I want to start this by saying, I am not so idiotic as to think I actually would be able to hit a major league pitcher.
But when presented with the “do you think you’d be able to even make contact on 1 out of 100 pitches by a pitcher”, I’d like to understand why.
Like if they did nothing but pitch breaking stuff, couldn’t I just overcorrect? Same deal with fastballs? I’m sure they would mix it up, but out of 100 straight pitches, if you were a major-league pitcher, what would you do to make sure that they never made contact?
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I’d like to change it up a bit and look at it from a different angle. If the pitchers trying to make you miss, as in trick you with pitches and actually throwing some of the insane breaking stuff, then its just chance on you hitting it mostly. At some point you would but it may or may not be less than 100. Some of the crazy stuff looks like a fast ball til right before it hits the plate. To where even the pros are not touching it. Also part of what makes a good pitcher is being able to tell where they can get you. You not being a pro opens up that box for them to continue to constantly trick you etc. Once again you might hit something intentionally or accidentally. But it just depends on if it is more or less than 100.
I’d like to change it up a little though and say that they are maybe still trying to make you miss, but instead of playing mind games, they’re keeping it more simple with how they choose their pitches.
if you committed to only bunting and we’re assuming that the pitcher is also committing every pitch to the strike zone (cause what’s the point otherwise in this scenario), then I think it is absolutely possible to, at minimum, make contact.
Depending on your experience with a bat and other reflexes though it might take more than 100.
If you have no experience swinging a bat, and you intend to actually swing, then it just depends on the person and chance, on whether you hit anything. Think about how many pitches they’ve seen in their lifetime and still can’t make contact.
But going back to my point above. Typical at-bats consist of only a handful of consecutive pitches. Watch an at bat where someone is getting a ton of pitches and starting to foul them all off. After a certain point they start making more and more contact. They’re not necessarily doing anything, but they’re making contact.
Even for a professional that little bit of extra time of repetition helps their brain slow the pitches down. The more consecutive pitches you see the more your brain can adapt to see what’s coming.
Once again, a full swing is completely different than a bunt. You may not even be able to fully swing the bat before the ball got there depending on your fitness level. I don’t think it’s as impossible as others are saying though. People forget that pros don’t care about just contact, but effective contact. And also typically get 5-10 pitches at a time. if you changed the game where pitchers pitched the same but the intention was now for the batter to just touch the ball no matter where it ended up, and they got 100 at a time, they could probably do it 99 out of 100.
if you watch formula 1 drivers before a race, right before they get in the cars they are doing activities to help focus their reaction time. It’s not that they don’t have 1000’s of hours behind the wheel. But a lot of it is repetition for the brain. So instead of waiting till they’re racing to build that repetition, they’re doing it right before. They don’t need to “be ok on 1 out of 100 starts”. They need be exceptional on 1 out of 1 starts off the line. They don’t get the temporary conditioning of starting over and over again. They just get one chance which means they have to do the temporary conditioning right before they get in the car.
Your brain can adapt heavily to repetition. It’s one of the reasons sports people practice so much. If you have the mental and physical endurance to overcome getting tired then eventually you would start to see the benefits of that. Once again though, depending on the above it might be more or less than 100
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