Analysis of the objective viewpoint of well-experienced baseball coaches when evaluating batting skills using kinematics indices

Abstract

  The purpose of this study was to clarify the viewpoint of a well-experienced baseball coach when evaluating batting skills using kinematics indices.
Method: First, three baseball coaches evaluated sixteen baseball players in their own teams. The players were divided subjectively into a first superior (FG) group and a second superior (SG) group according to batting ability. Next, the hitting motion of all sixteen players was captured using a VICON system (9 cameras, 250 Hz). We measured the speed of the batted and pitched ball, or the timing of release by the pitcher, using three synchronized high-speed cameras (250 Hz). From these kinematics data, we calculated several kinematics indices for each batter, focusing especially on the indices for motion of the lower extremities and trunk. In contrast, a well-experienced expert coach who had never met these players evaluated the hitting motion of each player using only motion films without the above kinematics indices, and similarly divided them into FG and SG. The evaluation of fourteen players agreed between the team coaches and the expert coach. The FG and the SG each comprised seven players. We analyzed these fourteen players using the kinematics indices, and clarified objectively the differences in hitting motion between the two groups.
Results & Conclusions: The speed of swing, batted ball speed and physical index were approximately the same in the two groups. However, players in the FG group showed a significantly longer distance of center of gravity migration in step than those in the SG group. This might have been attributable to the hip abduction movement on the pivot side on the basis of kinematics indices (p<0.05). Moreover, players in the FG group took more time in step, and swung in a shorter time after landing on the stepped foot, relative to the players in the SG group (p<0.05). These results suggest that the well-experienced expert coaches paid particular attention to the above hitting motion rather than the speed of swing, batted ball speed and physical index as coaching points.