| • |
February 04, 2007 |
| • |
February 11, 2007 |
| • |
February 18, 2007 |
| • |
February 25, 2007 |
| • |
March 04, 2007 |
| • |
March 11, 2007 |
| • |
March 18, 2007 |
| • |
April 01, 2007 |
| • |
April 08, 2007 |
| • |
April 15, 2007 |
| • |
April 22, 2007 |
| • |
April 29, 2007 |
| • |
May 06, 2007 |
| • |
May 13, 2007 |
| • |
May 20, 2007 |
| • |
May 27, 2007 |
| • |
June 03, 2007 |
| • |
June 10, 2007 |
| • |
June 17, 2007 |
| • |
June 24, 2007 |
| • |
July 01, 2007 |
| • |
July 22, 2007 |
| • |
July 29, 2007 |
| • |
August 12, 2007 |
| • |
August 19, 2007 |
| • |
September 02, 2007 |
| • |
September 16, 2007 |
| • |
September 30, 2007 |
| • |
October 07, 2007 |
| • |
October 14, 2007 |
| • |
October 21, 2007 |
| • |
November 04, 2007 |
| • |
November 18, 2007 |
| • |
November 25, 2007 |
| • |
December 02, 2007 |
| • |
December 09, 2007 |
| • |
December 16, 2007 |
| • |
January 13, 2008 |
| • |
February 17, 2008 |
| • |
February 24, 2008 |
| • |
March 02, 2008 |
| • |
March 09, 2008 |
| • |
March 30, 2008 |
| • |
April 06, 2008 |
| • |
April 13, 2008 |
| • |
April 20, 2008 |
| • |
April 27, 2008 |
| • |
May 04, 2008 |
| • |
May 11, 2008 |
| • |
May 18, 2008 |
| • |
May 25, 2008 |
|
|
| SOFTBALL LINKS |
|
|
|
Pitchers Rising
by Dave
Monday, April 24, 2006
Rest assured, regardless of what you may read here and there, that riseball you struck out on was actually rising as you whiffed at it. Scientists and engineers are fond of laughing at those of us who describe the rising action of a baseball four-seamer or the softball version, the riseball. They confidently tell us that the force of gravity would never permit a thrown ball to rise. But they are forgetting two very important pieces to the puzzle, release point and trajectory. Before I explain this any further, allow me to admit that I got a "C" in high school physics. I do not remember everything about vector math but I can tell you one thing for certain. The softball riseball, if not the four seam fastball, does very much rise. How can I state such complete apostasy and call myself an educated person? Well, consider that a softball pitcher releases the ball about 1 to 2 feet from the ground and a riseball typically crosses the plate about 4 or so feet above the ground. Therefore, the riseball has indeed risen.
Most recently you may have read LiveScience's article "Busting Baseball Myths" which pointed out the obvious effects of the force of gravity. LiveScience.com says, "When a hitter swings under the ball and misses, baseball announcers sometimes say the pitcher got him with a "rising fastball." But technically, this pitch cannot exist if thrown overhand -- it's impossible for a pitch thrown downward to buck gravity and achieve upward lift. The rising fastball deceives the hitter in almost the opposite way a good curve does. A 90-mph fastball will drop significantly less than one thrown at 80 mph. So instead of dropping a few inches in the last few feet, a fastball with some serious zip will maintain a nearly straight trajectory. If he (the batter) thinks it's an 80-mph fastball, but it's really 90 mph, since it didn't drop it will appear to rise in that last instant. It looks like it hops up, and that's the illusion of a rising fastball."
I used to have a large poster in my bedroom of a major league pitcher throwing a hard fastball. This particular pitcher got so low when he threw that his knee touched the ground - you could see his knee on the ground as he released the ball. I would estimate that when he released the ball, his hand was about 3 to 4 feet off the ground. His "rising fastball" ideally would cross the plate at about 4 to 6 feet where batters would merely waive at it. The pitch didn't drop an inch and probably arrived at a higher point relative to the Earth than it left his hand. But that's baseball. Let's discuss softball.
Wikipedia says, "A riseball is a pitch thrown by a pitcher in fastpitch softball. Upon release by the pitcher, the ball has backspin. The backspin on the ball affects the flight of the ball toward the batter. To a batter, the ball appears to "rise." Although called a riseball, a riseball does not, in fact, rise. The softball simply falls less than expected. e.g., over the 40 foot distance from the pitcher to the batter, a softball thrown horizontally at a speed of 50 miles per hour would be expected to drop about 48 inches. If sufficient backspin is put on the ball by the pitcher, the amount of drop over the same distance is reduced by about 12 inches."
The common myth busting wisdom tells us that a ball thrown straight, parallel to the ground, will drop at a rate determined by the force of gravity. Gravity is a force, not a speed. The force of gravity causes two objects to move towards each other at a particular rate of acceleration. The gravity between Earth and a softball is fixed at 32 feet per second per second. The Earth, being a sort of very big softball, does not move. So the entire acceleration is accomplished by the movement of the softball. A thrown softball accelerates towards the ground at the rate of 32 feet per second per second. It takes about a half second for a pitched softball to reach homeplate. So the ball has reached 16 feet per second of downward speed at the end of that half second. The average downward speed over that time period is 8 feet per second over a half second. For this reason, a pitch would drop about 4 feet over the about 35 feet (no softball pitcher releases the ball from 40 feet) between release point and homeplate. The experts say the backspin the pitcher puts on the ball counteracts some gravity temporarily causing the pitch to drop only 12 inches rather than the 48 it would otherwise have dropped. That's just plain stupid.
When is the last time you stood in the on-deck circle watching a pitcher release the pitch more than 3 or 4 feet above the ground. Maybe in baseball that happens but in softball, the ball is released very close to the ground. If the ball is actually falling 3 or 4 feet during it's flight, there would be no such thing as a strike. Everything would be in the dirt. But pitching or throwing any ball involves making an adjustment with your release angle in order to compensate for gravity. The trajectory of a pitched softball is upwards.
Pitchers release the ball 1 or 2 feet above the ground and need to have it reach the plate at about 2 to 5 feet above the ground. So, really, if you want to be technically accurate, just about every pitch you see in a softball game rises! The real bottom line in all this mumbo jumbo is, the trajectory of the ball's flight.
Here's an experiment for all those guys and gals who never hit against a riseball pitcher: get a really good pitcher and have her throw some rises for you. If you don't trust your eyes, get a digital video camera and place some measuring sticks within view. Put one in front of the plate, one at the plate and one in back. Now film several instances of riseballs and head back to the computer to verify whether or not the ball is higher after you swing than before. If you chart the height of the ball from about 5 feet in front of homeplate to the catcher's mitt, the ball would be higher at the end point. That's what causes a batter to swing and miss and that's the only rise that is relevant to the frustrated strikeout victim.
The next time you are at a family BBQ and are interrupted telling a softball story by your uncle, the engineer, who tells you it is is physically impossible for any pitcher to throw a "riseball," take him into the yard, throw him a pop-up and ask him if the ball did any rising during its flight. Now have him stand on a table and you get down on one knee. Throw a hard one at his head and again ask if the ball rose. Now, whenever you hear an engineer or scientist tell you that a riseball doesn't rise, you can laugh at their foolishness, knowing they're wrong because they failed to take everything into account.
 
|
|
|
