著者

神事 努 桜井 伸二 清水 卓也 鈴木 康博 Tsutomu JINJI Shinji SAKURAI Takuya SHIMIZU Yasuhiro SUZUKI

雑誌

中京大学体育学論叢 = Research journal of physical education Chukyo University (ISSN:02887339)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.49, no.1, pp.21-27, 2008-01-01

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It has been reported that the spin axis of a pitched baseball differs between adult pitchers and youth pitchers (Tezuka and Himeno 2001). However, that information was based on visual observation, and has not been determined quantitatively. The purpose of this study was to investigate the ball spin orientation and spin rate of youth pitchers compared with those for adult pitchers. In addition, the development of the throwing motion and factors in the determination of spin rate were discussed. Fourteen youth baseball pitchers (13.9±1.2 years) and nine collegiate baseball pitchers (20.1± 0.8 years) were selected as subjects. All of them were classified as over-hand style pitchers. The baseball was filmed immediately after the ball release using a high-speed video camera (250 Hz). The direction of spin axis and the spin rate were calculated using positional changes of drawn marks on the ball surface. The direction of the spin axis was defined by two angles, θ(azimuth) and φ(elevation). The angle between spin axis and pitching direction (α) was also obtained (Jinji and Sakurai 2006). Mean values of the angles of the spin axis showed no significant differences between youth pitchers and collegiate pitchers. As for variations within each trial, however, youth pitchers were significantly more inconsistent than collegiate pitchers. Although youth pitchers have acquired similar pitching motion to adults on average, their motion was often unstable with large variations. There was a significant difference in the mean values of spin rate between the youth pitchers and collegiate pitchers (p<0.001). Moreover, the spin rate correlated significantly with the initial ball velocity (p<0.001). Pitchers with a higher initial velocity achieved a notably higher spin rate. It was concluded that a pitching motion that increased the ball velocity consequently increased spin rate.