4 ms·

Isn’t hitting a baseball more about prediction and less about reflexes? I would think other sports would require quicker reflexes, like boxing, fencing, and tab

by baddox 9y ago

Isn’t hitting a baseball more about prediction and less about reflexes? I would think other sports would require quicker reflexes, like boxing, fencing, and table tennis.

aidenn0 9y ago
They read the arm-slot, grip, and initial spin of ball from 90 feet away, and then react to it. Table tennis is similar because you read the spin based off of the position of their paddle hitting the ball (table tennis balls are typically unmarked so reading the spin directly is a no-go). OTOH, the table tennis stroke is more similar to a baseball bunt than a baseball swing as the paddle spends more time in a position overlapping the predicted path of the ball. This is somewhat negated by the much shorter distances in table tennis. It's hard to say which requires more quick reaction to complicated inputs.
- baddox 9y ago
  Yes, they have some very small amount of time to predict the future path of the ball based on the motion and initial behavior of the ball, and begin a swing based on that. Apparently a fastball takes just under half a second from release to plate, and a swing takes 150ms to execute. That gives the batter about 300ms to decide whether to start a swing, which I'm guessing is around the same amount of time between hits in table tennis. Of course, I don't know how much a batter can adjust and aim the bat mid-swing. Also, some table tennis shots give you way less time than 0.3 seconds, but those are usually slams that would only be successfully returned if the player made a lucky guess.
  - sib 9y ago
    For a surprisingly-fascinating look at issues related to the role of the fastball in baseball (touching on history, physics, biology, measurement error, etc.), I suggest watching the movie, Fastball... https://www.vudu.com/movies/#!content/743314/Fastball https://www.vudu.com/movies/#!content/743314/Fastball

by baddox 9y ago

Isn’t hitting a baseball more about prediction and less about reflexes? I would think other sports would require quicker reflexes, like boxing, fencing, and table tennis.

aidenn0 9y ago

They read the arm-slot, grip, and initial spin of ball from 90 feet away, and then react to it. Table tennis is similar because you read the spin based off of the position of their paddle hitting the ball (table tennis balls are typically unmarked so reading the spin directly is a no-go). OTOH, the table tennis stroke is more similar to a baseball bunt than a baseball swing as the paddle spends more time in a position overlapping the predicted path of the ball. This is somewhat negated by the much shorter distances in table tennis. It's hard to say which requires more quick reaction to complicated inputs.

baddox 9y ago
Yes, they have some very small amount of time to predict the future path of the ball based on the motion and initial behavior of the ball, and begin a swing based on that. Apparently a fastball takes just under half a second from release to plate, and a swing takes 150ms to execute. That gives the batter about 300ms to decide whether to start a swing, which I'm guessing is around the same amount of time between hits in table tennis. Of course, I don't know how much a batter can adjust and aim the bat mid-swing. Also, some table tennis shots give you way less time than 0.3 seconds, but those are usually slams that would only be successfully returned if the player made a lucky guess.
- sib 9y ago
  For a surprisingly-fascinating look at issues related to the role of the fastball in baseball (touching on history, physics, biology, measurement error, etc.), I suggest watching the movie, Fastball... https://www.vudu.com/movies/#!content/743314/Fastball https://www.vudu.com/movies/#!content/743314/Fastball