Bat Speed Ratings for Fastpitch Girls

ok, help me out here. What exactly is swing speed?
Hey GBuddy, I agree with a good quick compact swing that will give hitters an opportunity to be competetive vs. the fastball pitchers in softball, and baseball (my turn, lol), but fill me in brother. With respect to pitching distances in softball and baseball, obviously a 60 mph softball equates to a 90ish mph baseball pitch. So what we're actually referencing is reaction time right?
Fishman

 

Basically, yes... The rule of thumb in baseball is a batter has 4/10 of a second to see, read and react to a pitched ball. I think the differences in pitch speed and distance from the mound to the plate, between softball and baseball are pretty much a wash. When you hear someone say "it's like a 90mph fastball" it's just that the batter has the 4/10 to hit the ball.

The bat speed they were measuring at the unc camp was the actual speed of the bat head through the strike zone, which is one element of the total hitting process. Reaction time is another element.

The way I see it, you can break down a good hitter's swing like this...
1. Good vision - sees and reads the pitch well
2. Mechanics - swing seems natural and is quick to the ball (reaction time)
3. Know the Zone - doesn't swing at bad balls
4. Bat Speed - allows batter to read the pitch longer then react.
5. Bat Control - adjusts to inside or outside pitches well or, if situation calls for it, can hit ball to certain locations, like backside to advance a runner.

It really is amazing what good hitters, at the highest levels, can do. They incorporate all of the above in that minuscule amount of time... and make it look easy!

 

Wrists

In my opion the reason for such below average bat speeds is that very few hitting instructors focus on bat speed at all. There are to many other problems they have to correct before bat speed can be addressed, you would not want to work on the very last thing that happens before you make contact if you have problems at the start and middle of the swing, ( weight shift, bat plane, arm barring, head turning,and all other issues), unless you are backward chaining,( starting from the last movement working back to the first). The wrist are the X-Factor when it comes to creating bat speed, the unhinging of the wrist from bat lag to contact is where you can generate a lot of bat head speed if you will make the wrist snap the bathead to the ball instead of just allowing the bathead to break the wrist on its own. Having a strong set of wrist is what allowed Henry Aaron to be the best fast ball hitter in the game for years not to mention a few homeruns along the way. There are a ton of girls out there that are very good hitters but lack that pop in ther swing, just think what they would do if they got that pop in their swing, there would be a lot more mask on 3rd basemen. Bat speed is what some of the smaller girls have that allows tham to hit like the big girls that out weigh them by 30+ lbs. I train both of my kids to create as much bathead speed as they possibly can, not so much for reading the pitch longer but to get that pop in their swing. You all have probably heard the stories about the hitter that the balls just sound different coming off their bat compared to every-one else, that is the pop that I am talking about, and you can hear it, and that is why I am a huge fan of creating as much bathead speed as possible.

 

Wrists

In my opion the reason for such below average bat speeds is that very few hitting instructors focus on bat speed at all. There are to many other problems they have to correct before bat speed can be addressed, you would not want to work on the very last thing that happens before you make contact if you have problems at the start and middle of the swing, ( weight shift, bat plane, arm barring, head turning,and all other issues), unless you are backward chaining,( starting from the last movement working back to the first). The wrist are the X-Factor when it comes to creating bat speed, the unhinging of the wrist from bat lag to contact is where you can generate a lot of bat head speed if you will make the wrist snap the bathead to the ball instead of just allowing the bathead to break the wrist on its own. Having a strong set of wrist is what allowed Henry Aaron to be the best fast ball hitter in the game for years not to mention a few homeruns along the way. There are a ton of girls out there that are very good hitters but lack that pop in ther swing, just think what they would do if they got that pop in their swing, there would be a lot more mask on 3rd basemen. Bat speed is what some of the smaller girls have that allows tham to hit like the big girls that out weigh them by 30+ lbs. I train both of my kids to create as much bathead speed as they possibly can, not so much for reading the pitch longer but to get that pop in their swing. You all have probably heard the stories about the hitter that the balls just sound different coming off their bat compared to every-one else, that is the pop that I am talking about, and you can hear it, and that is why I am a huge fan of creating as much bathead speed as possible.

 

any post with a reference to "Hammerin' Hank" deserves to be double posted!

 

Double posted my big o'l wooden bat ....It deserves to be the post of the year