MLB says Yankees’ new “torpedo bats” are legal and likely coming

I've always wondered what the technological development of F1 would look like in other sports. This feels pretty close.

When the National Hockey League allowed synthetic sticks (aluminum, carbon fibre) in the late 1980s there was a quick uptake as players began to learn how to get greater puck velocities over the old wooden ones. The cost to the game is the phenomena of the exploding stick, which happens far more often than with the old lumber ones and can directly affect the outcome of the game as the dejected player skates away from a missed opportunity.

There are stories like this in marathon running shoes (something like 3D printed to the athlete's exact gait and basically last just a single race) and swimming (the michael phelps olympics dolphin suit).

I'm sure cycling and golf have been doing things like this since forever.

They actually try to just block without the stick until the play ends and it looks rather silly. I've also seen them dive and punch the puck which doesn't seem like it should be legal but the rules seem to be limited to prohibiting grabbing the puck.

A similar feel is pro cycling and the UCI. Cycling is much cheaper to innovate and test, so the UCI is constantly and aggressively banning new things. Unfortunately consumer bikes generally follow the UCI trends so we miss out on improvements, but the sport retains its “purity”. Very important though - the fastest approach in a Tour de France stage would be a carbon fiber recumbent for the flat sections, then switching to a super light (not aero) bike for large climbs, then switching to a heavier and super aero bike for descents.

Other easy tech that was banned is seats with a lip on the back, so you could push your butt up against it to drive more power. And the “puppy paws” handlebar position - more aero but banned outside of time trials.

There are videos on YouTube of people using banned golf clubs that are super interesting - sand wedges with big holes in the club head so they slice through the sand, or comically large driver heads.

The Aluminium Cricket bat was controversial in the 70's: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ComBathttps://en.wikipedia.org...

I guess other (banned) examples would be the LZR swim suits (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LZR_Racer) and the Nike Vaporfly (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nike_Vaporfly_and_Tokyo_2020_O...)

I think I am also right in saying that you can buy a road bike that is better than the ones permitted in the Tour de France.

The rules for hand pass are:

> Rule 79 – Hand Pass > 79.1 Hand Pass - A player shall be permitted to stop or “bat” a puck in the air with his open hand, or push it along the ice with his hand, and the play shall not be stopped unless, in the opinion of the on-ice officials, he has directed the puck to a teammate, or has allowed his team to gain an advantage, and subsequently possession and control of the puck is obtained by a player of the offending team, either directly or deflected off any player or official. For violations related to “closing his hand on the puck”, refer to Rule 67 – Handling Puck.

> 79.2 Defending Zone - Play will not be stopped for any hand pass by players in their own defending zone. The location of the puck when contacted by either the player making the hand pass or the player receiving the hand pass shall determine the zone it is in.

From the 2023-2024 rulebook [1], because it came up first in search. I don't think hand pass rules have changed. Basically, if your stick breaks when defending, you can go ahead and use your body to play and fling the puck to your teammates as appropriate (but not out of the defensive zone). OTOH, if your stick breaks when you're in the offensive zone, you better skate to the bench and either grab another stick or change out. Sometimes you'll see another player give their stick to the player with the broken stick and then go change.

[1] https://media.nhl.com/site/asset/public/ext/2023-24/2023-24R...

> I think I am also right in saying that you can buy a road bike that is better than the ones permitted in the Tour de France.

Recumbent bikes have been banned since 1934[0]! Remarkable machines. I'd love to ride one in a civilized location one day.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recumbent_bicycle

It's actually fairly common. Other sibling comments have a lot of examples, but one I'd like to focus on is the swimsuit arms race in competitive swimming. It really got started with Speedo's LZR Racer suit at the 2008 Olympics, where 98% of swimming medals were won by someone wearing one of these suits.

However, there were serious issues with cost and accessibility. These suits cost a lot of money to develop and manufacture, which was passed on to the swim teams. The LZR Racer could cost $550 per suit, with each suit only lasting a handful of races before requiring replacement. This gave a huge advantage to wealthy teams and swimmers with good sponsorship deals, and talented swimmers without a lot of financial resources were left in the dust.

Then there's the basic question of "what skills do we want to measure and reward in this sport?" With swimming, it got to the point where races were won not in the pool, but in the R&D department of swimwear companies. The swimming organizing bodies felt that swimming competitions should be focused on the athletic ability of individual swimmers instead, so advanced swimsuits were banned.

Don't get me wrong, I like F1 a lot, and part of that is the cool cutting-edge technology the teams develop. But for most sports, heavy technological development doesn't lead to more exciting competition, it just adds barriers to entry.

Golf actually adopted tech that probably ought to have been banned. Namely the modern ball and driver going from balata and persimmon. Pros went from driving it 260 yards to 325 sometimes longer and entire courses had to be redesigned as they would just trivially drive over fairway hazards and rough. Golf became a bomb and wedge game ever since as they can’t make certain historic courses terribly longer.

They are exploring the idea of rolling back the ball but the implications of that are endless.

I find the road cycling arms race really fascinating too, especially for tech focused on measurement rather than performance. See the 2021 ban on diabetic-style glucose monitors during races [1], the recent restriction of carbon monoxide-based hemoglobin testing [2,3], and the possible upcoming ban on breath sensors during races [4].

[1] https://www.bikeradar.com/news/uci-bans-supersapiens [2] https://www.uci.org/pressrelease/the-uci-bans-repeated-inhal... [3] https://www.bicycling.com/news/a61677020/carbon-monoxide-reb... [4] https://archive.ph/XMrVg

Golf should rate gear differently for different levels of play. Most golfers need these improvements as it makes recreational golf more enjoyable. But it makes the game too easy for professionals. Gear rated for their tournaments would be better I think. But there’s a rub.

Players like to endorse gear because people want to play what the best players play. They think it will make them better. So it’s hard to endorse gear you aren’t playing with.

Theres also data that suggests longer hitting guys will be more dominant with a rollback. I don’t know but I guess the nerds figured out how to optimize golf and it’s all about distance. The days of precession and artistry may be gone. I’m not sure how to defend against bomb and gouge and not sure if we should.

> 98% of swimming medals were won by someone wearing one of these suits.

> This gave a huge advantage to ... teams and swimmers with ... sponsorship deals

Is the former caused by the latter or caused by performance enhancement?

Speedo sponsoring all likely medal winners into their new product seems like a reasonable explanation. Given that I've never heard of another brand, I assume speedo has a fairly large budget for sponsorships. I don't know anything at all about swimming though, just wanted to throw that out there.

A very small number of teams aren’t well funded, have sponsorship issues, or whatever else and actually run less than top end components. I don’t recall who but there were bikes at either TDF or vuelta maybe last year with group sets which you could’ve just gone to the store and bought better ones.

I don't understand how $550 a suit is an exorbitant cost.

You're paying coaches, nutritionists, doctors, managers, etc. What's an extra $550 every now and then?

Sure, maybe a less-well off swimmer can't afford to train with the suit in every practice swim like a wealthy team/swimmer can - but that wealthy team/swimmer already has advantages in everything else.

On the other hand, because there's a minimum weight for bikes, and frames and wheels are too light now, we get cool tech like motorized derailers and disc brakes

> Basically, if your stick breaks when defending, you can go ahead and use your body to play and fling the puck to your teammates as appropriate

Isn't that specifically banned?

>> and the play shall not be stopped unless, in the opinion of the on-ice officials, he has directed the puck to a teammate [...] and subsequently possession and control of the puck is obtained by a player of the offending team

Rowing had the sliding rigger boat which was banned in international competition within a year of first being used.

(In a normal racing rowing boat, the athlete sits on a sliding seat, while their shoes and the rigger with the oarlock are fixed to the boat. In the 1980s, boats were developed that had the shoes and rigger as a unit that slid, while the seat was fixed, which was more efficient as it meant that the boat hull and the athlete's mass moved together.)

On the other hand, first carbon-fibre oar shafts and later asymmetrical "hatchet" oar blades were adopted near-universally within a few years of their invention.

You missed the part about it being allowed in the defending zone.