How important is knowing spin speed?

[uncdrew]

Video?

The best one is me falling off the bucket. Classic.

 

[RADcatcher]

The best one is me falling off the bucket. Classic.

Video?

 

[RADcatcher]

It's out there somewhere. Perhaps I can find it

Let's see that curve! Does she Throw It full speed and half speed or off speed?

 

[4Martini]

But I'm also a believer in measuring, bench-marking, etc. Tracking improvement is good. Would I change pitching instructors to get to a rapsodo machine? Nope. Would I like to see her numbers from a Rapsodo machine? Sure, definitely. Would I do anything with those numbers other than brag about them to y'all? Probably not.

Thanks! We’re definitely not talking about switching- just doing a player eval at the facility that has it. They do a pitching and hitting eval and review all the data with you and give you a report. I actually asked her pitching coach what she thought about getting the data since I posted this and she thought it was a great idea.

She was mentioning how her fast ball appears to be screwing at her last lesson which seems to be working really well ;-)

But having a baseline as the season ends to makes tweaks off of seems like a good idea. (We only have 1 more tournament before we’re done).

 

[Jeffrey]

My daughter has been pitching for about a year and a half. She’s 13 and is doing well on a second year 14B team that’s now entering A tournaments.

She’s curious about her spin rate etc. is it worth signing her up for a camp that measures it - or go to a facility that has Rapsodo - or is there another way? Her current coach doesn’t do it- but we love her and she is making a ton of progress.

What do you suggest? I know a few facilities within a reasonable drive have Rapsodo pitching module. One upcoming camp is offering Diamond metrics.

She throws consistently in the low 50s if that is relevant. She’s very science/ math oriented so I think learning more about her pitches will make her want to explore more on how they can improve.

Thanks!

No investment needed. Before I had a revfire or a dk ball I had a ball with 1 big black dot on one side and 2 big dots on the other. All she has to do is chuck it while you film and play it back in slow motion counting the revolutions. Your camera will let you know the time it was traveling and with some simple math you can get RPS or RPM and there’s plenty of charts out there to see where she stacks up. As a bonus you can see the axis of rotation and spin direction at the same time.

 

[daywalkerdad]

I do not know if it is worth it never checked spin rate.
If hitters are topping the ball her spin is probably pretty good. That is usually hitters not centering the ball, especially 14u against many players 2 grades above. Velocity alone is not going to scare them.

 

[DropcityUSA]

Controversial opinion, but outside of the drop I don’t think spin plays as big as a role in movement as people think.

 

[RADcatcher]

Controversial opinion, but outside of the drop I don’t think spin plays as big as a role in movement as people think.

Questions please,
Can you explain that perspective?

If its not spin,
What in your opinion plays a big role?

How does spin help a drop but not a curve?

 

[DropcityUSA]

Just my opinion.

All pitches spin some way obviously. But I think axis tilt and laminar flow play a more prominent role in pitch movement than spin, Screwballs (not a step way to one side one) for example move based on seam orientation, laminar effect - no 3-9 spin is involved. If you throw curve spin but with the incorrect seam orientation/axis, it will come back over the plate (DD’s PC showed an example of this some time ago). Spin might help a curve, but it is not the main force moving it. A lot of girls can move a ball left (as a righty) without curve spin.

Cricket has a lot more research in the area of laminar flow.

As for dropballs, all balls drop eventually due to gravity, but top spin speeds up the process by adding a downward force.

 

[Gtrips07]

Just my opinion.

All pitches spin some way obviously. But I think axis tilt and laminar flow play a more prominent role in pitch movement than spin, Screwballs (not a step way to one side one) for example move based on seam orientation, laminar effect - no 3-9 spin is involved. If you throw curve spin but with the incorrect seam orientation/axis, it will come back over the plate (DD’s PC showed an example of this some time ago). Spin might help a curve, but it is not the main force moving it. A lot of girls can move a ball left (as a righty) without curve spin.

Cricket has a lot more research in the area of laminar flow.

As for dropballs, all balls drop eventually due to gravity, but top spin speeds up the process by adding a downward force.

There is no such thing as a screwball spin. That's just bullet spin. And spin matters with every pitch, along with axis of spin.

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