Bat Speed vs. Exit Speed?

[erniekru]

Blast does a bad job of measuring bat speed in my opinion. It is the measuring device for On Deck Softball and Figures into the Alister Index so it is important to know. A stand alone swing speed radar from Sport Sensors Inc gives higher readings and is probably a truer measure of bat speed. My understanding is a Blast uses speed at middle of the bat and Swing Speed radars registers end of bat. Exit speed off a tee should be higher than Blast swing speed. 70mph exit speed would be considered good, some high school girls are closing on 80mph. Find somewhere to get her officially measured. On Deck would be the biggest name but their are others who will also measure. On Deck hold more weight than most but Twitter is all the rage now. Pocket radar, swing speed radar do you own measuring and tweet away.

I don't think the bat sensors do a bad job of swing speed. Blast, Garmin, etc calculate the swing speed at the approximate sweet spot of the bat. I think if anything a max radar reading of the end of the bat is disingenuous as if you made contact with the end of the bat, the ball is not going anywhere.

Either way, it is only a metric. If the measurement is repeatable, then it is sufficient as a metric. An inch could've been longer when it was accepted as "standard" back in the day. It wouldn't change anything for us today if it did.

 

[justanotherguy]

He was referring to girls/women

Umm, yeah, I kinda figured that.

 

[efastball]

You can create a LOT of bat speed with a really bad swing pushing the barrel and rolling hands. It does not translate into power because your disconnected.

Any 'extra' bat speed using this method will be well after 'contact'. You're still not tring to slow down your bat. Ever. I mean ever. No really, I mean ever.