Posted by: Ronnie (rwynn@comsouth.net) on Fri Oct 15 14:07:01 2010

> Hitting instructor pulled out a radar gun at last nights hitting lesson and had me help take measurements of my daughters swings/hits. She, according to him, was putting up the best numbers of the day, mid to low 70's. I heard them talking about numbers with two other girls while my daughter was pitching. They were getting around 60-65. My question is while they are all rotational hitters, how can I be sure what the radar gun is measuring? The pitches he threw where around 55mph so i know it was not the pitch, but was it the speed of bat or ball going away from the plate after being hit?

Hi Dave,
The radar gun is recording the highest speed which should be the ball exit speed. If you want to measure batspeed do it off a tee. MLB Scouts want to know ball exit velocity and I think the reason is batspeed can be early in the swing or late developing in the swing. Kids love trying to out do each other so it can be fun. The only measurement you really want to know is exit velocity which will give an indication of the speed of the bat at contact which is hard to measure. There is probably an equation of pitch speed + batspeed x ? will = ?. In the end you want to know ball exit speed because one can have a 90 mph swing and have poor exit speed because they could not generate the batspeed at contact - the MLB scouts obviously know this.
Best Wishes!
Ronnie