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!

World Government Democracy: Regional System Proposal

An Open Letter to Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of Great Britain and Barack Obama, President of the USA (Both of whom have called for a stronger, more effective U.N.)

World Government Regional System Proposal

Gentlemen:

The recent Copenhagen climate talks struggled to arrive at any definitive agreement on a matter of great importance to the entire world. The proceedings were full of posturing, finger-pointing and half-hearted promises.

A simple way to form a world governing board would be to give equal weight to each major region of the world. This arrangement should balance the democratic flavor of the UN General Assembly with the leadership character of the UN Security Council.

To arrive at the delineation of regions, it's sensible to model after existing organizations of voluntary affiliation meant for economic, social, cultural, scientific, and diplomatic purposes These include: The African Union (AU), The League of Arab States (AL), The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), The Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARI-COM), The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), The European Union (EU), and The Organization of American States (OAS).

A careful balancing of a variety of factors leads to something like this for regional groupings of the Earth:

* AmericA—Canada, Greenland, the USA mainland, Bermuda and Mexico.

* LatinA--The Americas from Belize south through Ecuador, including Brazil, and the Islands of the Caribbean.

* ArgenticA--South America from Peru south through Chile/Argentina (all but Brazil), the Falklands and the continent of Antarctica.

* EuropA--Iceland, Scandinavia, The British Isles, most of mainland Europe, Turkey and the Canaries.

* UrsA—Most of Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, the Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.

* ArabianA--Coastal Africa from Mauritania east through Somalia, and the Sinai Peninsula north through Syria and Iraq.

* AfricA--The continent except for part in ArabianA, and Madagascar.

* WestAsiA--India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Iran and most of the "-stan" lands.

* EastAsiA--China and the members of ASEAN.

* OceaniA--Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.

* JaponicA--Japan, the Koreas, northeast Siberia and Alaska.

That's 11 regions, 6 votes for a majority.

Captain Countries
No individual country within any given region should have more than 50 percent of that region's vote input. The likely 50%ers are USA, Brazil, Argentina, Russia, India, China, Japan and Australia. The regions of AfricA, ArabianiA and EuropA would be coalition-oriented from the get-go. Beyond the 50% rule, the allotment of voting percentages within each region would be guided by formula involving population, land size and value, and other factors.


Such a world governing board would derive strength from the strength of its regions, and would serve as a stepping stone to Earth's inevitable entry into larger realms. If we're going to one day officially interface with extraterrestrials, it helps to have our terrestrial situation in decent order.
　
Demographics
(Aspects considered in delineating regions include: geography, economy, population, affiliation, ethnicity, belief systems, history, culture, language, geo-politics, diversity, leadership, etc.)