TAI CHI & BASEBALL PITCHER

The major league baseball season starts today--April Fools' Day.  And if the 2013 World Series goes the distance, Game 7 will be on Halloween....

In the meantime, a profound similarity has been observed in the athletic forms used by American baseball pitchers and those utilized by practitioners of the Asian-based athletic discipline tai chi.



While taking 10-form integral tai chi lessons at a community center in Fairfax, VA some of the tai chi movements were easier for me to learn than others. They seemed familiar--kind of a déjà vu feeling. Then I realized that I was tapping into muscle memories from years ago on the high school pitching mound.



Continuing my lessons, I’ve been amazed at the number of common motions encountered. Baseball pitching is a “spring coil release” type of movement while tai chi is considered “self defense redirect”, so there’s no inherent reason for the resemblance.



Tai chi began in Asia about a thousand years ago, whereas baseball originated in America a mere 250-or-so years ago. There is nothing historically indicating any notable influence of either one upon the other.



It hoped that this startling similarity will contribute to greater cross-cultural awareness, and could have implications in fields like robotics.



Here are the tai chi forms I’ve discerned approximated in the traditional baseball pitcher’s windup (animal names, in sequential order): Buffalo (reverse), Earth, Buffalo, Turtle, Phoenix, Frog (reverse), Crane, Phoenix (again), Tiger, Butterfly. Component slices of the forms are used in constructing this hybrid form.



Many baseball fans in 2013 have never seen a pitcher begin by raising both arms overhead and clasping the hands --something found in tai chi’s toad and tiger forms. But just forty years or so ago, elaborate windup styles--as evinced by such greats as Bob Gibson, Tom Seaver and Vida Blue--were commonplace.



And sixty years ago, the style in vogue was even more extended, as pitchers like ace Bob Feller started off with a swinging back-and-forth of the arms. That movement corresponds to elements of the turtle and buffalo tai chi forms. The present era tendency towards abbreviation of pitching motion may simply amount to trimming some fat. But note the prevalence of arm injury among current throwers.



Some movement analysts have recommended that pitchers incorporate tai chi into their training routine because research has shown it improve balances--obviously a key component in pitching since the player is standing on one leg or the other for most of the delivery while doing a lot of maneuvering around--as in the tai chi form for the crane. And when a pitcher drops his hands from overhead down to waist level, it resembles a component of the reverse toad form.



The most-photographed point in the pitching delivery is when the pitcher’s throwing arm is cocked back while striding forward. This posture is nearly a mirror image of the pose of the phoenix in tai chi.



The release and follow-through movements bear some resemblance to elements of the tiger and butterfly forms of 10-form integral tai chi--the one I‘ve been studying, although a bit of a stretch since the hands move together in them--which clearly doesn’t occur in this section of the pitching motion. However, broadening out to other 10-form tai chi styles on you tube, I did find some movements more like throwing.



So it may be possible to cover the entire pitching delivery via tai chi. A good editor could probably splice together a nice video. To further demonstrate this similarity, a researcher could get some serious tai chi students who have little knowledge of baseball and teach them pitching motion strictly by tai chi. Call it an extended hybrid or composite form. Video that routine and present it to the general public. Ask them what they think it is. Make sure students are diverse and neutrally clothed--not all wearing baseball caps so as not to lead the audience.
See how many of them see a baseball pitcher’s motion.



Check out some good examples of tai chi forms and baseball pitchers on my you tube playlist “Tai Chi & Baseball Pitching.” and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Includes archival pitching footage of Walter Johnson (1920s), Dizzy Dean (1930s) and Feller (1940s), along with Koufax, Gibson and Seaver (1960s to ‘70s).

Happy April Fools' Day, y/all!

GET OUTTA MY WAY--IT'S APRIL FOOLS' DAY !!

Basketball Rules

Charging fouls are too prevalent, and inhibit the smooth flow of the game. They penalize the
player who drives to the basket--reducing point totals. It’s not fair for a player to make a strong move to the net only to have it ruined by someone who jumps in front--like a street bum hopping in front of a car for a payoff--it’s demeaning.


And how is the driver/shooter supposed to avoid contact? The rule should be modified so that once the player with the ball en route to the basket leaves his feet you cannot get a charge call for defenders who are not already in place. If a defender is set in the path of the driver before he takes off it could be an offensive foul if contact occurs while the driver is ascending, and a no-call if contact occurs while the driver is descending. But defenders who pop out in front of the basket while the driver is in the air deserve to be mowed down like bowling pins.



What’s a guy supposed to do when he’s flying in the air and some hotshot moron steps onto his landing strip? A collision is unavoidable, and it’s the defender’s fault. It isn’t good athleticism to hamstring great leapers.


Addendum 4/6/13


Undercutting the Game

I’m not going to say “I told you so”, but the bad charging call by an NCAA official in the closing seconds of tonight’s basketball game between Syracuse and Michigan likely cost Syracuse a berth in the championship game. These charging fouls are having way too much influence on the outcomes of big games! The whole spectacle of defenders “taking the charge” and dramatically flopping about is a perversion of good sportsmanship! Hey, if you can’t take the heat of the game inside the lane, you can just stick to the perimeter!



Many years ago, it took a Final Four travesty display by North Carolina’s team--of stalling the game once they got ahead--to compel the insertion of the shot clock. Hopefully there will be a reform of the charge call now, too.

THE FLIPSIDE OF GREAT QUOTATIONS THROUGHOUT HISTORY

Using the other f-word (the PG one) to put a goofy spin on language--appropriate  for April Foolsters.  Call it letting the air out of the tires of tired and pompous speech.


According to most of the top sources generated by search engine Google, the term “fart”--rather than being considered slang or obscene or coarse and vulgar speech--is held up as model of polite society language usage.



If some highly esteemed person--like the pope, the queen, the president were to say it at a public function, there’d be more tittering than outrage.



However, a close analysis of the situation reveals a potential conspiracy by historians and whatnot to cover up the use of this, the ‘other” f-word in literature and the public record of the day as it gets passed down through the generations.  It is hoped that deep thinkers will recognize many hidden meanings in these alternative offerings.



So, forthwith, with no more much ados about it, here’s a listing of Famous Historic Quotes-- Unrevised Versions (What they Actually Might Have Said If There Subsequently was a Concerted Effort to Suppress Fart Speech).



I came I saw I farted.



How long to the fart of no return?



To fart or not to fart--that is the question.



All fart one, and one fart all!



Don’t bite off more than you can fart.



Two farts are better than one.



Follow the yellow-brick fart.



The fart in Spain falls mainly on the plain.



The rain in Spain farts mainly on the plane.



A fart, a fart, my kingdom for a fart!



Is a fart still a fart if it has no thorns?



A fart by any other name is still a fart.



If a tree farts in the forest and nobody’s around, does it make a sound?



Speak softly and carry a big fart.



A fart in time saves nine.



He who farts last farts best.



The British are farting! The Britishh are farting!



Is this the fart that launched a thousand ships?



I fart, therefore am.



These are the farts that try men’s souls!



That’s putting the fart before the horse!



UFA! UFA! UFA!



He’s got the fart of a champion!



If man were meant to fart he’d have wings!



A fart, a fart--my kingdom for a fart!



Other Stuff



The San Francisco Farty-niners’ Vaunted Air Attack



Bret Fart Ends Retirement Again.



The site of Custer’s last fart



The Fart Nouveau Movement



The Signing of the Magna Farta



Graduated Magna Cum Farty



The Endangered Farts Act



No Farting Zone



Handicapped Farting Only


When E.F. Hutton farts, people listen.