※ [本文轉錄自 SFGiants 看板]
作者: abc12812 (abc12812) 看板: SFGiants
標題: Crossing the Bridge(4-2)
時間: Wed May 14 01:06:51 2008
In 1994 Avery had a record of 8-3, and other than his ERA, his statistics were
in many ways better than previous years particularly his strikeouts to innings
pitched ratio. Physical examinations showed no indication of problems from the
previous armpit injury. What is not generally known is the problem Avery was
having on the home front.
Avery began to struggle in 1994, a season in which he spent much of the season
traveling between Atlanta and his home in Detroit after his wife gave birth
prematurely to a son weighing just two pounds. Avery began the season 5-1 but
saw his ERA balloon as he dealt with his personal trauma. "It was hard to do
something when your heart was elsewhere," Avery told Baseball Weekly after the
season. "Looking back on it now, I can say it affected me more than I thought."
(http://www.baseballlibrary.com/ballplayers/player.php?name=Steve_Avery_1970 )
What actually happened to Avery? As I said previously, when I first saw Avery
throwing a baseball for the Red Sox in 1997 I was very much “intrigued”
(shocked) by his throwing mechanics. His mechanics were quite different from
what, at the time, I considered good throwing mechanics. I became very curious
as to how his 1997 throwing mechanics compared to his 1991-1993 mechanics. I
was able locate video clips of him from those years and did an extensive
comparison of the 1997 Avery to the 1991-1993 Avery.
To my surprise, Avery's 1997 mechanics, as strange as I thought they appeared,
were not that much different than his 1991 mechanics. (Welcome to the wonderful
world of the human body throwing a baseball—there is an infinite number of
ways to use your body to throw the ball.) I learned a lot about how the body
throws a baseball from Avery's clips, but possibly the most important lesson
that his mechanics taught me is that small changes can have significant effects
on the final result. Years later, I came to understand this phenomenon as
chaotic behavior, a property of dynamic systems.
My speculation is that possibly the injury did play a role in Avery's demise.
It altered how he threw the baseball “just enough” (as opposed to a chronic
debilitation) to compromise his ability to throw with the same effectiveness he
had before the injury. And, quite possibly, the injury combined with the
problems he was having with his family (and subsequent loss of playing time)
created a situation where his body forgot how to throw the baseball.
One of the most powerful mechanisms for destroying a player’s ability to throw
effectively is the need to perform if there is some debilitating factor present
(Dizzy Dean’s broken toe being one of the more famous examples).
Several years ago I did an analysis of Avery's mechanics for a friend who is
the pitching instruction coordinator for a major league team. This analysis is
available at http://www.setpro.com/THT/AveryAnalysis.wmv .
Avery at his best was more of a north-south thrower, which is the precursor to
the throwing problems Avery developed (Avery began pushing the ball).
Before 1997,Avery possessed an east-west component to go along with his
north-south delivery. For whatever reason,s Avery lost most of his east-west
component, resulting a significant decrease in the mechanical “step up”
effect (whip effect, compound pendulum). I also call this disconnection, of his
arm from the rotation of the torso.
The bottom line is that Avery not only lost 4-5 mph off his fastball but also
suffered movement and location problems. Why? Because he became much more
dependent on muscling the ball as opposed to optimally throwing the ball.
1994年，Avery的成績為8-3，除了ERA外很多其他的數據都比前一年進步。體檢顯示他的傷
已經好了。很少人會注意到的是他的"心傷"。
因為妻子生下了一位早產兒，Avery在1994年時一直在Atlanta和Detroit兩地之間奔波。看
看他是怎麼說的"當你心不在焉的時候是很難做好事情的"、"回顧這年，這件事對我的影響
比我想像中的還大"。
到底發生了什麼事？我之前有提到，當我在1997年看到Avery的投球時我感到很震驚。他看
起來不再是當年的他。從此之後，我開始思考什麼是"好的投球機制"。我比較了他在1997
年和1991-1993年的投球動作。
讓我感到意外的是，這兩個影片看起來竟然差不多。在這裡我學到了一件事：在最初的小
改變會導致結局的大不同。多年後，我終於知道這叫做"蝴蝶效應"。
我的推測是那次的受傷確實影響了Avery。它該變了他的投球效率。在加上家庭事件，這導
致Avery的身體忘記了原本的投球機制。類似的事件也在過去有發生過(Dizzy Dean)。幾年
前我有替朋友做了個Avery的投球分析：
Avery在他的全勝期不只是個"南北"投手，他還有一些"東西"投手的成分在。在那次的事
件後，Avery喪失了他的"東西"投手的成分。這讓他的投球效率大減。我把這個改變稱為
"身體旋轉的不連續性"。
這導致Avery的速球無論球速、控球或尾勁都大減。為什麼？因為他更加依賴"用力投球"而
不是"輕鬆投球"。