Similar to the way throwing velocity has been used as a benchmark for evaluating pitchers for decades, coaches and scouts are now using exit velocity as a metric for assessing hitters’ ability and chance for success at the next level. What would be the exit velocity of a batted ball traveling 340 feet from a stationary position? In recent years, the Cardinals’ exit-velocity leader has been Matt Holliday, a savage-high-average hitter who routinely hit the Cardinals’ hardest zingers. Measure ball’s exit speed from behind the batter. Scouts and coaches use exit velocity as a measure how much force a player can transfer from the body through the bat and into the ball. These speeds could be roughly 8 mph higher if they used non-wood bats. By standing with the Stalker radar gun behind the tee, you’ll get an accurate reading of the player’s “bat speed.” To get an accurate reading, make sure you are using decent baseballs as well as a WOOD bat. Are you in control when you swing 100%? I could teach them how to hit the ball. Maybe 2 were higher (highest was 90mph), also with BBCOR. It may not be the most important thing, but if everything else were equal (ability to square, strength/weight/mass, pitch recognition, etc.) Secondly, I want to know how adjustable they are. I would suggest that the “average” could be tough to define because of a very wide range of abilities. However, there has been much debate on the importance of pitch speed on the ultimate exit velocity… There are players that are under that number who are recruited, but it will be tough to hit at the D1 level without an exit velocity in the Mid-90’s or above. Hitting is a ballistic movement, wh… Division II middle infielders must be polished in at least one phase of the game (fielding or hitting), but more often than not they are more of an asset defensively and have things to work on from a hitting standpoint. Most of the kids at the PBR event that he did were below 85mph with BBCOR. The lowest on a homerun was 89.5 by Mookie Betts. The Smart Coach Radar can measure the Exit Velocity in batting practice, from off a tee, from soft-toss, or with live pitching. These stats are important elements of predicting the characteristic of the hit ball, particularly the ball's distance travelled. While working and developing high school players, I have never had a player move on to D1 who’s exit velocity was under 90 MPH. Hardest Hit Softball by an Elementary School hitter: Kaity, 77mph; In my experience, if a high school softball hitter can legitimately hit 70mph on the radar gun, their chances of playing a high level of softball are high. Replies and comments they make will be collapsed/hidden by default. Looking on film at what specific pitch was thrown, going back to that pitch on the HitTrax machine, recording the point of contact, looking back at the film to see what the ball did as it descended toward the hitter and how the hitter handled it. Take the three best times out of five attempts and calculate the average exit speed of all valid hits. Angle has that big of an impact. What exit velo in the 70s does is prevent extra base hits, and give little margin for error at times. A Chart of Average Throwing Velocities By Age; 2015 AL MVP Josh Donaldson’s Swing – What Makes It So Good? But the answer is not to say the numbers are invalid. Consistenly hit the fence with one of my hits clearing the fence around 20 feet. A brand new baseball is going to give you a higher exit velocity than an old, beat up one. In 2006 Pujols had his bat speed measured at 87mph. Pro agility shuttle: Position three cones five yards apart in a straight line. This is often referred to as Exit Velocity or sometimes referred to as Ball Exit Speed. A table displaying leaders in Statcast metrics such as Sweet Spot % (SwSp%), Barrels, Exit Velocity (EV), ... How high/low, in degrees, a ball was hit by a batter. Power: 87 mph exit velocity from the tee. They say higher spin rates are bad for golf balls. (Side note: while those things are MOST important, your most talented players should have the types of intangibles coaches look for anyway, and probably will. 82 mph exit velocity off the tee. In recent years, the Cardinals’ exit-velocity leader has been Matt Holliday, a savage-high-average hitter who routinely hit the Cardinals’ hardest zingers. Even a body builder. But I highly doubt there are guys that hit it 75 that are going D-1. Collegiate guys? Not unusual for that kid. We currently have 14 guys at 80+ off the tee (with wood). It was reported that his best tee exit velocity was 79mph. Not all baseballs are created equal. Numbers do matter to most baseball guy's. I'm assuming that a squared up fly ball hit in the 70's right at an OF doesn't get over his head, cause from what I've seen only the strongest kids can do that with a BBCOR. Then, for consistency the exit speed measurement HAS to been done off a tee, not a moving ball, to eliminate the variability of the ball. While functionally we like those numbers, we want to focus our energy on consistently timing up our very best swing rather than being overly adjustable and making too much “solid” contact and not enough “hard contact.” This doesn’t ALWAYS translate exactly to a higher average velocity, but typically a higher HHA using that mindset. A Chart of Average Throwing Velocities By Age. IME - With a 12” ball from a tee I’d say the kids in the upper 20% (A class players) have the following exit speeds: College - 82-93 with low level at 82-86, mid level at 87 - 89, and high level at 90-93. The exit velocity is the speed of the ball coming off the bat and - quite obviously - the pitch speed is the speed of the incoming throw from the pitcher. How do those speeds translate in real life? (This is problematic since you don't know where in the swing plane you achieved the speed - ex after contact, etc. One metric that is currently being used at the highest levels of baseball and softball that has trickled down into the high school and youth levels is a hitter’s exit velocity, or the speed of the baseball or softball off the bat. The exit velocity of a baseball hit off a tee is something that EVERY player can do to give himself an idea of where he stands in comparison to different levels of hitters. High School - 63-78 mph with 69 considered average. I think your spin data matches golf pretty close if you are looking for distance numbers. Stanton hit 119.9 this year. A Chart of Average Throwing Velocities By Age . Exit Velocity from the tee holds very little value from an evaluative perspective. Remember its not just about power. Pop … Exit speed is an interesting topic. I don't think the focus on one particular number is all that helpful. A player can have a very high HHA but lower than normal average velocity, while also have a higher avg. A high character player with no skill will not win championships, just like a high talent player with no character may cost you a championship.). Watching players light up the radar gun with ground balls to short (on a ball that isn’t even moving) gives me very little data on what they can do as a hitter. If your swing isn’t efficient off the tee, it is highly unlikely that it will operate efficiently with multiple pitch speeds in game situations. And probably d1 as well. Defense: Projects best at first base; fluid feet, feel for the base at first. And they are a great objective way to see if your son is on track. The golf club was in contact with the ball for {eq}5.3 \times 10^{-3} {/eq} s. Height: 5’11” Weight: 180 lbs. There have been successful MLB hitters with below average bat speed. You see the pros put so much spin on the ball, they can back it up. A Chart of Average Throwing Velocities By Age . The farthest hit balls did not have the highest exit speed. The FASTEST college kids are around 2.65 2.75.. … In a 1991 experiment published in “New Scientist,” researchers at the University of Arizona found that Little Leaguers ranging in age from 10 to 12 years bat an average of about 60 mph with a 10-ounce bat, 40 mph with a 20-ounce bat and 30 mph with a 30-ounce bat. Exit velocity is what I meant. (Tee is best for consistency, or use same pitch speed, and bat weight/type)Exit speed is a great indicator for scouting (if same pitch speed and bat type/weight). With added strength and maturity, he will probably get his bat speed up to the low 80's and if he focuses on practice with the tee for the exit speed test, maybe another 1-2 mph. He hasn't had it measured off a pitched ball as of yet. That exit speed data is interesting. In another at bat you may hit it hard but right at a player resulting in an out. However, after watching hundreds of Exit Velocities being showcased off the tee, using HitTrax, and studying trending results in different environments that translate to game speed. When hitting flips, batting practice or live pitching so many other variables come into play, location, speed, among several others that could create a higher exit velocity or prevent a player from ever reaching their potential exit velocity. in regards to force, it's not the acceleration that's the defineing variable, it's the ability of the batter to put his mass behind the bat. best bat speed and ball exit: here is how to accomplish maximum distance no matter the science and people have been doing it for hundreds of years. Sweet Spot. Home; Featured; How Do You Rate? Published by at January 31, … The real smart guy's know that some awesome numbers that are posted should be discounted because of how the player looked while maxing out. Measuring Ball Exit Velocity off the bat. The reason the 3X Extreme Pitching Velocity Program works is because it is based off of science and it has been proven to develop the 90+mph fastball on thousands of pitchers. In addition, the average bat speed of Little Leaguers depends on the weight of the bat. The bat speed is recorded in mph. A higher average exit velocity doesn’t always translate to more hard hits, and more hard hits don’t always translate to the best result (if we are simply measuring from a tee) Therefore we can test and work to improve HHA as well as average exit velocity in challenging hitting environments, or performance zones such as live pitching, simulated life using a Hack Attack off-set for righty and/or lefty release points mixing up pitches rather than training zones such as tee work, flips, and batting practice. Run: 7.16 runner in the 60. Our interests lie in how many balls are getting squared up in each environment. Exit Velocity plays much better than Launch Angle overall, all of the data supports the harder you hit the ball, the better chance you have of getting a “hit,” Which is why another thing I’m very interested in is a players Hard Hit Average (HHA). … Some players showcase better than they play. These are the aspects that directly create exit velocityin a batted ball: 1. bat speed 2. mass of the bat 3. pitch speed 4. collision efficiency (hitting the ball on the sweet spot) All other factors are indirect parts of the equation that produce bat speed. While working and developing high school players, I have never had a player move on to D1 who’s exit velocity was under 90 MPH. Thank you. That information will then need to be quantified in order to give college coaches, and pro-scouts the best possible data they can on recruiting players, High School coaches can use 100% objective data to determine the best players for their potential teams and THEN look at things like culture, effort, and attitude. It isn’t rocket science or voodoo, it is the real deal! The bottom plot shows that short hang time (along with high exit speed) is achieved with … This is tracked for all Batted Ball Events -- outs, hits and errors. What type of exit speed should we be striving for as a high school player? Maybe he'll get that info at the PG Mid-Atlantic Underclass in late August. We do use exit velocity off the tee as part of our tryout for this simple reason: it doesn't tell me who CAN hit, but it tells me who CAN'T hit. My son recently went to a college showcase where they measured his bat speed. It isn’t rocket science or voodoo, it is the real deal! Exit speed is the speed the ball is moving as it comes off the bat: exit speed (aka, batted ball speed, speed off the bat) is the ultimate goal in hitting. Amateur hitters  proly swing only 80% in a game. When I first realized that you can and SHOULD be measuring ball exit speed, the speed the ball comes off the bat. Such discussions matter because of how well exit velocity correlates with high batting averages and high slugging percentages. Arm: RH. He hit groundballs well over half the time. A batted ball with the perfect combination of exit velocity and launch angle Hard Hit. Off the tee, with no help from the pitch, hitters can measure their ability to create hard contact. Obviously, it's somewhat important because bat speed will allow a hitter to wait longer before starting his swing, thus giving him more time to recognize the pitch and decide to swing or not. So if you’re a softball player, make it a goal to try and hit 70mph (it would be like pitching 60+). But on the other hand there are numbers that guarantee failure and numbers that at least show potential. This indicates “better hits” happened more often which is the goal we are trying to achieve to build positive trends on offense. We are a good team, but it is due to pitching/defense, not hitting. High spin rates are desirable on short shots so you can "stick" the ball on the green. That means that, for a ball hit off a tee, a 100-mph swing will produce an exit velocity of 120 mph in the best-case scenario, and a 110 mph exit velocity for the average … I love numbers they are attention getters and then the player has to go perform. All Rights Reserved. However, it will still get you in the lineup at some places, using a variety of factors. Ball exit speed (off bat): Batter hits ball on tee into a net. Dan Koosed. Barrels. This is a measurement of the speed of the ball as it comes off the bat. However, bat speed will never compensate for sound pitch recognition, a good approach, and an understanding of what the pitcher and defense is trying to do to you. Home; Featured; How Do You Rate? There are players that are under that number who are recruited, but it will be tough to hit at the D1 level without an exit velocity in the Mid-90’s or above. One can wonder what exit velocities Babe Ruth or Ted Williams recorded in their time. OF velocity: 87+ MPH (verified by a neutral source) Slugging: at least 5 HRs as a high school junior and senior.750 (minimum 2 at bats per game) OBP: .500; Division 2. So much is depended upon size of field, competition, level of school, etc. This is tracked for all Batted Ball Events -- outs, hits and errors. BALL EXIT SPEED 63.08 62.75 63.4 65.28 61.02 5-10-5 SHUTTLE TIME 5.129 5.179 5.18 5.257 20 YARD SPRINT 3.013 3.051 3.052 40 YARD SPRINT 5.783 5.671 5.705 3.087 5.687 11th Grade 9th Grade 10th Grade Junior High YOUTH PLAYER PHYSICAL MEASURABLES AVERAGES OVER 20,000 PLAYERS MEASURED SINCE 2010 OVERHAND THROW VELOCITY 58.37 57.38 58.45 56.25. Also, how do you work on increasing it? Early July.) Notice that the farthest hit balls are mostly below the fastest exit speeds --- mid 90s vs 100+. These are numbers that you can record off the tee but without adding important variables it doesn’t give the entire picture of how valuable a player is on offense, for example: a HHA of .600 may not play as well, as a HHA of .400, see below: So, if we are looking to discover trends to determine the potential value of a hitter simply by using isolated metrics we have to be careful that it tells the entire story.