[HN Gopher] What does a batsman see? (2018)
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What does a batsman see? (2018)
Author : slyall
Score : 60 points
Date : 2022-06-12 07:57 UTC (15 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.thecricketmonthly.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.thecricketmonthly.com)
| jacksonkmarley wrote:
| Nice narrative-style intro to this, Greg Chappell curing his
| batting with introspection.
|
| Amazing that a top-class batter sees the details of the ball to
| the extent of the direction of spin as it approaches, and assumes
| everyone can. As a poor player who nevertheless had good eyesight
| I only ever had a vague idea of where the ball was, let alone
| seeing it clearly.
| sharadov wrote:
| Amazing article - he probably trained his mind to be focussed for
| marathon level periods of time, a test match lasted for 3-5 days,
| and a batsman could bat for an entire day of 8 hours - the
| scoring rate is really low, to keep your concentration for that
| long is tedious and exhausting.
| UIUC_06 wrote:
| An excellent article. I'm not a cricket player (I did try it
| once), but I think there's a lot here that a baseball or softball
| hitter could benefit from.
|
| You hear about "red dot sliders" in baseball: a slider that's
| spinning in such a way that the seams appear to form a red dot. A
| good hitter can see that and predict where the ball's going.
|
| I've also heard (not sure about this) that a lot of baseball
| players have better than 20/20 vision, enhanced by Lasik, just so
| they can see the ball better.
|
| One thing that I _don 't_ see here was a recent issue with Shohei
| Ohtani of the Angels, where they suspected he was "tipping" his
| pitches. A pitcher always tries as hard as he can to make every
| pitch look _exactly_ the same when it comes out of his hand. If
| he does even the slightest movement differently for an off-speed
| pitch versus a fastball, the other team will notice it and start
| hitting him. Otherwise, the batters have to do what Chappell does
| and pick it up from the ball.
| mkmk wrote:
| Here's a fun video on a recent case of pitch tipping:
| https://youtu.be/DcoB3G2Gj7w
| UIUC_06 wrote:
| Great video, thanks.
|
| 5:50 "First step back" you guys in the outfield! Everyone
| knows that.
| a_c wrote:
| Without the endless practice, he won't have the epiphany. Reading
| someone else's epiphany won't give you the muscle the endless
| practice resulted in.
|
| One has to look both the forest and the tree to distill and apply
| abstract concept.
|
| This happens to most if not all professional fields. Music,
| writing, and, of course, programming among many others
| InCityDreams wrote:
| _not a cricket fan_ , but i knew this would relate to a great
| article i once read where elite sportspersons have an ability to
| see time slower. An example being f1 drivers - their perception
| of time is just 'different' to everyone else. Similarly
| skateboarders- those multi-flip kicks are a result of the same. I
| have wondered, of late, if politicians etc function in a
| different 'time'. I've met a few, and their ability to 'think
| fast' is often staggering. /still a bunch of twats tho.
| Swizec wrote:
| I think it's a combination of adrenaline, focus, and ignoring
| the unimportant.
|
| For example, I can do this in the boxing ring. Been training
| for 10 or so years, never competed. Most obvious when sparring
| with a beginner. While they're just trying to survive, I'm
| fighting on the level of tactics and strategy. The technique
| for punches and footwork is automatic, and in those split
| seconds between the opponents punches I can see where the
| openings are, how they're flowing, which punches I need to
| throw so certain openings show up, where to step to drive the
| opponent towards the ropes, etc.
|
| You really have time to think and analyze the situation during
| a 3 minute round. Feels almost like playing chess.
|
| Adrenaline really is a fun drug. When I was super into downhill
| mountain biking in high school, flying down a single track
| inches away from trees at 50km/h, yet you have time to notice
| every tiny detail on the trail. Every loose pebble and tiny
| twist of the trail, texture on every tree root ... feels like
| you notice and process orders of magnitude more information per
| second than you can at walking speeds.
| jon-wood wrote:
| I'm curious whether this is a time perception thing, or very
| specialised thought processes. If I were to take an F1 driver
| and put them in front a cricket bowler would they be able to
| spot the spin on a ball? Can a skateboarder react quick enough
| to drive an F1 car?
| tsm wrote:
| Anecdotally, it's specialized. In the past five years I've
| put a tremendous amount of effort into improvising variations
| for 18th-century Scottish music (...don't ask) and have
| noticed that things slow down and from my point of view I
| have all the time in the world to think about what I've
| played and what should come next. But for the audience I'm
| zipping along at 480 eighth notes per minute.
|
| Meanwhile, I'm absolutely useless at anything involving
| sports or a fast reaction time.
|
| I'm reminded of the section of Peak (Anders Ericsson) where
| chess grandmasters were excellent at remembering board
| positions from real games and completely average at
| remembering impossible board positions.
| nickdothutton wrote:
| I was lucky enough to have dinner with Stirling Moss once,
| winner of the 1955 Mille Miglia and many other races. He spoke
| of this ability to slow down time, and how it was "automatic"
| and didn't require conscious effort. He said that after his
| 1962 crash and brain injury... he could still drive fast but it
| was no-longer automatic. Instead it required tremendous
| concentration. He said he knew then that he must quit racing or
| would very likely kill himself with a momentary lapse.
|
| Edited for typo.
| igitur wrote:
| I'm a decent leg spin bowler, but I'm a terrible batsman. I know
| a big reason is that I don't watch the ball after the bounce. I
| didn't learn the skill as a child and I find it very difficult to
| learn as an adult.
|
| When I do force myself to watch the ball onto the bat, my head
| position lags and it throws my balance off, resulting in worse
| shots.
| harry8 wrote:
| A few thousand deliveries in the nets not worrying about
| regression to worse shots while you work on it will probably
| get you there. I believe there is no such thing as too old to
| learn technique. I've learned new technique to compensate for
| serious injury completely and permanently altering my balance -
| so I did it because I had no choice which engenders a certain
| commitment to the new thing. I'm now a rubbish bat but clearly,
| at least according to the scorebook, less rubbish than I was!
| Do you have much to lose? Hope you have an enjoyable and
| successful season either way.
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