Shohei Ohtani: Shohei Ohtani reveals the “secret” of his super-high-speed and low trajectory liner, which even his coach praised as “something I’ve never seen before”.

Impact of 19 degree hitting angle & 180km/h velocity.

I’ve never seen a ball hit on a trajectory like that, except for a golf ball.

Angels manager Phil Nevin (52) praised the No. 36 homer hit by Shohei Ohtani (29), the team’s prized main gun, saying, “The angle of the ball was low at 19 degrees.

The angle of the ball was 19 degrees and the trajectory was low, so I thought it was a liner to center field, but it landed in the stands in a flash. The speed of the ball was over 180 km/h, and the airtime was only 4 seconds. It was a home run with a trajectory I had never seen before.

A white ball with a low trajectory and ultra-high velocity, running away to the left. Analyzing this unusual pitch, the reason why Otani is the “home run king” emerges.

Ohtani’s bat comes out from the inside while bending. This way, the head does not bounce back and the contact time between the bat and the ball is a few tenths of a second longer. It is the feeling of rubbing the ball on the bat at the moment of impact. The ball, crushed with tremendous swing speed, flies away with a strong slice rotation. No wonder the center fielder who was guarding the ball misjudged it,” said Takahiro Tokutsu, a professional baseball critic.

There are other keys to his superhuman hitting.

One of the factors is the power that is uniquely Japanese, but what is technically important is the ‘push-in’ technique,” said Takahiro Tokutsu, a professional baseball critic. After you catch the ball, you apply more force with your left hand. By doing so, the hitting speed will of course improve, and even if the ball is a little jammed or off-center, it can still go over the fence.

There are more and more cases where he is walked without getting a game, but with this super technique, I would expect him to hit 60 or more runs in a season.

(The same before.) Ohtani is superhuman even in the quality of his batted balls.

From the August 11, 2023 issue of FRIDAY