Baseball players and fans have heard ad naseum over the years that players shouldn’t slide head first for safety and speed reasons. But a researcher at Washington University in St. Louis argues that physics show head first sliding actually is faster than feet first sliding.
David Peters, Ph.D., the McDonnell Douglas Professor of Engineering at Washington University, says momentum, center of gravity and even Newton’s Law point to headfirst sliding being faster than feet first sliding.
“It turns out your center of gravity is where the momentum is,” Peters says in a statement. “This is found half way from the tips of your fingers to the tips of your toes. In the headfirst slide, the center of gravity is lower than halfway between your feet and hands, so your feet don’t get there as fast. It’s faster head-first.”
However, Peters does stick to the conventional wisdom that sliding into first base is slower than just running across the bag, though is an option if you’re trying to avoid a tag.
“Mathematically, you might think there’s an advantage, but leaving your feet is actually a detriment because you’re no longer pulsing and you start to decelerate,” he says in a statement. “When you’re running, your get your feet out in front of the center of gravity, so you’re getting maybe three or four steps of an advantage.”
