Posted by: Jerry Ridder (jerryridder@excite.com) on Tue Oct 12 11:39:36 2004

Can someone tell me the formula on figuring out pitch speed from various distances ...
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> Such as .. If im pitching to a batter from 30 ft. at 40mph .. what would the speed equate to from a pitcher at 40ft.
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> They say Jenny Finches 70mph fastball from 43' would be the equal of facing a 100mph fastball from 60'.
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> Im trying to approximate the speed/reaction time for a 60mph fastball from 40ft . But since i cant throw that fast , I need to move in closer to try and approximate the same reaction time from a closer distance to work on focus and quickness. Does anyone know the formula ?
The basic premise is to find the speeds at which the reaction time is the same from various distances so I convert the MPH into feet/sec which is 1.466667 ft/sec for each MPH. Step 1 is to multiply your MPH by 1.466667 to obtain ft/sec. Divide the distance over which that pitch was made by the number in Step 1 to get reaction time (ball flight time) in seconds for Step 2. Divide the distance in feet for the second distance by the number obtained in Step 2 to get the speed the ball would have to travel from the second distance to be equivalent to the first distance for Step 3. For Step 4, multiply the number in Step 3 by 0.6818182 to obtain the speed in MPH for the second distance.

Example:70 MPH from 43 feet would be:
Step 1 70 * 1.466667 = 102.6666667 ft/sec
Step 2 43 / 102.666667 = 0.41883116 sec.
Step 3 60 / 0.41883116 = 143.2558 ft/sec
Step 4 143.2558 * 0.6818182 = 97.67442 MPH

So, I guess what they say is correct. She pitches at an equivalent of 100 MPH. I know I can't hit that. How about you?

I hope this helps.
Jerry