Posted by: Jeff M (arhmobile@yahoo.com) on Fri Apr 2 12:30:19 2004

In discussing pitchers, we commonly refer to, judge, and rank their fastball speed in terms of MPH. Although bat speed is important (per forum discussions, name of this web site, products sold to capture bat speed, products and exercises promoted to increase bat speed, etc.), I can't seem to find specific mention of specific speeds of swings in terms of MPH.
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> Yet, one college recruiting site argues that college coaches don't look at batting stats as much as they look at athleticism, especially a potential recruit's hand and bat speed. Even if that's a bit overstated, clearly bat speed is critical to good baseball. In golf that is true...
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> I know that when I was being fitted for custom clubs, my average swing speed was THE most significant determining factor on my club shafts, particularly the drivers. So...
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> Say I have SwingMate in place. How do I know whether or not my two high school boys are swinging too slow, about right, or too fast? Have studies been conducted on this? Is there a bad-good-better-best bat speed scale for batters? Or is this too relative to other factor making it impossible to standardize?
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> One reason I'm interested in this is because with regard to one of my boys, I think he is actually swinging too fast. When he slows his bat speed slightly, he stays more balanced thoughout the entire swing and as a result he makes much better contact.
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> On the driving range, when the speed of my driver tops 110MPH, I rarely hit the ball solid. If I drop club speed down between 90 and 95MPH, my play improves significantly. Sure, on the rare occasion when I hit a ball solid swinging at 110MPH, it goes a mile. But, that is rare, perhaps occuring no more than 1 or 2 times out of 10 swings.
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> Assuming this is the same with batters, what is a good MPH for a high schooler's bat speed?

DBM,
Batspeed is certainly an important issue, but you should realize that maximum batspeed needs to occur/take place at or just before contact with the ball. I've seen/heard claims of 70+mph batspeed indications, but when tested on a field the results are less than impressive. A swing which causes maximum bat velocity to occur to early or after contact is in effect counter-productive.

My approach/recomendations: continue with your training based on info obtained from this site (maybe others also), and record the results in terms easy to quantify...say distance. Good luck.
Jeff M