steve dalkowski fastest pitch steve dalkowski fastest pitch

Still, that 93.5 mph measurement was taken at 606 away, which translates to a 99 or 100 mph release velocity. It is integrative in the sense that these incremental pieces are hypothesized to act cumulatively (rather than counterproductively) in helping Dalko reach otherwise undreamt of pitching speeds. 2023 Marucci CATX (10) Review | Voodoo One Killer. Dalkos 110 mph pitching speed, once it is seriously entertained that he attained it, can lead one to think that Dalko was doing something on the mound that was completely different from other pitchers, that his biomechanics introduced some novel motions unique to pitching, both before and after. Granted, the physics for javelins, in correlating distance traveled to velocity of travel (especially velocity at the point of release), may not be entirely straightforward. Baseball pitching legend from the 1960's, Steve Dalkowski, shown May 07, 1998 with his sister, Patti Cain, at Walnut Hill Park in New Britain, Conn. (Mark Bonifacio / NY Daily News via Getty Images) Thats when I stopped playing baseball and started javelin training. He was 80. He spent his entire career in the minor leagues, playing in nine different leagues during his nine-year career. In one game in Bluefield, Tennessee, playing under the dim lighting on a converted football field, he struck out 24 while walking 18, and sent one batter 18-year-old Bob Beavers to the hospital after a beaning so severe that it tore off the prospects ear lobe and ended his career after just seven games. We'll never know for sure, of course, and it's hard to pinpiont exactly what "throwing the hardest pitch" even means. But after walking 110 in just 59 innings, he was sent down to Pensacola, where things got worse; in one relief stint, he walked 12 in two innings. Living Legend Released, wrote The Sporting News. This goes to point 2 above. Also, when Zelezny is releasing the javelin, watch his left leg (he throws right-handed, and so, as in baseball, its like a right-hander hitting foot-strike as he gets ready to unwind his torque to deliver and release the baseball). The performance carried Dalkowski to the precipice of the majors. It rose so much that his high school catcher told him to throw at batters ankles. Moreover, even if the physics of javelin throwing were entirely straightforward, it would not explain the physics of baseball throwing, which requires correlating a baseballs distance thrown (or batted) versus its flight angle and velocity, an additional complicating factor being rotation of the ball (such rotation being absent from javelin throwing). On Christmas Eve 1992, Dalkowski walked into a laundromat in Los Angeles and began talking to a family there. Reported to be baseball's fastest pitcher, Dalkowski pitched in the minor leagues from 1957-65. This was how he lived for some 25 yearsuntil he finally touched bottom. I cant imagine how frustrating it must have been for him to have that gift but not be able to harness it. That meant we were going about it all wrong with him, Weaver told author Tim Wendel for his 2010 book, High Heat. Zelezny, from the Czech Republic, was in Atlanta in 1996 for the Olympics, where he won the gold for the javelin. In the fourth inning, they just carried him off the mound.. But, no matter how embellished, one fact always remained: Dalkowski struck out more batters and walked more batters per nine-inning game than any professional pitcher in baseball history. He was cut the following spring. That may be, but for our present purposes, we want simply to make the case that he could have done as good or better than 110 mph. He was said to have thrown a pitch that tore off part of a batter's ear. The stories surrounding him amaze me to this day. How do you rate somebody like Steve Dalkowski? 10. What could have been., Copyright 2023 TheNationalPastimeMuseum, 8 Best Youth Baseball Gloves 2023-22 [Feb. Update], Top 11 Best Infield Gloves 2023 [Feb. Update]. This is not to say that Dalkowski may not have had such physical advantages. So too, with pitching, the hardest throwers will finish with their landing leg stiffer, i.e., less flexed. The reason we think he may be over-rotating is that Nolan Ryan, who seemed to be every bit as fast as Chapman, tended to have a more compact, but at least as effective, torque (see Ryan video at the start of this article). His legendary fastball was gone and soon he was out of baseball. Some put the needle at 110 mph but we'll never know. He also had 39 wild pitches and won just one game. But hes just a person that we all love, that we enjoy. He was sentenced to time on a road crew several times and ordered to attend Alcoholics Anonymous. The two throws are repeated from different angles, in full speed and slow motion. Plagued by wildness, he walked more than he . The focus, then, of our incremental and integrative hypothesis, in making plausible how Dalko could have reached pitch velocities of 110 mph or better, will be his pitching mechanics (timing, kinetic chain, and biomechanical factors). He was a puzzle that even some of the best teachers in baseball, such as Richards, Weaver, and Rikpen, couldnt solve. Here are the four features: Our inspiration for these features comes from javelin throwing. Stephen Louis Dalkowski Jr. (born June 3, 1939), nicknamed Dalko, is an American retired left-handed pitcher. Forward body thrust refers to the center of mass of the body accelerating as quickly as possible from the rubber toward home plate. I was 6 feet tall in eighth grade and 175 lbs In high school, I was 80 plus in freshman year and by senior year 88 plus mph, I received a baseball scholarship to Ball State University in 1976. He had fallen in with the derelicts, and they stick together. Known for having trouble controlling the strike zone, he was . Our content is reader-supported, which means that if you click on some of our links, we may earn a commission. For the first time, Dalkowski began to throw strikes. The cruel irony, of course, is that Dalkowski could have been patched up in this day and age. We have some further indirect evidence of the latter point: apparently Dalkowskis left (throwing) arm would hit his right (landing) leg with such force that he would put a pad on his leg to preserve it from wear and tear. The old-design javelin was reconfigured in 1986 by moving forward its center of gravity and increasing its surface area behind the new center of gravity, thus taking off about 20 or so percent from how far the new-design javelin could be thrown (actually, there was a new-new design in 1991, which slightly modified the 1986 design; more on this as well later). How do we know that Steve Dalkowski is not the Dick Fosbury of pitching, fundamentally changing the art of pitching? Well, I have. Somewhere in towns where Dalko pitched and lived (Elmira, Johnson City, Danville, Minot, Dothan, Panama City, etc.) Weaver knew that Dalkowski's fastball was practically unhittable no matter where it was in the strike zone, and if Dalkowski missed his target, he might end up throwing it on the corners for a strike anyway. And, if they did look inside and hold the film up to the light and saw some guy, in grainy black and white, throwing a baseball, they wouldnt have any idea who or what they are looking at, or even why it might be significant. Steve Dalkowski will forever be remembered for his remarkable arm. Hes the fireballer who can summon nearly unthinkable velocity, but has no idea where his pitch will go. Davey Johnson, a baseball lifer who played with him in the Orioles system and who saw every flamethrower from Sandy Koufax to Aroldis Chapman, said no one ever threw harder. "I hit my left elbow on my right knee so often, they finally made me a pad to wear", recalled Dalkowski. [4] Moving to the Northern League in 195859, he threw a one-hitter but lost 98 on the strength of 17 walks. He appeared destined for the Major Leagues as a bullpen specialist for the Orioles when he hurt his elbow in the spring of 1963. If the front leg collapses, it has the effect of a shock absorber that deflects valuable momentum away from the bat and into the batters leg, thus reducing the exit velocity of the ball from the bat. Ive been playing ball for 10 years, and nobody can throw a baseball harder than that, said Grammas at the time. He was even fitted for a big league uniform. 15 Best BBCOR bats 2023 2022 [Feb. Update], 10 Best Fastpitch Softball Bats 2022-2023 [Feb. Update], 10 Best USA bats 2023 2022 [Feb. Update], 14 Best Youth Baseball Bats 2023 -2022 [Updated Feb.]. Less than a decade after returning home, Dalkowski found himself at a place in life he thought he would never reachthe pitching mound in Baltimore. If we think of a plane perpendicular to the ground and intersecting the pitching mound and home plate, then Aroldis Chapman, who is a lefty rotates beyond that plane about 65 degrees counterclockwise when viewed from the top (see Chapman video at the start of this article). Hamilton says Mercedes a long way off pace, Ten Hag must learn from Mourinho to ensure Man United's Carabao Cup win is just the start, Betting tips for Week 26 English Premier League games and more, Transfer Talk: Bayern still keen on Kane despite new Choupo-Moting deal. Yet as he threw a slider to Phil Linz, he felt something pop in his elbow. Major League Baseball Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver called Steve "Dalko" Dalkowski the fastest pitcher he had ever seen with an estimated 110-mph fastball in an era without radar guns. That is what haunts us. Soon he reunited with his second wife and they moved to Oklahoma City, trying for a fresh start. It is incremental in that the different aspects or pieces of the pitching motion are all hypothesized to contribute positively to Dalkos pitching speed. Torque refers to the bodys (and especially the hips and shoulders) twisting motion and thereby imparting power to the pitch. The bottom line is that Zelezny would have thrown either javelin (pre-1986 or current design) much further than Petranoff, and thus would have needed and had the ability to impart considerably more power to it than Petranoff. Despite the pain, Dalkowski tried to carry on. He rode the trucks out at dawn to pick grapes with the migrant farm workers of Kern County -- and finally couldn't even hold that job.". When he throws, the javelin first needs to rotate counterclockwise (when viewed from the top) and then move straight forward. This video consists of Dalkowski. If standing on the sidelines, all one had to do was watch closely how his entire body flowed together towards the batter once he began his turn towards the plate Steves mechanics were just like a perfect ballet. All in the family: how three generations of Jaquezes have ruled West Coast basketball. The Orioles brought Dalkowski to their major league spring training the following year, not because he was ready to help the team but because they believed hed benefit from the instruction of manager Paul Richards and pitching coach Harry Brecheen. Such an absence of video seems remarkable inasmuch as Dalkos legend as the hardest thrower ever occurred in real time with his baseball career. Just three days after his high school graduation in 1957, Steve Dalkowski signed into the Baltimore Orioles system. His ball moved too much. At loose ends, Dalkowski began to work the fields of Californias San Joaquin Valley in places like Lodi, Fresno, and Bakersfield. At that point we thought we had no hope of ever finding him again, said his sister, Pat Cain, who still lived in the familys hometown of New Britain. The minors were already filled with stories about him. The fastest pitch ever recorded was thrown by current Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman. Instead, it seems that Dalko brought together the existing biomechanical components of pitching into a supremely effective and coherent whole. [10] Under Weaver's stewardship, Dalkowski had his best season in 1962, posting personal bests in complete games and earned run average (ERA), and walking less than a batter an inning for the first time in his career. Yet when the Orioles broke camp and headed north for the start of the regular season in 1963, Dalkowski wasnt with the club. It is certain that with his high speed and penchant for throwing wild pitches, he would have been an intimidating opponent for any batter who faced him. In other words, instead of revolutionizing the biomechanics of pitching, Dalko unknowingly improved on and perfected existing pitching biomechanics. Baseball was my base for 20 years and then javelin blended for 20 years plus. Our team working on the Dalko Project have come to refer to video of Dalko pitching as the Holy Grail. Like the real Holy Grail, we doubt that such video will ever be found. [15] Weaver believed that Dalkowski had experienced such difficulty keeping his game under control because he did not have the mental capacity. Hed suffered a pinched nerve in his elbow. During a typical season in 1960, while pitching in the California League, Dalkowski struck out 262 batters and walked 262 in 170 innings. He'd post BB/9IP rates of 18.7, 20.4, 16.3, 16.8, and 17.1. Papelbon's best pitch is a fastball that sits at 94 to 96 mph (he's hit 100 mph. Thats why Steve Dalkowski stays in our minds. [20], According to the Guinness Book of Records, a former record holder for fastest pitch is Nolan Ryan, with a pitch clocked at 100.9mph (162.4km/h) in 1974, though several pitchers have recorded faster pitches since then. Dalko explores one man's unmatched talent on the mound and the forces that kept ultimate greatness always just beyond his reach. Regardless of its actual speed, his fastball earned him the nickname "White Lightning". Hed let it go and it would just rise and rise.. The catcher held the ball for a few seconds a few inches under Williams chin. 2023 Easton Ghost Unlimited Review | Durable or not? The tins arent labeled or they have something scribbled on them that would make no sense to the rummagers or spring cleaners. Steve Dalkowski was considered to have "the fastest arm alive." Some say his fastball regularly exceeded 100 mph and edged as high as 110 mph. Which duo has the most goal contributions in Europe this season? Steve Dalkowski, who entered baseball lore as the hardest-throwing pitcher in history, with a fastball that was as uncontrollable as it was unhittable and who was considered perhaps the game's. Koufax was obviously one of the greatest pitchers in MLB history, but his breaking balls were what was so devastating. Yet players who did make it to the majors caught him, batted against him, and saw him pitch. I went to try out for the baseball team and on the way back from tryout I saw Luc Laperiere throwing a javelin 75 yards or so and stopped to watch him. Dalkowski, who once struck out 24 batters in a minor league game -- and walked 18 -- never made it to the big leagues. Indeed, in the data we have for his nine minor league seasons, totaling 956 innings (excluding a couple brief stops for which the numbers are incomplete), Dalkowski went 46-80 while yielding just 6.3 hits per nine innings, striking out 12.5 per nine, but walking 11.6 per nine en route to a 5.28 ERA. Andy Baylock, who lived next door to Dalkowski in New Britain, caught him in high school, and later coached the University of Connecticut baseball team, said that he would insert a raw steak in his mitt to provide extra padding. We were telling him to hold runners close, teaching him a changeup, how to throw out of the stretch. The ball did not rip through the air like most fastballs, but seemed to appear suddenly and silently in the catchers glove. Seriously, while I believe Steve Dalkowski could probably hit 103 mph and probably threw . Dalkowski, who later sobered up but spent the past 26 years in an assisted living facility, died of the novel coronavirus in New Britain, Connecticut on April 19 at the age of 80. Elizabeth City, NC (27909) Today. Granted much had changed since Dalkowski was a phenom in the Orioles system. Can we form reliable estimates of his speed? It did not take long "three straight pitches," Dalkowski recalled, through the blur of 46 very hard years. "[5], Dalkowski was born in New Britain, Connecticut, the son of Adele Zaleski, who worked in a ball bearing factory, and Stephen Dalkowski, a tool and die maker. Instead Dalkowski almost short-armed the ball with an abbreviated delivery that kept batters all the more off balance and left them shocked at what was too soon coming their way. Women's Champ Week predictions: Which teams will win the auto bids in all 32 conferences? Read more Print length 304 pages Language English Publisher [6] . He was sometimes called the fastest pitcher in baseball history and had a fastball that probably exceeded 100mph (160km/h). Some experts believed it went as fast as 110mph (180km/h), others that his pitches traveled at less than that speed. His pitches strike terror into the heart of any batter who dares face him, but hes a victim of that lack of control, both on and off the field, and it prevents him from taking full advantage of his considerable talent. All UZR (ultimate zone rating) calculations are provided courtesy of Mitchel Lichtman. Unable to find any gainful employment, he became a migrant worker. Take Justin Verlander, for instance, who can reach around 100 mph, and successfully hits the block: Compare him with Kyle Hendricks, whose leg acts as a shock absorber, and keeps his fastball right around 90 mph: Besides arm strength/speed, forward body thrust, and hitting the block, Jan Zelezny exhibits one other biomechanical trait that seems to significantly increase the distance (and thus speed) that he can throw a javelin, namely, torque. After all, Zelezny demonstrated that he could have bested Petranoff in javelin throwing by a distance factor of 20 percent. All 16 big-league teams made a pitch to him. That was because of the tremendous backspin he could put on the ball.. The story is fascinating, and Dalko is still alive. That seems to be because Ryan's speed was recorded 10 feet (3.0m) from the plate, unlike 10 feet from release as today, costing him up to 10 miles per hour (16km/h). Players who saw Dalkowski pitch did not see a motion completely at odds with what other pitchers were doing. At Aberdeen in 1959, under player-manager Earl Weaver, Dalkowski threw a no-hitter in which he struck out 21 and walked only eight, throwing nothing but fastballs, because the lone breaking ball he threw almost hit a batter. 9881048 343 KB "To understand how Dalkowski, a chunky little man with thick glasses and a perpetually dazed expression, became a 'legend in his own time'." Pat Jordan in The Suitors of Spring (1974). In 1991, the authorities recommended that Dalkowski go into alcoholic rehab. I first met him in spring training in 1960, Gillick said. The difference between hitting the block hard with a straight leg and not hitting the block by letting the front leg collapse seems to be a reliable marker for separating low 90s pitchers from 100s pitchers. Dalkowski suffered from several preexisting conditions before. He had a great arm but unfortunately he was never able to harness that great fastball of his. Late in the year, he was traded to the Pirates for Sam Jones, albeit in a conditional deal requiring Pittsburgh to place him on its 40-man roster and call him up to the majors. Additionally, former Dodgers reliever Jonathan Broxton topped out at 102 mph. Some observers believed that this incident made Dalkowski even more nervous and contributed further to his wildness. His first pitch went right through the boards. Remembering Steve Dalkowski, Perhaps the Fastest Pitcher Ever by Jay Jaffe April 27, 2020 You know the legend of Steve Dalkowski even if you don't know his name. Whenever Im passing through Connecticut, I try to visit Steve and his sister, Pat. The next year at Elmira, Weaver asked Dalkowski to stop throwing so hard and also not to drink the night before he pitched small steps toward two kinds of control. Bill Dembski, Alex Thomas, Brian Vikander. FILE - This is a 1959 file photo showing Baltimore Orioles minor league pitcher Steve Dalkowski posed in Miami, Fla. Dalkowski, a hard-throwing, wild left-hander who inspired the creation of the . Dalkowski had lived at a long-term care facility in New Britain for several years. Most likely, some amateur videographer, some local news station, some avid fan made some video of his pitching. He set the Guinness World Record for fastest pitch, at 100.9 MPH. [3] As no radar gun or other device was available at games to measure the speed of his pitches precisely, the actual top speed of his pitches remains unknown. They couldnt keep up. [26] In a 2003 interview, Dalkowski said that he was unable to remember life events that occurred from 1964 to 1994. "Steve Dalkowski threw at 108.something mph in a minor league game one time." He was? "To understand how Dalkowski, a chunky little man with thick glasses and a perpetually dazed expression, became a legend in his own time." Pat Jordan in The Suitors of Spring (1974). Dalkowski was also famous for his unpredictable performance and inability to control his pitches. The four features above are all aids to pitching power, and cumulatively could have enabled Dalko to attain the pitching speeds that made him a legend. He finished his minor league career with a record of 46-80 and an ERA of 5.57. Fifty-odd years ago, the baseball world was abuzz with stories about Orioles pitching prospect Steve Dalkowski. The APBPA stopped providing financial assistance to him because he was using the funds to purchase alcohol. Except for hitting the block, the rest of the features will make sense to those who have analyzed the precisely sequenced muscle recruitment patterns required to propel a 5-ounce baseball 60 6 toward the target. Bob Gibson, a flame thrower in his day (and contemporary of Dalko), would generate so much torque that on releasing his pitch, he would fly toward first base (he was a righty). We call this an incremental and integrative hypothesis. So speed is not everything. Slowly, Dalkowski showed signs of turning the corner. There are, of course, some ceteris paribus conditions that apply here inasmuch as throwing ability with one javelin design might not correlate precisely to another, but to a first approximation, this percentage subtraction seems reasonable. Javelin throwers make far fewer javelin throws than baseball pitchers make baseball throws. In 1963, the year that this Topps Card came out, many bigwigs in baseball thought Steve Dalkowski was the fastest pitcher in baseballmaybe in the history of the game. Instead, we therefore focus on what we regard as four crucial biomechanical features that, to the degree they are optimized, could vastly increase pitching speed. Dalkowski began his senior season with back-to-back no-hitters, and struck out 24 in a game with scouts from all 16 teams in the stands. As it turns out, hed been pitching through discomfort and pain since winter ball, and some had noticed that his velocity was no longer superhuman. It was 1959. "It was truly a magical time back then when Stevie pitched his high school game there," said. It took off like a jet as it got near the plate, recalled Pat Gillick, who played with Dalkowski in the Orioles chain. We even sought to assemble a collection of still photographs in an effort to ascertain what Steve did to generate his exceptional velocity. He threw so hard that the ball had a unique bend all its own due to the speed it traveled. "[18], Estimates of Dalkowski's top pitching speed abound. Pitching primarily in the Baltimore Orioles organization, Dalkowski walked 1,236 batters and fanned 1,324 in 956 minor-league innings. Insofar as javelin-throwing ability (as measured by distance thrown) transfers to baseball-pitching ability (as measured by speed), Zelezny, as the greatest javelin thrower of all time, would thus have been able to pitch a baseball much faster than Petranoff provided that Zelezny were able master the biomechanics of pitching. For the first time, Dalko: The Untold Story of . A far more promising avenue is the one we are suggesting, namely, to examine key components of pitching mechanics that, when optimally combined, could account for Dalkos phenomenal speed. Who was the fastest baseball pitcher ever? Nope. PRAISE FOR DALKO This cost Dalkowski approximately 9 miles per hour (14km/h), not even considering the other factors. Studies of this type, as they correlate with pitching, do not yet exist. [4] Such was his reputation that despite his never reaching the major leagues, and finishing his minor league years in class-B ball, the 1966 Sporting News item about the end of his career was headlined "Living Legend Released."[5]. Steve Dalkowski will forever be remembered for his remarkable arm. The coach ordered his catcher to go out and buy the best glove he could find. Screenwriter and film director Ron Shelton played in the Baltimore Orioles minor league organization soon after Dalkowski. The thing to watch in this video is how Petranoff holds his javelin in the run up to his throw, and compare it to Zeleznys run up: Indeed, Petranoff holds his javelin pointing directly forward, gaining none of the advantage from torque that Zelezny does. They were . [16], For his contributions to baseball lore, Dalkowski was inducted into the Shrine of the Eternals on July 19, 2009. Zelezny seems to have mastered the optimal use of such torque (or rotational force) better than any other javelin thrower weve watched. One evening he started to blurt out the answers to a sports trivia game the family was playing. by Retrosheet. This month, a documentary and a book about Dalkowski's life will be released . Williams, whose eyes were said to be so sharp that he could count the stitches on a baseball as it rotated toward the plate, told them he had not seen the pitch, that Steve Dalkowski was the fastest pitcher he ever faced and that he would be damned if he would ever face him again if he could help it. The writers immediately asked Williams how fast Steve Dalkowski really was. He often walked more batters than he struck out, and many times his pitches would go wild sometimes so wild that they ended up in the stands. Shelton says that Ted Williams once faced Dalkowski and called him "fastest ever." Players seeing Dalkowski pitch and marveling at his speed did not see him as fundamentally changing the art of pitching. Therefore, to play it conservatively, lets say the difference is only a 20 percent reduction in distance. Further, the device measured speed from a few feet away from the plate, instead of 10 feet from release as in modern times. [25] He drank heavily as a player and his drinking escalated after the end of his career. Later this month, Jontahan Hock will unveil a wonderful new documentary called "Fastball" -- I was lucky enough to consult . He asserted, "Steve Dalkowski was the hardest thrower I ever saw." . In an attic, garage, basement, or locker are some silver tins containing old films from long forgotten times. Which, well, isn't. In his first five seasons a a pro he'd post K/9IP rates of 17.6, 17.6, 15.1, 13.9, and 13.1. In Wilson, N.C., Dalkowski threw a pitch so high and hard that it broke through the narrow welded wire backstop, 50 feet behind home plate and 30 feet up. The straight landing allows the momentum of their body to go into the swing of the bat. Moreover, they highlight the three other biomechanical features mentioned above, leaving aside arm strength/speed, which is also evident. His fastball was like nothing Id ever seen before. In his final 57 innings of the 62 season, he gave up one earned run, struck out 110, and walked only 21. "I never want to face him again. After hitting a low point at Class B Tri-City in 1961 (8.39 ERA, with 196 walks 17.1 per nine! Whats possible here? Even . I threw batting practice at Palomar years later to cross train, and they needed me to throw 90 mph so their batters could see it live. April 24, 2020 4:11 PM PT Steve Dalkowski, a hard-throwing, wild left-hander whose minor league career inspired the creation of Nuke LaLoosh in the movie "Bull Durham," has died. The evidence is analogical, and compares Tom Petranoff to Jan Zelezny. Nine teams eventually reached out. The evidential problem with making such a case is that we have no video of Dalkowskis pitching. Lets therefore examine these features. The southpaw was clocked at 105.1 mph while pitching for the Reds in 2011. . In order to keep up the pace in the fields he often placed a bottle at the end of the next row that needed picking. We werent the first in this effort and, likely, will not be the last. Just 5-foot-11 and 175, Dalkowski had a fastball that Cal Ripken Sr., who both caught and managed him, estimated at 110 mph. XFL Week 3 preview: Can AJ McCarron, Battlehawks continue their fourth-quarter heroics? Most obvious in this video is Zeleznys incredible forward body thrust. This suggests a violent forward thrust, a sharp hitting of the block, and a very late release point (compare Chapman and Ryan above, whose arm, after the point of release, comes down over their landing leg, but not so violently as to hit it).