ELECTROMYOGRAPHIC FACTORS CORRELATED WITH SOFTBALL BATTING PERFORMANCE

Abstract

Specific muscle strength and coordination are required to produce a successful hit after a fast downswing in response to a high-velocity ball (Katsumata, 2007). Electromyographic (EMG) recording during the muscle contraction was a measurement to realize the motor strategy of sports. Several EMG researches about baseball or softball pitching have been documented in literature (Saito et al., 2001). However, there was very little research about softball batting surveyed in literature. Therefore, the purposes of this study were to investigate the muscle activities in upper extremities during softball batting and to analyze if any muscle activity is correlated with the ball exit velocity and bat head velocity.