Bat Speed vs. Exit Speed?

[Westwind]

Question for my peeps who look at metrics often:

1) If a player has a 65 mph bat speed, I would expect her to have exit speed of (blank). Exit speed is faster than bat speed, right?

2) Does it seem right to you that some really good D1 hitters have bat speed meas by Blast Motion in the upper 50’s lower 60’s?

3) DD was at a practice last week and had 8 tee swings where the coach moved tee location around and they were hitting on a field with 200’ fences. All of dd’s swings were 66-70 mph. Would a screen shot of that be the kind of thing she should put in an email to a college coach?

I have been watching webinars where d1 coaches are posting Blast Motion data for their players. I have been surprised that bat speed is all over the place.

 

[FP26]

When I saw your questions I decided to look back through all the college camp data that DD acquired throughout the years. What I noticed is that at each camp every single player's exit speed is lower than their bat speed. Not just a high percentage, but every one of them. All the articles I have seen on line claim that exit speed should be higher than bat speed. Obviously the quality of the impact will have a bearing on the exit speed. But I find it very unlikely that a camp with nearly 150 players with each measured 3 times would result in 450 mishits. Just doesn't seem possible. The only reason I can think of is ball density. In baseball, exit speed is typically much higher than bat speed. But a baseball is much harder than a softball. Perhaps the ball compression has an impact on the speed numbers... Need a physics expert to chime in

I'm not surprised by the numbers you are quoting for D1. You will find measurements all over the place... At one of the larger camps DD attended bat speed ratings ranged from upper 40's to low 70's. DD was upper 60's. Most of the exit speeds were 7 to 10 mph slower than the exit speeds. I'm not sure what type of equipment they were using at this event, but it showed higher speeds than DD gets from our Zepp sensor. She is typically mid-60's on that. Unfortunately the Zepp cannot measure exit speed.

NOTE: I will see if I can figure out a way to send you the info I'm looking at...

 

[Rolling Hard]

Bats have gotten better? More bounce to the ounce!

 

[DRDRODD]

Question for my peeps who look at metrics often:

1) If a player has a 65 mph bat speed, I would expect her to have exit speed of (blank). Exit speed is faster than bat speed, right?

2) Does it seem right to you that some really good D1 hitters have bat speed meas by Blast Motion in the upper 50’s lower 60’s?

3) DD was at a practice last week and had 8 tee swings where the coach moved tee location around and they were hitting on a field with 200’ fences. All of dd’s swings were 66-70 mph. Would a screen shot of that be the kind of thing she should put in an email to a college coach?

I have been watching webinars where d1 coaches are posting Blast Motion data for their players. I have been surprised that bat speed is all over the place.

Was your DD also using Blast Motion? Reason being they read speed at different locations of the bat.

 

[Work=wins]

Question for my peeps who look at metrics often:

1) If a player has a 65 mph bat speed, I would expect her to have exit speed of (blank). Exit speed is faster than bat speed, right?

2) Does it seem right to you that some really good D1 hitters have bat speed meas by Blast Motion in the upper 50’s lower 60’s?

3) DD was at a practice last week and had 8 tee swings where the coach moved tee location around and they were hitting on a field with 200’ fences. All of dd’s swings were 66-70 mph. Would a screen shot of that be the kind of thing she should put in an email to a college coach?

I have been watching webinars where d1 coaches are posting Blast Motion data for their players. I have been surprised that bat speed is all over the place.

folks should really explore and understand number 2. The faster the bat speed is... the shorter time it’s in the hitting zone right? The shorter time it’s on plane with the pitch?

of course we want ‘fast enough’. Law of diminishing returns plays in everything.

 

[Bobby Shirer]

folks should really explore and understand number 2. The faster the bat speed is... the shorter time it’s in the hitting zone right? The shorter time it’s on plane with the pitch?

of course we want ‘fast enough’. Law of diminishing returns plays in everything.

The law of diminishing returns applies to economics and has no basis in physics or softball.
Unless you're paying the umpire, please stop referring to it in your arguments.

 

[Work=wins]

The law of diminishing returns applies to economics and has no basis in physics or softball.
Unless you're paying the umpire, please stop referring to it in your arguments.

if you eat too much you will die, if you drink too much water you will drown, if you work out too much you will break down. If you swing too hard and fast you lose control or efficiency or both. Too much of anything plays everywhere !!

 

[justanotherguy]

One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is the MOI of the bat. Not just weight, but full on MOI. If a girl swings a 32 -10 at 70mph and another swings a 34 -8 at 70mph, all other things equal, which do you think will go further? Then also, is one bat more end loaded than another?

 

[Work=wins]

You have an output of 100%.. you should use 100% of 90% of your 100% .

Ted said he used his body at 80% . Ted said he only used his hands 100% and that was into contact. I agree.

 

[Westwind]

ETA: there were responses while I was hunting and pecking my reply! I’m behind!

Thanks to all for the in depth answers. I feel like I am starting to understand the numbers in a really superficial way. I’m not sure anyone understood the metrics at first but I think that’s changing. Hearing some D1 hitting coaches discuss this stuff really shines a light on this.

Seeing the numbers of some of the best hitters in softball on webinars was an eye opener and hearing their coaches say that “all of their numbers won’t be what you think they should be all the time” really helped me personally. Also heard an interview with one of the biggest sticks at Florida in which she said they used Blast a lot and her hitting coach said that he didn’t want her to know “all” the numbers.

@FP26 specifically- the bat speed vs exit speed is a classic example of conventional wisdom vs reality. I was just sure that exit was higher than bat speed, and I have never been around baseball but that must be where I got it.

I saw Matt Lisle mention in passing that there is a movement toward measuring exit speed off moving balls vs. tee as it has usually been done. Thought that was a nugget to explore too.

Was your DD also using Blast Motion? Reason being they read speed at different locations of the bat.

Yes- Im also using the video function as much as possible. I don’t have quite enough room to set up the ball flight and metrics but when I have used that in the past it is really interesting to see the bat speed at every point of the swing.