Was watching some taped footage of some recent games from my sons league and was noticing how bad the opposing team was struggling to make contact with the changup. It looked like their timing was way off. So I broke the footage down into frame by frame and noticed something quite interesting.

The camera recorded the action in 30 fps. The fastball taking about 17 frames (54 feet from mound to home plate) to hit the catchers mit from the pitchers release while the changup was taking 19- an additional two frames. The breakdown in mph differential being about 6-7 mph.

One would think that when a batter gets fooled by the changup and they are way out in front that they are like a whole 1/4 of a second or more. The truth of it is that these kids in the footage were all exactly one frame (1/30th of a second) in front of the ball. It was very consistant too and against one of the top traveling teams in our area- they were all exactly 1/30th of a second out in front. It is obvious they are getting fooled, but is very interesting at the same time that it is only by such a small margin. One would think that due to body reaction and all the motion that 1/30th of a second wouldn't really be a consistant difference and yet it is.

This got me to thinking about pitching and the exactness of making good connection on a ball. Think about how hard it is to start a stopwatch and stop it perfectly at the 49-51/100th of a second range- that is what is required just to make contact for a hitter in my sons league. Hit 48- you are too early- hit 52 and you are too late. It is truly amazing how the changup can be so nasty and all because you are changing the deception for the batter by 1/30th of a second- Amazing!

Robert Adair, in the book The Physics of Baseball, estimates that the required timing for professional players is more stringent. He says that 1/100 second too early or too late means a foul ball for a 70mph swing.