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In the blink of an eye
Scientist breaks down hitters reaction and response times
BY SCOTT JENKINS
The Battalion
F
;| . •
rom 60 feet 6 inches
away, a man glares
at his adversary. But
it is not high noon, and this is
not the O.K. Corral. He is standing
at home plate with a bat in his hand. A
baseball is about to be launched in his di
rection. His task is to hit the ball with the bat
before it gets by him.
This is one of many scenarios examined
by Yale professor Robert K. Adair, who,
’ when not studying the physics of sub
atomic particles, studies the physics
of baseball. He discussed some of
his work at the 2000 annual
k meeting of the American As
sociation for the Advance
ment of Science (AAAS)
in Washington, D.C.
According to
Adair, strong-
armed pitchers can
propel a baseball
at around 90 mph,
so that it covers
the distance from
their hands to
home plate in
about 0.4 sec
onds (400 mil
liseconds).
Adair
analyzes
■Mhh
what must happen biochemically and biome-
chanically for the batter to hit the ball, as well
as the time it takes for those physiological
events to happen. His goal is to understand
how a batter decides to swing (or not to swing)
in such a brief time span.
First, the cells in a batter’s eyes must as
semble a series of pictures of the incoming
ball. The electric pulses that encode this im
age must pass through nerves to the brain.
The brain must process and interpret the pic
tures, so the batter can judge the spin and the
path of the ball.
Adair’s calculations estimate that it takes
75 milliseconds for the brain to assemble the
information sent by the eyes into a picture, and
only after that time is it physically possible for
the brain to “see” the ball.
One person who knows the importance of
this initial recognition is Daylan Holt, a junior
agricultural economics major and member of
the Texas A&M baseball team.
“It’s crucial that [the batter] pick up the
spin of the ball immediately.” Holt said, “It can
give you an idea of what kind of pitch it is.”
An experienced batter knows what to look
for in a spinning ball. Holt said that
seeing a red spot
(from the ball’s red laces) surrounded by blur
ry white just outside it signifies the spinning pat
tern of a curve ball, for instance.
Being able to judge the trajectory of the ball
requires processing a series of images of the
ball, which then can be extrapolated by the bat
ter to guess where the ball will be when it gets
to the plate. That takes more time.
“If he uses only the earliest information
[about the pitch], errors will be greater, but the
batter has more time to pick the best swing,”
Adair said. “But if the batter waits too long to
get more information about the pitch, he may
not have enough time to swing.” Adair sug
gested that 100 milliseconds may be the opti
mum time to see enough of the ball’s path, but
still have time to swing.
The batter’s window of time to judge the ball
and decide what to do is sandwiched on one side
by the processing and interpreting of visual in
formation, and on the other side by the time it
takes for the brain to send instructions to the
muscles, telling them the precise timing of con
tractions that will swing the bat correctly.
The time needed to actually swing the bat
175 ms
ms
75 ms
Eyes and brain
assemble first
picture of ball
Batter must judge
Batter
decides
whether
or not to
swing
225 ms
Commands
travel from
brain to
muscles
was determined by Adair to be 150 ms, so
that to meet the incoming ball at the plate,
the swing must start no later than 250 ms af
ter the pitch is released. And since it takes
time for brain commands to travel through
the biological wires, or neurons, and activate
the muscle cells, commands must be on the
way even before that.
Batters like Holt know all too well the pre
cious little time the batter has to recognize the
pitch and decide on the swing.
“Almost as soon as you see the ball, you need
to decide what to do,” he said.
Adair also discussed how different types of
pitches make the batter’s job even harder. For ex
ample, A fast ball decreases the time the batter
has to think, increasing the chance that he will
miss-hit the ball, for example.
According to A&M batter Holt, though,
speed is not the most difficult thing to deal
with, it is the deception.
“Movement is better than velocity,” he said.
When the ball moves, as in a curveball, it
makes judging trajectory more difficult.
“Sometimes you can adjust [your swing] late
when you see the ball break, but it’s very
difficult to do,” Holt said.
250 ms
4
muscles FT
r-1 SV\
400 ms
Swinging the bat
60 feet 6 inches
PHOTO BY GUY ROGERS/Thf. Battalion
GRAPHIC BY GABRIEL RUENES/Tm: Battalion
Texas A&M Golf Course
of Golf
llllll
fl 1 11
IS
Two hours of instruction for $20
Sign up in advance at the Pro Shop.
r
" : r : T ■ 1 :
: :,T
■
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1 : « < ■
f
Learn the basics of full swings,
putting and chipping.
Classes take place Saturdays 9-11 a.m.
and Wednesdays 6-8 p.m.
For more information call 845-1723.