Thread: Samurai hits 100mph fastball in a batting cage

Don't try this at home: Watch: Samurai at batting cage slices 100-mph fastball in half | FOX Sports

160km/h is 44m/s, so the ball took .2s to reach him from the hole in the net. It's hard to tell how further behind the net the machine shooting the balls is, but, even with another 4m it'll be .3 seconds. The sound of the machine could buy him may be a little extra, but still the reaction is very impressive.

especially since he hits it as it going past him, not like a batter would!

Originally Posted by gugi

160km/h is 44m/s, so the ball took .2s to reach him from the hole in the net. It's hard to tell how further behind the net the machine shooting the balls is, but, even with another 4m it'll be .3 seconds. The sound of the machine could buy him may be a little extra, but still the reaction is very impressive.

Holy crap Batman, impressive.

Bob

It is impressive. He can draw his sword incredibly fast, but his is not 'cutting' at the ball as much as making his sword pass through the same plane that the ball will pass through. And because the ball is going fast, it will hit his edge somewhere along the way and split. There are various slow motion videos in which this is explained in detail.

So while this is very impressive in terms of speed, he is not hitting at the ball. The ball just happens to split itself on his edge. The fact that he hits the ball is rather 'meh' compared to the fact that he can get his sword out so fast without snags or tugs. I've done this, and there are a lot of motions to carry out at uncomfortable angles. He is faster than I can imagine.

He does this kind of thing at least semiprofessionally. He is a regular celebrity in Japanese tv shows and does this sort of thing on a very regular basis.

Ha Ha , I played the video several times with my finger poised on the mouse ready to click the pause icon and was only able to freeze the video on impact once , even though I merely had to move my finger a fraction of a inch. Sight or Sound; A Study of Reaction Times

I think I've seen that guy (maybe it was another person..??) on an Australian tv show doing a similar thing with a golf ball.

It's pretty impressive to me. Yes, he is only having to deal with one plane really (just getting the height right holding the sword horizontally) but getting it out of the sheath etc. He's pretty quick!

What I'd like to see, just to see if it were possible, is whether he could cut down through the ball as it went past (vertical movement). Sword already out of course.

James.

That was far out, Not trying to play 'can you top this', but apropos ........ Bruce Lee, wait for the ping pong contest ......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl1sS1kVAvA

Seen the Bruce Lee ping pong before, always thought it was BS but that looked for real.

Originally Posted by Jimbo

It's pretty impressive to me. Yes, he is only having to deal with one plane really (just getting the height right holding the sword horizontally) but getting it out of the sheath etc. He's pretty quick!

Yes, I wouldn't minimize positioning the sword correctly either. I looks like the machine is throwing them exactly the same each time, which is very helpful - he can figure out the position he needs to place the sword ahead of time, and being slightly below shoulder level is likely very important, but his margin for error is the ball diameter i.e. 70mm. You can see that he is essentially slicing horizontally, so in about 0.3 seconds he draws the sword swipes an arch upwards and then horizontally where it'll intercept the ball.

A baseball pitcher would aim the ball differently on each throw, so the hitter needs to figure out exactly where the specific ball is going and then swing the bat in a way to intercept it. He doesn't have a predetermined stroke that he only needs to execute correctly like the samurai dude has. It's a much more complicated proposition, but that's why he has a little bit more time (not too much more though, because he has to decide whether to swing at all).