Sweet spot (sports)

For other uses, see Sweet spot (disambiguation).

The sweet spot is a place where a combination of factors results in a maximum response for a given amount of effort. In tennis, squash, racquetball, baseball, cricket or golf a given swing will result in a more powerful hit if the ball strikes the racket, bat or club on the latter's sweet spot.

The sweet spot is the location at which the object being struck, usually a ball, absorbs the maximum amount of the available forward momentum and rebounds away from the racket, bat, club, etc. with a greater velocity than if struck at any other point on the racket, bat or club.

In endurance sports such as cycling, sweet spot training aims to maximise training benefit — generally for performance at or near functional threshold power (FTP) — by optimally balancing training effect, physiological strain and maximum duration.[1]

Baseball

A batted ball with a launch angle between 8 and 32 degrees is quantified as having been hit off the sweet spot of the bat.[2] Balls hit in the sweet spot are not necessarily hit hard with a high exit velocity.[3]

Cricket

The sweet spot of a cricket bat is roughly 150-160mm above the toe.[4] Scientific research conducted at the University of Cambridge discovered that bamboo bats are stronger with a better sweet spot compared to those made of willow.[5]

Tennis

See also

References

  1. ^ Housler, Brendan (May 25, 2022). "Doing more cycling in the 'sweetspot' training zone could revolutionise your fitness - here's why". Cycling Weekly. Future plc. Retrieved March 14, 2024.
  2. ^ McCaffrey, Gene (August 6, 2019). "Can examining the Sweet Spot Percentage leaderboard turn up hidden fantasy gems?". The Athletic. Retrieved March 14, 2024.
  3. ^ Clemens, Ben (February 25, 2020). "A Sweet Spot by Any Other Definition". FanGraphs. Retrieved March 14, 2024.
  4. ^ Shetty, Varun (December 15, 2021). "Have sweet spots on bats really got bigger?". The Cricket Monthly. ESPN. Retrieved March 14, 2024.
  5. ^ Sankaran, Vishwam (May 10, 2021). "Cricket bats made of bamboo instead of willow are stronger and have better 'sweet spot', study finds". The Independent. Retrieved March 14, 2024.