Human evolution: high speed throwing (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, March 26, 2021, 15:35 (1120 days ago) @ David Turell

Baseball pitchers can throw at over 100 miles an hour. Why?:

https://theconversation.com/how-humans-became-the-best-throwers-on-the-planet-131189?ut...

"In the 2019 season, nearly 90% of the 281 pitchers who threw more than 1,000 pitches threw fastballs that averaged over 90 mph. The 100 mph fastball – once a newsworthy event – is now relatively common.

"But MLB pitchers aren’t the only expert throwers; most healthy people can throw faster than our much stronger chimpanzee relatives, who max out at around 30 mph. A study of boys from the ages of 8 to 14 who were only moderately trained in throwing could still throw two times faster than chimps.

"So how and why did humans evolve to become expert throwers?

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"Humans are the only species that can throw well enough to kill rivals and prey. Because throwing requires the highly coordinated and extraordinarily rapid movements of multiple body parts,

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"our hunter-gatherer ancestors threw darts, knives, spears, sticks and stones at rivals and prey. Even today, stones remain effective weapons; you’ll see protesters heave stones at police and stoning used as a form of punishment in some places.

"Darwin considered the evolution of throwing to be critical to the success of our ancestors. As he wrote in “The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex,” it allowed “the progenitors of man” to better “defend themselves with stones or clubs, to attack their prey, or otherwise to obtain food.”

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"But just because you can throw doesn’t mean you can throw well. Anatomical adaptations like a tall mobile waist that decoupled the hips and thorax allowed for more torso rotation. A laterally oriented shoulder joint that better aligned the main axis of the upper arm with the action of chest muscles allowed for a greater range of motion. Both are necessary for high-speed throwing, and these first appeared together in Homo erectus – the first member of our genus – about 2 million years ago.

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"Even among men, large size and strength do not always result in faster throwing. Throwing speed is influenced by a variety of factors including the range of motion of the throwing arm and stride length. That’s why relatively svelte pitchers like Tim Lincecum and Pedro Martinez were able to throw faster than most of their taller, stronger and bulkier counterparts.

"Their bodies are the paragons of an evolutionary adaptation that has made humans the best throwers on the planet. If rising pitch speeds are any indication, the skill continues to develop. There are even some who argue that pitchers have become too good – and that it’s high time to move back the mound."

Comment: This is obviously an American article with its baseball slant, but makes the point that humans were constructed to be great throwers which aided their hunting as they were slower runners than their four-legged prey. Apes and monkeys have very different musclebound shoulders and apes cannot even use a hammer. And finally we have the brains to analyze ourselves and develop new techniques to train for faster throwing speeds. God made us very special in many different ways.