The Curveball--Does it or doesn't it?

That is cool

I was about to post the same thing. So the article suggest that to the batter the ball does not actually 'break' as much as the illusion of it breaking does.

Or the illusion of breaking is greater than the actual break.

. Questions...

Playing with the controls offfers some differing results/effects.

1. Could you then devise a visual training to better enable batters to deal with that specific (mis)perception?

2. Could you then adjust a pitchers approach in such a way as to maximize the effect?

44
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but??? i disagree

we look directly at the baseball in its path of flight, its not just a peripheral vision. if you look directly at that spinning object, it clearly doesnt move. when you change the "curveball" from side to side to more up and down, it doesnt appear to move even when you just use peripherals.

I think that guy needs to take a few swings.

That curveball seems to be rotating the wrong way on that eye test. Everyone knows (don't they?) that curveballs actually do curve! Some much more than others!

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Looks eerily lunar to me. How does it affect the tide?

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quote:

Originally posted by gotwood4sale:
Looks eerily lunar to me. How does it affect the tide?

Good question....the curveball has been good to The Tide this year...36-15 over all...26-6 at home in Tuscaloosa...looking at a #1 regional seed and hosting that regional...

44
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The curve appears to break more sharply than it actually does, but it doesn't appear to break more than it actually does. Watch a pitcher throwing curves from the side and then watch them from behind the plate. From the side the break is fairly gradual. From behind the plate it appears to be a much sharper break.

The reason the break seems so much sharper is that we can't track the ball well enough from behind the plate so we track the ball at release, estimate where it is going to end up based on what we normally see, a fastball, and then when the ball isn't where we expect it when we pick it up again closer to the plate our brains put a sharp break in between to explain how the ball went from where we expected it to where it really was.

The same phenomena also explains why lefties seem to have such good movement. Our brains expect the ball to tail in to a righty and they include that in the estimate of where the ball is going to be. When it ends up where we expected it to be our brain supplies a straight line. Then a lefty comes up and the ball tails away from a righty and we think the ball has moved twice as much as it really has.

If you doubt this just go back to your earliest little league days. The fastballs from those pitchers were coming in dead straight as far as we could tell. Now go look at a young little leaguer and you'll see the ball looping in there because it is thrown so slowly.

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That's right 44!

Crimson on clover
Over and over!

quote:

"The same phenomena also explains why lefties seem to have such good movement."

Ya, and in the Southern Hemisphere the rightists have the good movement.

They are trying to trick you! As any catcher and he will tell you the break of the curve ball is not an "optical illusion" but an actual defined break. Ever see a catcher get crossed up? Nothing like seeing the catcher move the mitt anticipating the break of the CB and the mistakenly thrown FB never touches leather. It's no optical illusion. Granted the black and white spinning sphere in the video does create some optical illusions but to compare this to the CB is for non baseball people.

Many visual things that allow the mind to react in an unnatural way. Why i even read where a scantily clad mannequin in front of the Ohio barbeque increased sales 40% and this email I received yesterday even puzzles me as I could read it like it was error free ---- Can you read it?


Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe
out of 100 can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht
I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch
at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod
are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit
pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed i t whotuit a pboerlm.
Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the
wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!
if you can raed tihs forwrad it.

Fungo

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quote:

Originally posted by Fungo:
They are trying to trick you!

Granted the black and white spinning sphere in the video does create some optical illusions but to compare this to the CB is for non baseball people.

Fungo

I kenw it! Olny lanur polepe cn'at be tikcerd by taht snpiinpg shepre!

Dizzy Dean "Stand behind a tree 60 feet away, and I'll whomp you with an optical illusion!"

Fungo-Taht is cool

So to get maximum break on your CB the 1st baseman needs to be holding a blue dot?

quote:

Originally posted by dswann:
So to get maximum break on your CB the 1st baseman needs to be holding a blue dot?

Fungo,

Tihs culod bcemoe a way amuord toshe baennd wrods like siht, ahssloe and scceor.

quote:

Originally posted by PGStaff:
Fungo,

Tihs culod bcemoe a way amuord toshe baennd wrods like siht, ahssloe and scceor.

See the kids text like that, I guess they are just ahead in the technology world.