Right bat speeds?

[Barga_4]

I just got tested for my bat speed and it was topped out at 68-69 mph. I am a thirteen year old. I was wondering, should my bat speed be higher for my age or is it about average. If it is average or below, what are some drills I can do to bring it up. Well, even if it isn't, I am always looking to improve. Thanks.

 

[cshilt]

That is pretty good bat speed for your age. How fast should it be? It depends on your body type, but what you have is good. As far as improvements, it is hard to say without seeing video of your swing. You can generate good bat speed, but have a poor swing. Some of the fastest bat speeds in the world come from men slowpitch hitters. I'm not sure I'd want to take that swing into a fastpitch game though.

 

[Coach Lia]

Improvement on bat speed will coincide with your conditioning. Top of list to strengthen for bat speed improvement are you core muscles and your inner thigh or adductor muscles.

variations of squats like the open squat will help with adductor muscles. there are several core exercises to choose from, your exercises should have twisting movements.

 

[Mark H]

That is pretty good bat speed for your age. How fast should it be? It depends on your body type, but what you have is good. As far as improvements, it is hard to say without seeing video of your swing. You can generate good bat speed, but have a poor swing. Some of the fastest bat speeds in the world come from men slowpitch hitters. I'm not sure I'd want to take that swing into a fastpitch game though.

Exactly. I'd encourage you to focus more on being quick from first move of the bathead into the swing plane till contact rather than focusing on bat speed. Post a clip of your swing if you can.

 

[SBFAMILY]

Bustos swings at 78 to 79 MPH and Albert P swings at 86.99 MPH.

I would want to know what piece of equipment was used to measure for bat speed first?

Some read using the end of the bat and tip speed is usually 10 to 15 percent faster than Doppler Radar units such as the Swing Speed radar unit we use as it measure from the sweet spot of the bat. Also how it is set up will make a difference in what it reads. It also reads wood, composite and metal differently...Al Dilz who designed the unit lives 5 minutes away and we talk a lot about how to measure it and how you can feel the differences and measure it so you can feel it and do it again and again. He has been here when I work with a kid and it made him smile to see how much we could improve their bat speed with how we teach the mechanics we use.

When we did a clinic Columbus we showed exactly what effected bat speed by working with at least 20 kids and doing a before and after check after each swing. I added in the following order what to do and each swing showed the effect it had...that is data!

The main focus was a flexed knee verses rigid, the next was more effort with lowering the elbow to slot while we were making a good first move at the same time and pulling the bat or whipping it and last was the grip. By keeping the top hand loose and not lining up the finger knuckles we gained 2 to 4 MPH....sometimes we over analyze using video and discard common sense.

Bottom line most kids without using a proper hand path and stiff front leg swing at around 54 to 60 MPH or less. Then without a weight lifting program or use of video we can get them to swing at about 63 to 68 MPH.

Weight Training ....what if I was hungry are you going to teach me how to hunt, buy me a gun or take me to Wendy's?

One of our best at Ohio U. swings at 70 to 74 MPH .

Now if you would start a program of weight training you would know what effect it had on your bat speed verses your swing mechanics and which one could we correct first and in less time I may add?

When we did this same thing with a Divn one college coach he said, "As a former player I can feel the difference as it feels faster and I can see the results on the unit."

Building your core muscles is a great idea HOWEVER what can you do for my mechanics at this precise moment so I can maximize my potential today?

 

[Bouldersdad]

SBFAMILY is correct about bat speeds, and the difference in speeds according to where the radar unit is placed at the time of testing, we have found the place thats most accurate is behind the batter far enough not to get struck by the bat and the center of the unit lines up perfectly with the point of the plate. the doppler stays pretty much in the zone. unless the batter makes a first bad move to the ball and swings out of the radar funnell.
The majority of kids I see that have never been tested before range from 48 mph (on the slow side) to mid to high 50,s....... after adjusting the hand path theres almost always a pretty dramatic change in bat speed, some even have reached mid to high 60,s .
The important thing to me is to find a baseline to work off of, 7 to 10 swings will give you a pretty good idea of her constant bat speed index. then adjustments and trainings can work from there.
Youll almost always have a spike, what we do is work to make that spike our next medium number in our baseline. not always possible especialy once they reach a certain level of speed but never the less its a challenge and a goal. My student that has been doing this the longest has spiked at 81 mph but her baseline is between 75 on the low end and 78 on the top end, so now the gains come in inches rather than miles at a time.

Tim

 

[Mark H]

200 to 220 feet just isn't that far. Again, I'd focus on quickness rather than focusing on batspeed.

 

[calgofo]

200 to 220 feet just isn't that far. Again, I'd focus on quickness rather than focusing on batspeed.

Can you expand on that Mark ? I think I understand what Cshilt is saying. Based on the analogy of Mens elite slow pitch hitters, they are able to gain appreciably more bat speed but to develop said batspeed they trade off having a longer time element in their swings relative to FP due to constraints in the difference in closing speeds of the ball. If I'm reading it correctly, your definition of "quickness" is the time from the first movement of the bathead into the swing plane though to ball contact. I guess my question is wouldn't there still be some threshhold of measurable batspeed in the quickness segment. Pardon my being dense.

 

[Daddy O]

Barga_4 is my daughter. She actually got tested by a hitting instructer. Even though he told her it was a very good speed, she wanted to see what others thought. I will give you the whole story;
She's always been a good contact hitter, but she hits a lot of weak grounders and get's thrown out at first a lot. Therefore, she's never had a great batting average even though she strikes out very little. I knew there was room for improvement, so I contacted a hitting instructer. The first thing he did was look at her swing and then measured the "old" swings bat speed. The three swings were 60, 63, & 59. After that, he changed her hand path and first move. After 35 minutes of drills and instructions, he tested the "new" swing's speed. 68 and 69 were what was popping up. Pretty good improvement for less than an hour. Also, I will not mention who her hitting instructor is, but I know he's read this thread, even if he didn't realize who she was.

after adjusting the hand path theres almost always a pretty dramatic change in bat speed, some even have reached mid to high 60,s .

Tim

Let's just say this guy knows what he's talking 'bout!

 

[cshilt]

lol. Too funny.