I saw this nifty little video on ESPN today about the effect of your grip on the trajectory of a baseball. Nomar Garciaparra gets wired up with electrodes to conduct this experiment. He used to be a pretty good ball player.
Essentially what happens, is this:
- Pitcher throws the ball. In this experiment it is a 90 MPH pitch.
- Bat comes in contact with the ball. Nomar swings the bat 67 MPH.
- Shockwaves from the contact between bat and ball travel down the bat to the hands.
- Some shockwaves are reflected and bounce back up the bat towards the ball.
- The ball leaves bat before shockwaves bounce back.
- Therefore your grip on a bat doesn’t directly influence the trajectory of the ball when hit.
- … with a couple possible exceptions.
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