Significance of long-distance play catch as speed training in a baseball pitcher

Abstract

    The purpose of this study was to clarify how two factors (distance and release angle) influenced the performance of long-distance play catch as speed training in baseball pitchers. Twelve university baseball pitchers were assigned as the subjects. For the first experiment, they threw balls from 20m up to 80m at intervals of 10m under the free condition. For the second experiment, they threw balls from 20m up to 40m at intervals of 5m under the controlled condition to keep the angle of release flat as much as possible.
    The results are summarized as follows; (1) In S zone (20-40m), the tendency of which the resultant ball velocity at release increased was seen by the horizontal component being emphasized. (2) In M zone (40-70m), the resultant ball velocity at release was decreased and/ or flatten as increasing the release angle significantly. (3) In L Zone (70-80m), the resultant ball velocity at release increased with the rise of the release angle. It was thought that these results indicated (1) long-distance play catch in S Zone was useful as a speed training, (2) long-distance play catch in L Zone was useful as a method of breaking speed plateau.