BAT KINEMATICS IN BALL HITTING TASK

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate relationship between timing of ball-bat impact and bat kinematics. University baseball players were asked to hit one of three kinds of ball (a baseball, a polystyrene ball, a small polystyrene ball) hung with a string. Peak velocity of the distal end of the bat appeared in different timing among ball conditions. Regardless of conditions, the lowest position of the distal end of the bat during bat swing showed up at almost same timing for each SUbject. These results showed that height of the distal end of the bat might be useful for estimating impact point of each baseball batter.