

How Baseball Players Catch Fly Balls - sobriquet
http://www.livescience.com/culture/090403-sports-baseball-catch.html

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albertni
There's a reason why the motto of any outfield is "FIRST STEP BACK!"

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dkokelley
What reason is that?

From the article: "A faster rise of the optical acceleration above the
detection threshold may outweigh a possible initial step in the wrong
direction. _Making an initial step forwards is not only easier than making an
initial step backwards, but might also be a better choice._ "

It seems that the motto and the reasoning from the article conflict.

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stevenjames
Perhaps because you can run faster going forward than you can going backward?

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dinkumthinkum
That's right. You can also dive forward to catch the ball if you moved too far
back.

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FraaJad
Pfft..

To see real ball catching action watch a cricket match. Start here:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05klsa3M08A>

Cricket balls are harder, weightier and come at you much faster and you have
to catch them with your bare hands.

The first time I put on a baseball glove, I thought.. "Man, this is too easy".

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ssharp
Not sure what this has to do with anything.

If you're trying to compare the difficulty of the sports, nobody would argue
that the catches in that video are more difficult than a fly ball. However,
there are plenty of difficult catches made everyday in the major leagues. And
hitting and pitching are significantly harder in baseball.

