Project by: Henry Pomerance (11th Grade), Cameron Krakowiak (11th Grade)
Project Advisor: Preethi Thomas-McKnight
Student(s)’s Advisor(s): Jacqueline Baker, Karen Silverman

Throughout our trimester we did our work in the Science of Baseball Honors Project Folder on Drive.  Here is the link.

Today, we played Loyola in our states game and here are some of the things I noticed.  We faced the hardest pitcher all season, for most of the game I wasn’t able to keep up to his fastball, his fastest pitch probably in the 70-80s mph range.  But as soon as he threw his slower pitch, his curveball I was able to hit the ball to right field. However, when I hit the ball my swing stopped ¾ through because I had to slow my body in order to hit the slower pitch, the curveball. I wasn’t expecting to see his curveball and in turn, the hit wasn’t as hard hit. 

Questions:

• Why was my bat lower than the ball, is it because I was expecting to see a fastball and my eye couldn’t recognize the pitch?
• Why wasn’t I able to follow my swing through when I made contact?  

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PROJECT PROPOSAL

Please write a description of the project you are proposing. Why do you want to take this on, and what do you hope to learn?

Cameron and I had wanted to take a scientific approach to baseball since we took Physics last year. Baseball is becoming increasingly reliant on analytics, and we wanted to try our hand at it. Furthermore, we wanted to see if we could possibly help our own baseball team with any of our research. We hope to apply physics and some biology to better our own swings and pitching motions.

Critical thinking, creativity, citizenship and courage are essential LREI learning values. Explain how you’ll draw on at least one of these values to complete your proposed project?

We will use critical thinking because we will have to draw on different classes that we have already taken, and also analyze outside sources, and then make our own hypotheses and conclusions.

What is your proposed outcome? How will you be able to demonstrate successful completion of this Project? How do you plan to share your learnings with the larger LREI community (e.g., exhibit of work, poster of learnings, performance, etc.)?

By the end of the project, we should be have comprehensive knowledge of how to create a more powerful and efficient swing. Also, we should be able to explain why certain MLB pitchers have physically better pitching motions. We will present this work in a poster.

Please provide a general outline that indicates your work plan for the trimester? What are some of the key project benchmarks (i.e., goals that will help to ensure that you finish the project)?

We will first focus on the hitting aspect of the project; we will film and then analyze our own swings, with modifications. Then, we will look at MLB pitchers with different motions, and also analyze them from a physics standpoint. We will talk with Preethi more extensively about specific timelines as we work through the project.

When do you plan on meeting?
Tuesday at lunch

Final Reflection