The batter may also take the risky strategy of predicting the next pitch type based on the previous pitch if the batter keeps missing the timing of the impact without being able to respond to various pitches. By clarifying the factors that affect temporal accuracy separately from the spatial accuracy of contacting the ball with the bat’s sweet spot, it may be possible to present a concrete strategy for batters who are unskilled at responding to different pitches. Thus, there is a lack of biomechanical and visuomotor control knowledge regarding the timing control for hitting an incoming ball. However, these studies only considered successful trials and categorized successful or unsuccessful groups based on the batted ball direction (or swing and miss). The batter controls the time of weight shift to their front foot in response to different types of pitches in order to regulate the timing of the impact. Batters cannot always perform the same series of swing movements against different pitches. The elemental events in common during the swing are the weighting of the stride (front) foot, rotation of the pelvis and thorax, and the bat’s acceleration. In order to perform a well-timed impact, the start time of the forward swing is considered the most important moment, because it is difficult to make a correction for the speed or trajectory of the bat with large inertia. Ijiri, Shinya, and Nakazawa reported that the strategy to improve accuracy under severe time constraints was not to shorten the travel time but, rather, to start the movement earlier. The second is the bat swing the batter initiates forward swings 130–280 ms before the ball-impact, then continues to accelerate the bat. The first is visuomotor delay, as the batting reaction time is approximately 200 ms. Batters are forced to play within tight time constraints for two reasons other than the ball speed. Additionally, skilled players also use visual cues about pitching kinematics before the ball release to increase their hitting accuracy. Skilled players discern the pitch type using the visual information of the ball flight of 3 m after the ball-release (first 80 ms) and empirically estimate the impact location and arrival time based on the visual information until about 150 ms before the ball-bat impact. One strategy is to use different types of pitches such as the fastball, curveball, forkball, and change-up, and the batter must respond to those various pitches. Therefore, having two or more pitch types, reducing the fluctuation of the pitching motion, and the early trajectory of the ball between different pitches potentially lead to increase timing errors.īaseball pitchers attempt a variety of strategies to inhibit the batter from hitting the ball with the sweet spot of the bat. These results indicate that the pitch type sequence has insignificant effects, and advance information about pitches affects the timing errors. In contrast, the timing errors in open conditions were fewer compared to random conditions ( p < 0.001). The results showed that the (n–1)-th pitch type did not affect the timing of impact ( p = 0.338). The timing error between n-th pitch type, (n–1)-th pitch, and the presence or absence of advance information about pitch type (open vs random condition) were analyzed using three-way repeated ANOVA. We calculated timing error based on the difference between the measured impact location (ball position relative to the batter’s body at ball-bat impact) and optimal impact location. Participants’ hitting movement was recorded by an optical motion capture system and force platform. (3) Open condition (20 trials), in which the next pitch type was preliminarily conveyed to participants. (2) Random condition (30 trials), in which pitch type was not preliminarily conveyed to the participants. (1) Continuity condition (15 trials), in which the same pitch type was thrown five times consecutively. Each participant performed three conditions. Twenty-six high school baseball players hit a ball launched from a pitching machine in a combination of fastballs (34.3☑.3 m This study examined 1) effectiveness of pitch type combinations, and 2) relationship between the presence and absence of advance information about the next pitch and the timing error. Baseball pitchers use various pitch types to reduce hitting accuracy, but little is understood of the practical strategy of using visuomotor skills and timing control to respond to different pitches.
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