How to time home to first speed??

[Hyper Henry]

Probably a dumb question here but when timing home to first speed for runners do you have the girls start from in the batters box in their normal batting stance or do they just start at home plate in a sprinters stance pointed toward first??

Thanks

 

[FPMark]

Doesn't really matter, as long as they all do it the same. Just make it easy to be able to start the time consistantly. I usually have them start in the batters box and start the time when the first foot hits the ground. Everybody does it different so I don't pay much attention to claims of how fast a girl is based on times, I just use it for compairison at tryouts.

My DD went to 3 different tryouts this year, and was timed at all 3. The best time at one was 2.73 and at another it was 3.20. Of course if I were to Brag about her speed, I would definately say she is at least a low 2.7...

 

[arowley1977]

What I did in practice, was stand behind them at home with them in the batter's box in their stance, no bat. I have someone at first with a stopwatch. I kneel down and hit a ball into the ground. They go on the sound of the bat. This gives the slight delay and I feel makes it closer to the real time they would get because they would have to drop the bat and run in a game.

 

[Mike]

Depends on what your objective is. Mine is to get an accurate average so I set up a tee and they watch a pitcher on the mound and go through a pitching motion, they hit the ball off a tee and run, I start the time when they hit the ball.

On occasion to find where they are weakest fielding we hit gounders to each position and have a timer who times from the crack of the ball to the time the ball hits the first basemans mitt.

If the average home to first time is say 3.1 and our third basemans fielding time to first when fielding a ball 15 feet up the third baseline is 3.2 then we know what area she needs work.

Does that make sense?

 

[softballphreak]

We soft front toss and have them bunt. Time starts at sound of contact with the ball.