Batted Ball Distance

[rdbass]

Girl #1 - Weight 125lbs, Bat Speed at Impact 63mph, Best Hits 245'
Girl #2 - Weight 170lbs, Bat Speed at Impact 71mph, Best Hits 215'

I've seen girls with 'bat drag' hit bombs but, against faster pitchers that 'long' swing becomes a problem.
There was/is an occasional poster on this site who taught 'power vee' at contact and claimed high bat speed using a radar gun.
Just 'throwing' out my guess.

 

[guero_gordo]

Ideally, you would transfer all speed to the ball and the bat would stop dead, like a cue ball.
Most humans are going to deliver more bat speed to the ball by thinking about driving through it.
Occasionally, you see that accidental stopped swing that carries the ball over the fence, so clearly you do not need follow through for more than a few inches to deliver that power to the ball, BUT it's very difficult for most humans to swing a fast bat at a fast ball and stop hard just a hair before contact.
If you had a few tens of thousands of dollars, you could build an "Iron Byron" like machine to swing a bat and stop it at the right point.

In your comparison, there are many possible human factors that could eat 30ft worth of energy, I'd guess wrist or top-hand tension would be the most likely, but it could just as easily be in the ankles.

 

[rdbass]

I don't necessarily disagree with this, but explain this....
I have two girls I work with, both have pretty sound mechanics, both are athletic, both are in a strong position at impact.....

Girl #1 - Weight 125lbs, Bat Speed at Impact 63mph, Best Hits 245'
Girl #2 - Weight 170lbs, Bat Speed at Impact 71mph, Best Hits 215'

I'll bet...

both have pretty sound mechanics,

not the same 'mechanics'....

 

[JJsqueeze]

How on earth do you have the ability to measure bat velocity at impact? The numbers don't add up. All things being equal, the only thing to explain the difference as you describe it would be that one didn't square up the ball on the sweet spot as well as the other, or hit into a wind...or used a different ball. rethink the measurements. This is not about follow through-what happens after contact is useless, the bat could stop dead and the ball would go just as far. The bat/ball collision is so fast that the hand no longer impart speed to the ball after the instant of contact. By the time the oscillation from the impact has traveled to the hands and then back, the ball is gone.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

How on earth do you have the ability to measure bat velocity at impact? The numbers don't add up. All things being equal, the only thing to explain the difference as you describe it would be that one didn't square up the ball on the sweet spot as well as the other, or hit into a wind...or used a different ball. rethink the measurements. This is not about follow through-what happens after contact is useless, the bat could stop dead and the ball would go just as far. The bat/ball collision is so fast that the hand no longer impart speed to the ball after the instant of contact. By the time the oscillation from the impact has traveled to the hands and then back, the ball is gone.

Zepp measures bat speed at contact.

 

[JJsqueeze]

Zepp measures bat speed at contact.

Zepp measures the movement of the knob of the bat....think about that one and come again FFS.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

JJs, I take it that you haven't used a Zepp.

 

[JJsqueeze]

JJs, I take it that you haven't used a Zepp.

nope. Are you saying it is lock down accurate and can be trusted? That would be awesome, but I had tried to find some sort of technical specs on it a while back, a comparison to say high speed cameras to verify it's accuracy and i couldn't find squat. I could find a lt of celebrity endorsements though so that should sell me. If you have some testing data that proves it as a product please share it.

 

[JJsqueeze]

JJs, I take it that you haven't used a Zepp.

nope. Are you saying it is lock down accurate and can be trusted? That would be awesome, but I had tried to find some sort of technical specs on it a while back, a comparison to say high speed cameras to verify it's accuracy and i couldn't find squat. I could find a lt of celebrity endorsements though so that should sell me. If you have some testing data that proves it as a product please share it.

 

[Greenmonsters]

How on earth do you have the ability to measure bat velocity at impact? The numbers don't add up. All things being equal, the only thing to explain the difference as you describe it would be that one didn't square up the ball on the sweet spot as well as the other, or hit into a wind...or used a different ball. rethink the measurements. This is not about follow through-what happens after contact is useless, the bat could stop dead and the ball would go just as far. The bat/ball collision is so fast that the hand no longer impart speed to the ball after the instant of contact. By the time the oscillation from the impact has traveled to the hands and then back, the ball is gone.

Knowing how much we all like golf references, here's an analogy. Assuming the same club head speed and same trajectory, a golf ball hit with hook or slice spin will travel less distance in the air than a ball hit with no side spin. Let's call this phenomenon "quality of contact". Considering this as it pertains to the OP's question - we don't know if the reported distances are of balls hit off a tee, front toss, in practice, or games and therefore can't assess whether there is significant variability which could explain the observed results, so for simplicity sake lets assume this is constant. Given that, the simplest answer to explain the observed difference in distance is a function of quality of contact. Energy is more efficiently and effectively transferred from the bat to the ball when the bat makes contact perpendicular to the pitch direction/batted ball direction (a squared up ball") than when the bat is not perpendicular to the pitch/batted ball (sliced or pulled ball or a ball with significant sidespin). I would bet that the OP's longer hitter hits more "straight" balls and that the shorter hitter hits more pulls and slices. If true, timing differences with the same mechanics could produce the observed results. Alternatively, subtle swing mechanics differences (most likely hand path) could also be responsible.