A New Approach to Hitting Interfaces - SBartlett's Blog

Arena Blog Dynasty Scores Sign Up ☰

SBartlett's Blog

A New Approach to Hitting Interfaces Stuck

Posted on April 22, 2010 at 03:40 PM.

(1)

I plan on doing a video blog entry of this soon.

A New Approach to Hitting Interfaces

From the moment the ball leaves the pitcher�s hand, a batter has about two-fifths of a second to make up his mind whether to swing at the pitch and�complete his swing. Quickness with the bat is critical.� Ted Williams, The Science of Hitting

MLB 2K 10 attempts to give us deeper control of the art of hitting. The only problem is that a flick of the stick in one direction of the other isn�t nearly enough to cover the complexities of hitting a baseball. 2K is playing rookie ball over here, and The Show�s hitting system I would define as high class A ball.

In both titles, weight distribution of the batter, hand placement & hand movement, and hip action is all computer calculated and a.i. controlled � all we do is time our swing with the bat and guess the location and pitch type; the batter we are swinging with does the rest. He loads his hands, extends his hands to go after outside pitches, and brings the hands in to turn on the inside pitch all on his own.

We do have swing influence with the left stick, but there is no visual of our batter�s actually positioning their hands, body, and weight to hit to all fields, and we never know how much the swing was influenced, and why contact was made the way it was.

MLB The Bigs 2 left analog stick swing influence makes more sense than both titles by closing and opening the hips with a push to the left of the right�pretty nice for an arcade title.

Now go back 15 years to MLB Featuring Griffey on N64 � When you move the left analog stick, the body moves with it, almost mimicking what the hand movements and weight distribution should do in that situation.

For example, if we are going after and outside pitch, move your hitting circle to the outside and your hitter will shift his weight to the outside and drive the ball oppo.

Now if we are getting an inside pitch, the player shifts inward to get his hands inside the ball to avoiding getting jammed, opening up the hips faster.

Now let�s take this method and apply it to 2K10 but carry it one step further: while the left stick controls the player�s body weight, we should also have it control the player�s hand positioning simultaneously as the hips dictate where your head, shoulders, and hands will follow.

Learning from Tiger�s Swing Mechanics

�Cocking hips, so essential to the golf swing but never articulated in baseball, is at the root of batting power. It occurs in unison wit the beginning of the stride, the lead knee turning in to facilitate rotation of the hips and shoulders.� � Ted Williams, The Science of Hitting

The right analog stick control in Tiger in divided into two hemispheres along the center of the analog stick axis: a north and south hemisphere.

Pulling the stick back into the lower bottom hemisphere provides your backswing with a 180� control. Upon letting go of the swing, depending on how far back you pulled your back swing, the momentum will drop and you will come back to your original stance at address with the ball.

The other half in the northern hemisphere of your axis on the right analog stick provides a 180� full range of follow through.

Our swing stick in Tiger could be used as our swing stick our baseball games. Load up on your back swing and full 180� and square the baseball up with this full range of motion.

Thoughts guys?
I know BLZER should have some : )