Home MLB Web Pick of the Week: Hitting the ball ain’t easy

Web Pick of the Week: Hitting the ball ain’t easy

by Matt Smith

Web-PickThe Times has been serializing articles from the cricket bible Wisden this week, one of which is an article by Michael Armstrong-James about the process a batsman goes through in trying to hit a cricket ball delivered at rapid pace.  It caught my eye with the second paragraph where Armstrong-James notes that the time between a delivery leaving the quick bowler’s hand and the batsman playing a shot is “about 400 milliseconds”.  That’s the same amount of time that is often given for the similar situation of a batter hitting a fastball.

It’s an interesting article and while some of the passages might not be of direct relevance from a baseball perspective, such as choosing shots and playing strokes, there certainly are bits that carry over.  I was particularly struck with the section about how difficult it is for players that have “reached full maturity” to change their bowling action or batting technique.  We regularly read about ballplayers tinkering with their swing or their pitching mechanics. Having to re-learn what must become an instinctive action is clearly a painstaking, and often unsuccessful, process.

The article also fits nicely with a piece on the Hardball Times website where former Major Leaguer Morgan Ensberg, featured in a previous Web Pick, discusses the “Nuts and Bolts of hitting in the big leagues”

You may also like

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.