Pocket Radar users, need reviews

[cuzmail]

Rev-fire will always be slower then a radar gun, because it measures average speed, not top speed like a radar gun. The biggest variable here is the rev-fire, since the speed reading can be altered by how close or deep the catcher catches the ball.

-W

Which brings up a good point.

It is very difficult to get the distance correct with a rev fire. Rarely do you catch the pitch at the back of the plate triangle which is the distance marker. Even more challenging to the distance issue is the fact that the pitcher never realses the ball at the edge of the rubber which is the other distance marker. So unless you are measuring from the location your DD releases the ball and then you catch the ball at the proper distance from that point; you are not getting the true average speed. AND unless all PC's and Parents are ensuring the distances are correct you can't compare speeds between pitchers either.

 

[starsnuffer]

Yeah, agreed. They are all tools and only useful for comparing apples to apples. If the kid throws 10 pitches with a rev fire every 3 months or so it's good for tracking their progress. It's more useful for measuring spin revolution, but you still need to stripe it to make sure the spin direction is correct. Throwing a riseball at 22 rps is useless if the spin is bullet spin.

Same with the pocket radars and such. They're good for tracking progress, but I wouldn't walk around with one at a tournament thinking I'm comparing speeds of pitchers accurately. The test must be consistent, IE the radar in the same position for each throw. Behind the backstop is not consistent.

-W

 

[cuzmail]

^^^ Completely agree.

 

[b-dad]

Compared to PC's stalker radar gun for about 10 pitches (done in his basement). They were the same for all but one pitch. The one pitch was off 1 mph. Unbelievable for such a cost effective and small product.

 

[JAD]

Just used my Pocket Radar at our tryouts and it worked great!

 

[Txwalt]

I have a bushnell speedster 3. A parent borrowed it from me and said the pocket radar gave him comparable results.

 

[Softball scholar]

Was at our organizations tryouts and we compared the Stalker with my pocket radar on some of the pitchers trying out. We were right on or within 1mph on almost all pitches and we sampled about 20 pitches, except on two pitches in a row where the stalker had 2 pitches that were 8 MPH faster for some reason. The Stalkers readings were outliers and were about 8MPH than were the girl was cruising at, so we felt the pocket radar was more accurate in that case.

 

[JAD]

Maybe someone should lend their pocket radar to the people clocking the 12U LL World Series games! LOL

 

[RubberBiscuit]

I have a bushnell speedster 3. A parent borrowed it from me and said the pocket radar gave him comparable results.

Note that a few years ago, as the DD's were aging, three of us dads sold our Bushnell's as the accuracy maxxed out at just over 50mph.

(and yes, all three of our DD's have been verified with calibrated Juggs units at well over that speed - it was the Bushnells limitations)