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Relationship between impact characteristics and launch direction in softball hitting: A study involving elite players

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  • Shuji Kidokoro
  • Yoshitaka Morishita

Abstract

In the game of softball, the batter should possess the necessary skills to hit the ball toward various directions with high initial speed. However, because various factors influence each other, there are limitations to the range that can be controlled by the batter’s skill. This study was aimed at extracting the impact characteristics associated with the launch speed/direction and batted ball spin and clarifying the important skills required to improve the batter’s hitting performance. In our experiments, 20 female softball players, who are members of the Japan women’s national softball team, hit balls launched from a pitching machine. The movements of the ball and bat before, during, or after the impact were recorded using a motion capture system. Stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed to extract factors relating the side spin rate. The undercut angle (elevation angle between the bat’s trajectory and the common normal between the ball and bat: ΔR2 = 0.560) and the horizontal bat angle (azimuth of bat’s long axis at ball impact: ΔR2 = 0.299) were strongly associated with the side spin rate (total R2 = 0.893, p

Suggested Citation

  • Shuji Kidokoro & Yoshitaka Morishita, 2021. "Relationship between impact characteristics and launch direction in softball hitting: A study involving elite players," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(11), pages 1-19, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0260520
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0260520
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