What would be the difference in carbon plates in running shoes and a baseball player corking their bats?
What would be the difference in carbon plates in running shoes and a baseball player corking their bats?
The only difference is that one is potentially more noticeable than the other. They are both crafty forms of performance enhancement leveraging the same concepts of physics. The average person can grasp the concept of the corked bat, because there is conspicuous sensory feedback. The advantages of carbon plates are more nominal and esoteric, therefore capable of eluding the commoner for the magnitude of their contribution. Generally speaking, the commoner is incapable of recognizing any technological improvement that doesn't perceptively improve the performance of the athlete. In the case of the carbon plates, the observer cannot visualize the change, so therefore he assumes it doesn't exist.
The change is the result though. A commoner can see the difference between a 2:03 runner running a 2:01. Same with a commoner can see the difference between a 395 foot hit against the wall vs a 425 home run.
I doubt he will do it, but I think it would be cool to see Kipchoge run a marathon in his last shoe he used in a race prior to the Vaporfly. Would we see a 2:04 or a 2:01 or less?
runningbats wrote:
The change is the result though. A commoner can see the difference between a 2:03 runner running a 2:01. Same with a commoner can see the difference between a 395 foot hit against the wall vs a 425 home run.
I doubt he will do it, but I think it would be cool to see Kipchoge run a marathon in his last shoe he used in a race prior to the Vaporfly. Would we see a 2:04 or a 2:01 or less?
The comparison is one between a swing of a bat and a stride of a runner, not one of aggregates. One can easily observe the marked difference of power from a batter's swing, but a nominal 4-percent improvement (on energy return) is not nearly as conspicuous.
runningbats wrote:
What would be the difference in carbon plates in running shoes and a baseball player corking their bats?
It's easy enough to find the difference... have Kipchoge run his next marathon on a corked bat, and have Aaron Judge hit some tots with a pair of 'flys.