Cargo Cult Science May Be Causing You To Lose Out On “The Truth”
This was a technical presentation that I gave to my local Toastmasters club about HOW TO keep swing experiments objective.
What we’re covering in the above video presentation:
- How important maintaining an objective process & avoiding the destruction cargo cult sciences causes,
- What is the scientific method?
- Evolution of my swing experiments (visit: http://gohpl.com/swingexperiment to learn how to do a swing experiment), and
- How far I’ve come since my 11 year old swing experiment…
CLICK HERE to download presentation PDF cliff notes.
CLICK HERE to download presentation power-point slides.
The following books and resources were mentioned in this presentation:
- “Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks“, by Dr. Ben Goldacre,
- “Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman!“, by Dr. Richard Feynman,
- Zepp Baseball app, and
- Bushnell Radar Gun.
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Did you consider that under game conditions when you do one move,i.e. show your numbers versus having the shoulders being more square to the pitcher that both of these moves effect the rest of the body’s movements differently? Let me say it a little differently. Does a slow pitch hitter who can hit the ball very far using mechanics that would never work due to time constraints if he was to try to use the same mechanics when the ball was thrown faster stick with the slower mechanics when the ball is thrown faster or is he forced to change those mechanics given the speed of the pitched ball?
Larry, be careful when you use absolutes like the word “never”. In case you missed the quote from Dr. Ben Goldacre in the presentation, here it is:
“I spend a lot of time talking to people who disagree with me – I would go so far as to say that it’s my favorite leisure activity – and repeatedly I meet individuals who are eager to share their views on science despite the fact that they have never done an experiment. They have never tested an idea for themselves, using their own hands, or seen the results of that test, using their own eyes, and they have never thought carefully about what those results mean for the idea they are testing, using their own brain. To these people “science” is a monolith, a mystery, and an authority, rather than a method.”
So are you saying hitters that clearly ‘show their numbers’ are wrong, such as: Andrew McCutchen, Dustin Pedroia, Buster Posey, Josh Donaldson, Adrian Beltre, Yeonis Cespedes, Ben Zobrist, Sadaharu Oh, Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth, Stan Musial, and Ted Williams to name just a few? 😉
And most importantly, I have multiple hitters both offline and on that are consistently tripling their body-weight in batted ball distance. For instance, 100-lb hitters hitting the ball 300-feet, or the length of a football field.
My suggestion to you is to study up on the body’s use of springy fascia. Read Thomas Myers’s book Anatomy Trains. Run some swing experiments. Teach this stuff and see if it works. I’m telling you, you’ll join literally hundreds of other coaches across the US who are getting the same, or better, results that I am using these principles.
And my question to you is, since this is a consistent theme of comment from you on my blog, in your own mind, it seems you’re far above the information here at HPL, why are you still hanging around?
Larry, Joey was never talking about slow pitch… I hate to assume but I think you might be thinking of over pelvic rotation… Or perhaps setting your back foot way too wrong so you can use the shoulders the wrong way…Additionally perhaps not letting the legs do its thing… There can be a lot of things that CAN go wrong… if you show the numbers within the top level swing your good but if you just twist without knowing how the body should work than you can break down but that’s with everything… And remember showing your numbers is used to get the body moving… Larry for the same reason your saying batters shouldn’t use it many are saying use it… Funny we see the same thing and come up with different conclusions….Larry… Do you actually think it never occurred to Joey that perhaps he should consider the speed of the ball… And did you actually think Joey would say… Wait… Ball speed… I didn’t consider that your so right Larry…Larry, he is teaching it because as the pitchings soeed and power goes up so should your bat… Think about that. Batters are doing it for the same reason your saying not too… Sort off… Just think about it because either we are insane or perhaps your missing the point… And Larry your missing the point.. I would only add, ones posture and coil tightness can distort the showing of the numbers sort off… So there are slight angles and if you watch Joeys videos he usually points out where it is…and he usually points out that there isn’t a measurement test as people all coil and have different postures…But you want to show your numbers while keeping you head in a good position too…If you can’t see or your hands get way too far than its that your not doing it right… Good luck…
~DM
Right Djura in your response to Larry. Pitch speed does matter…just like a Shot Putter can “coil” completely away from the target of their throw, because they don’t have to worry about where their target is!!…there’s a sweet spot in range of motion and timing for showing the numbers for baseball and fast-pitch players, and slow-pitch. What Larry is missing is that the PRINCIPLES are the same for ALL athletes of all rotational sports, male or female. The method they use to get there may look different, but loading the body’s springy fascia is THE SAME.
Joey sorry to speak for you… I’ll take it back as you can speak for yourself….So did you consider the speed of the pitches or has the speed of the pitches never entered your mind? ?
Joey, I would like to know since you started the Hitting Performance Lab, what have you figured out now that you were wrong about? I find that every few years I realize something I thought was the truth about hitting was wrong. Is there anything you can think of that makes you want to or actually delete an old video you did? Just curious
Haha, yes, this is why I re-started with Hitting Performance Lab in 2013. In 2008, I started SwingSmarter.com, and there are a lot of hitting mechanics I’ve changed since then.