I read a great article about hitting a 90 mph fastball. I suggest you go read it at Living For Science. The article breaks down the math to determine if you have the reflexes it would to connect with a ball coming 90mph from 60.5 feet away. (A major league pitchers fast ball.) One of the links they site will test your reflex time. I won't lie, I had a great time trying to beat my previous reflex score. (You can find this reflex test in my resources box.)
Now, after reading about baseball, my mind naturally wandered to volleyball. I searched the internet for average serving and hitting speeds and I found a huge discrepancy in numbers. The fastest of each ranging from 60-100 mph. For fun, let's pretend we are playing against a server who sends the ball over at 80 mph. I read something that said Clay Stanley serves up around that number, and he's pretty darn good.
So if the ball travels 50' from the serving line to you, it will take.42 seconds to reach you. (117.3 feet per second) You have less that a half of a second to get your body into position to receive the serve. Now go back to your reflex time from earlier. You only have to move your finger, which is probably already on the mouse. All you have to do is click. I got.23 over and over, so I would need to move my whole body slightly faster than that. I'd say that's a tall task, but if you can hit the ball in the fun little computer game, you might be quick enough to get a solid touch on the serve. Granted, if the serve is 2 steps away, taking 2 steps in.42 seconds might be difficult. I think this is where longer limbs could really help me out. Maybe someday I'll have the privilege to receive a Clay Stanley serve. I'll let you know if I get a touch. (This is sort of assuming you're using 3 passers, and the serve is within a couple steps.)
Now! Let's move on to hitting. We will use 95 mph. Actually no. Let's use 75-95 mph and do a range. I have no idea how fast those guys (and girls!) hit. For our purposes, we will say the height of contact is at 11 feet, and we will pretend the point of contact with the floor is 20 feet away. This makes the ball's distance of travel, 22.83 feet. So here we go!! (Are you as excited as I am?)
At 75 mph, the ball will take .21 seconds to reach the floor. (110 feet per second)
At 95 mph, the ball will take .16 seconds to reach the floor. (139.3 feet per second)
Now go back to our reflex game and think about my super fast.2 reflex speed. That was my very best. The ball touches the floor faster than I could click my mouse. Now, keep in mind that 95 mph might not be a top speed, the fastest might be closer to 75 mph. I'd love for someone to go find me some solid evidence as to what those top level players are actually hitting. Let's think more about the .2 seconds though. I think that's probably reasonable. Reading is a huge factor in volleyball, so if you study the hitter, you can get a good idea of where the ball will go, so you can go stand in that spot, and hopefully the ball bounces off of you. Tat ladies and gentlemen, is why setting the block is so important. At the very least the ball will be filtered towards a digger.
If I ever have the opportunity to dig a ball hit by Clay Stanley, you will bet that I will be hidden behind a huge block, and will still probably duck the other direction. Oh and I'll be playing defense with my hands up in front of my nose, to prevent breakage.
Last thing before we leave. Let's calculate some much more average numbers.
Serves-
20mph-40mph serve (passing from 20' back)
20mph = 1.7 seconds (29.3feet per second)
40 mph=.85 seconds (58.6 feet per second)
Hitting-
25-45mph serve (9.5' high to 20' deep, ball travels 22.14 feet)
25mph=.60 seconds (36.6 feet per second)
45mph=.33 seconds (66 feet per second)
No comments:
Post a Comment