Warm-Up or Wear-Out? How Repeated Throws Affect Pitching

Grade:

5

Teacher:

Niki Tilicki

The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether pitching speed changes when a person throws a ball five times in a row. We hypothesized that speed would increase during the first few throws as muscles warm up, then level off or decrease as muscles begin to fatigue. Each participant stood 15 feet from a backstop and threw a soft baseball five consecutive times. A speed gun measured each throw in miles per hour. The distance, ball, and equipment remained the same for every participant. We recorded all five speeds and analyzed the pattern of change across the throws. Results showed that many participants increased their speed during the first two or three throws. In some cases, speeds remained consistent, while others showed a slight decrease by the fourth or fifth throw. Overall, the data supported our hypothesis that pitching speed often increases initially and may decrease after repeated effort. We concluded that repeated physical activity can affect performance due to muscle warm-up and fatigue. This investigation demonstrates how the human body responds to short bursts of repeated activity.

Project presentation