Kyoto and Shiga Journal of Physical Education, Health and Sport Sciences
Online ISSN : 2435-8835
Print ISSN : 2187-7866
Basic study on footwork in baseball fielding
― focusing on foot placement and catch position―
Hiromitsu HASEGAWAKazuhiro WADATetsuro TANIGAWANoriyuki KIDATeruo NOMURA
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JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS

2012 Volume 28 Pages 11-25

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Abstract

How baseball fielders control their feet when changing from the ready to the fielding position was investigated. Participants were male volunteeres, who were currently members of a rubber baseball club (n = 3), or former members (n = 2). Participant fielded a ball that was rolled to their left-side, in a gymnasium. We analyzed four or six steps of the motion of reaching for the ball from the ready position. The main results were as follows: (1) The variability of foot placement in the third step of four‐step‐catch trial was significantly larger than that between the ready position and the first step. Moreover, the horizontal component of this variability was larger than that of others steps, in particular, there was a significant difference between the first and the forth steps. The coefficient of variation of step length for the third step was also significantly larger than that for other steps. (2) The variability of foot placement of the forth step was significantly larger than that between the ready position and the first step. Furthermore, the vertical component of this variability was larger than the horizontal component of the forth step. The standard deviation of the angle of the forth step was also larger than that of the other steps. It is concluded that in four‐step‐ catch trial the third step played a role in controlling the step lengths, mainly for grounder course, whereas the forth step played a role in controlling the anteroposterior position of catching the ball.

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© 2012 Kyoto and Shiga Society of Physical Education, Health and Sport Sciences
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