Difference Between Lefties and Righties

Lefty Curve
To me, being a lefty baseball player has always made me feel like I have a bigger advantage over the players who are right-handed. There are not as many positions that a lefty would recommend playing in the infield, but there are definitely positions that lefties have the upper hand in. As explained by Robert Adair, everyone knows that a right-handed batter has more trouble hitting off of right-handed pitcher, and lefties have more trouble hitting off of left-handed pitchers (71). I find it a lot easier to hit off of right-handed pitchers, and I usually feel uncomfortable seeing a lefty on the mound. I'm not exactly sure why, but seeing a left-handed pitcher forces me to think more than any other situation in baseball.

My left-handed stance

My right-handed stance

Recently, I switch off between swinging on my left and right sides, depending on the situation (right vs. left-handed pitcher). Most of my power comes from my left side because it's my most used/comfortable swing. But, against lefty pitchers, I have a better batting average when I swing in my right-handed stance. I never really understood why, until Adair explained it: "the left-handed and right-handed pitchers throw from different angles" (73). After reading about this, I wondered how I never thought about this before. To any type of batter, a left-handed pitch will move left-to-right and a right-handed pitch will move right-to-left. This clearly creates an advantage because it's a lot easier to see a ball that is coming towards you rather than starting towards you and drifting away.

A small portion of baseball players believe that right-handed and left-handed pitching has the same effect on the batter regardless of the hitter's stance. Do you think that there's an advantage in hitting between right and left-handed players?

Adair, Robert Kemp. The Physics of Baseball. New York: Harper & Row, 1990. Print.

Softball: Swing

In this blog post I will be talking about the swing. Batting has always been one of the hardest things to do. Being able to  follow through after you hit the ball has always been a struggle for me. Making eye contact with the ball then swinging at just the right time to hit the ball and finally following through after making contact.

"The hitter needs to keep the bat above forearm level (a line passing from the elbow through the hand), and the front arm maintains a 90 degree angle" ( Veroni 59 ).
"As the bat head moves closer to contact, the top hand begins to rotate so the that contact the palm is nearly facing up... the back leg continues to drive into a now firm (not locked) front leg, and the back foot begins to turn towards the pitcher" ( Veroni 59 ).


In these here pictures, are the steps that Veroni describes herself. First picture the front elbow in a 90 degree angle, and bat is at forearm level. Also keeping my arms in place but relaxed also keeping my front foot further in front than my back foot to keep balance. And as you continue to swing the bat your wrist begins to turn underneath the bat and your body and hips turn and face the pitcher. And as you make contact with the ball, you follow though with your swing to get the ball to go as far as possible.

But some softball players have their own technique. And they swing whats most comfortable for them to make contact with the ball.
 

 Do you think an athlete would be better off swinging what's comfortable, or whats instructed?

The Swing

THE SWING

In my mind, hitting a baseball has always been considered the hardest thing to do in any sport. There's no doubt that no one can be triumphant in any other sport where they succeed only one-third of the time. Keeping my hands closer while swinging the bat has always been a great challenge for me, although I feel that is the most effective way to hit a ball. Adair would disagree with that. He believes that keeping your hands closer to your body for a longer duration throughout your swing creates more bat velocity. More arm extension during the swing slows your bat speed and decreases your control over the bat (31). No athlete would argue with an author with a Ph.D. regarding baseball, but I believe that my swing is more effective when I am the most comfortable with it. Maintaining control of my hands during a swing is one challenge, but baseball is a mind game; as a result, baseball comes down to how comfortable you perform, how focused you stay, and how much effort you put in.

The reaction time of a batter during the pitch determines where/whether they hit the ball. Adair explains the reaction time: "he will swing so that the hitting area of the bat strikes the ball squarely-he hopes! All of this takes time and judgement-and good judgment takes more time" (38). My biggest strength, in my opinion, is my hand-eye coordination. I can hit the ball very squarely and prefer executing rather easy hits than powerful ones. During each of my practices however, I try altering my swing little by little until I find the most effective one. Practicing keeping my hands in longer and generating a shorter, quicker swing allows me to feel more confident going up to hit with a newer swing.

The picture on the left shows me in a swinging stance with a soccer ball under my back shoulder. This helps with two things while swinging; forcing your hands close to your body and keeping your back shoulder level. It's very essential to maintain balance-leveled shoulders so that when you swing, you minimize the chance of hitting the ball directly up in the air.

Would an athlete perform better with a proven, technical swing or a comfortable, relaxed swing?

Adair, Robert Kemp. The Physics of Baseball. New York: Harper & Row, 1990. Print.

Piano and Swing Feel

What is the hardest style of music to play?

Answers may vary depending on who you are, but I am in strong belief that Jazz is the hardest style of music to play.

All of my past posts apply to jazz; Preparation, Originality, Rhythm, and Minor/Major chords. Jazz is quite basically the mother load of music. It incorporates various feels, sounds, and rhythms. This is why Mr. Palmer introduced the swing feel last. For those who don't know, Jazz is primarily triplets. Practically every note played in jazz is in the placement of triplets. If you were to play eighth note triplets all the way through a sheet of jazz music, it is more then likely that you would of played in the spot of all written notes.

Mr. Palmer represents this by making us play eighth note triplets continuously, according to him "continue to play triplets each time three eighth notes are joined by one beam" (Palmer 142). After attempting, and completing this, I suddenly got more of a feel for swing as a whole. Now i am in the jazz band for Kentridge, and i do understand swing. But i never really thought of it in the manner of triplets. By applying my new knowledge of Jazz, it is ten times easier to play the swing feel.

Me practicing triplets by playing a B flat chord