Abstract
The purpose of this study was two-fold; to determine the optimum impact condition for maximizing flight distance toward the opposite field and to examine the influence of the bat angles at impact on the batted ball characteristics (speed, rotation, and angle immediately after impact) and the flight characteristics (distance, trajectory, and time). Various impact conditions were defined using 3 factors: the angles of the bat at impact projected to the horizontal and vertical planes, and the vertical inclination angle of the line of impact (the product of the sine of this angle and the radius of the ball determines the under-cut distance). Three-dimensional finite element analysis was used to construct a model of impact between a baseball and a wooden baseball bat and to conduct simulation analysis. The initial flight condition of the batted ball after the impact was determined for each simulated condition, and the flight distance was estimated from the initial flight condition. The results showed that a nearmaximum flight distance of 90-95 m was attained over a wide range of the opposite field when the bat head was not lowered substantially more than the grip-end. However, when the bat head was lowered substantially more than the grip-end, the flight distance attainable with the given impact condition decreased as the vertical bat angle increased, and the range of horizontal bat angle within which a great flight distance was attainable became narrower. The latter results suggest that a batsman needs to acquire a sophisticated technique with a greater precision of ball impact to hit a ball toward a given horizontal angle in the opposite field if the bat swing is characterized as lowering of the bat head to a large extent.
