Bat speed needed to hit a home run - mathematically

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Jul 27, 2015
235
43
I know there are a million variables when a ball is hit: speed of pitch, length and speed of bat, altitude, temperature, spin on ball, where on the bat you hit it, angle of the swing, etc......

I am trying to dumb that down but don't know if that is possible. What I really want is some webpage that does this for me but I don't think that is out there. Assuming every variable mentioned above is the same and ideal, except the bat size and bat speed, is there a way to figure out the following with a formula?
Say my daughter swings 63 mph with a 32/22 bat.
If she switches to a 33/23 bat and swings 60 mph, should I expect the ball to go further on a 50 mph pitch down the middle of the plate?

If the above can be calculated, then figuring out bat speed needed to hit a home run would be doable.

I know taking BP could answer which bat hits further pretty easily, but I am trying to figure out if mathematically it can be done. I have seen it listed on baseball sites that every mph increase in speed will make the ball go x feet further, so I think what I am asking for can be done.
 
Sep 29, 2014
2,421
113
An article like this is probably what you where referencing.

Bat speed gets you way more bang for your buck than weight as you can see by the chart.

Baseball Physics: Anatomy of a Home Run

This article is a little geeky with formulas but there is one interesting chart about finding the sweet spot obviously the heavier the bat the slower your bat speed at some point so the ideal is to find the heaviest bat you can swing without losing speed you don't want to lose speed because it impacts twice as much as weight.

Bat Weight, Swing Speed and Ball Velocity

I could not really find the answer to your question although you would think that there is an answer to If a grooved 65 mph pitch is hit in the sweet spot with your typical $350 top of the line bat it will never go over the fence unless you have a bat speed of X. Then everything after that means you did not make proper contact somehow.
 
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Jul 27, 2015
235
43
My wife and I tried some of those equations on that page you linked to.....which is why I posted here. Too many variables. I understand the logic (somewhat) on that page but wanted to see it in action for softball.

The link provided by Arnival is hard coded for baseball and does not let me enter the bat weight.











An article like this is probably what you where referencing.

Bat speed gets you way more bang for your buck than weight as you can see by the chart.

Baseball Physics: Anatomy of a Home Run

This article is a little geeky with formulas but there is one interesting chart about finding the sweet spot obviously the heavier the bat the slower your bat speed at some point so the ideal is to find the heaviest bat you can swing without losing speed you don't want to lose speed because it impacts twice as much as weight.

Bat Weight, Swing Speed and Ball Velocity

I could not really find the answer to your question although you would think that there is an answer to If a grooved 65 mph pitch is hit in the sweet spot with your typical $350 top of the line bat it will never go over the fence unless you have a bat speed of X. Then everything after that means you did not make proper contact somehow.
 
Jul 10, 2013
77
0
ESPN has that science show and they did a segment on this. They took a hitter and he hit 10 balls and they came up with a Avg. distance then the same hitter using the same bat hit 10 more balls except this time he used a donut to warm up with before he hit. The bat speed was faster after using the donut but he hit the ball 15 feet shorter.
They did the same thing with a golfer and they came up with the same result. They said that the reason behind this was long term muscle memory vs short term muscle memory. I don't know what all this means except I saw someone increase there bat speed and hit the ball shorter.
 
Oct 2, 2015
615
18
ESPN has that science show and they did a segment on this. They took a hitter and he hit 10 balls and they came up with a Avg. distance then the same hitter using the same bat hit 10 more balls except this time he used a donut to warm up with before he hit. The bat speed was faster after using the donut but he hit the ball 15 feet shorter.
They did the same thing with a golfer and they came up with the same result. They said that the reason behind this was long term muscle memory vs short term muscle memory. I don't know what all this means except I saw someone increase there bat speed and hit the ball shorter.

YES!!! Thank you for saying this!
Can anyone post a link of this?
 
Feb 7, 2013
3,188
48
ESPN has that science show and they did a segment on this. They took a hitter and he hit 10 balls and they came up with a Avg. distance then the same hitter using the same bat hit 10 more balls except this time he used a donut to warm up with before he hit. The bat speed was faster.

Actually the bat speed was SLOWER after using the weighted bat. Also, the use of the weighted bat caused his normal hitting mechanics to be slightly off, thereby not hitting the sweet spot on the bat, robbing him of distance.

Btw - I remember in 1st year 8u, an idiot coach who had the girls use a donut to warm up in the on deck circle. It was 16oz and most of the girls were playing with 16-18oz bats, thereby doubling the weight of their swings right before their at-bat. Not very effective!
 
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Jun 17, 2009
15,105
0
Portland, OR
I routinely switch back and forth between swinging 32-30oz bats and these 26-23oz bats. After swinging the heavier wood bats it takes a few swings to get smoothed out with the lighter bats. Other than that I'm not feeling any negative outcomes from the experience.
 
Oct 10, 2011
3,117
0
A girl on our team has the state HS record for home runs and she always swings with a heavy donut on deck. I think it's whatever works best for each person despite the data.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
 
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