Linedrive_07 posted:RoadRunner posted:TheJR30 posted:RoadRunner posted:Not sure if this info will help anyone here, but sons exit velocity using a metal 33” off a tee is significantly higher than when he tested with a 32”.
by how much???
I don't remember the exact values with each bat
But I do know it was at least 5mph. He was checked at his school, same day with each bat. That's when he realized that he should be swinging the 33".
To be clear, I am not advocating for kids to randomly start swinging an inch longer bat. The player must have the strength and control to use the larger bat. The circumstance for RR son was after freshman college fall conditioning/season, he tried a 33" and never looked back. I guess he didn't realize until that point the strength he had gained.
That seems really odd that the two would be so different. I would of expected his bat speed to of been less with the 33, but with the added weight that it would end up being the same exit. I was thinking it could possibly be that he is getting the ball on a better part of the sweet spot with the additional length than he was with the 32. Anyone else ideas?
Disclaimer: Not a Physicist! But its the simple principle that the outside of the wheel is moving faster than the inside of the wheel. Your body reaches a speed limit at some point - different for different people obviously. For example maybe swinging an extremely light bat player A can generate 90mph and player B 85. Doesn't matter how light the bat is their bodies and mechanics only allow them to swing that fast. Period. Now lets say player B is big and strong. Now picking up a 34" bat he experiences little or no decrease in velocity. True it is harder to swing but his strength allows him to still reach his bodies speed limit. Now lets say player A is a mighty might type and is overwhelmed by the 34. His swing speed now becomes 75. Player A must swing a lighter bat plain and simple. Player B can get the advantage of the longer bat. Now lets say Player A is swinging a 31 and Player B is swinging a 34. Player B's sweet spot is out three inches further. Think of the swing as a circle. If a circle has a diameter of 31.85 it has a circumference of 100. So lets say it takes an hour to travel around the circle. Then you are going 100units per hour. Now if you take the diameter out two units (one more inch of bat equals one inch on each side of the circle so two additional units of diameter) then the circumference becomes 106.28. Wow that is 6.28% faster than the previous track! so that sweet spot just one inch further out (like the example of 33 vs 32) accounts for a 6.28% increase in sweet spot speed all other things being equal. Now all other things are seldom equal but the moral of the story is you should swing the longest bat you are capable of swinging. What capable means would necessitate another long conversation. Because remember if you were swinging an 8 foot 2x4 in theory you could get the end of that 2x4 going pretty fast. but the overall time to impact is still an issue. Because most of the speed at the outside of that arch is useless pre contact time necessitating a very early start to your swing. Yes baseball physics are never simple are they! That's why I cringe every time I hear somebody say "its a simple game" its actually a very complex game.
Couple other disclaimers. I used a circumference of 100 just to show a simple percentage of speed increase. However the formula is not one of percentage but simply 3.14 units per extra unit of diameter. so if discussing a bat in one inch increments imagining the swing as a circle there would be an extra inch on the backside of the swing (think left side of a circle) and an extra inch on the contact side of the swing (think right side of the circle). Thus adding an inch to the bat really adds two inches to the diameter of the circle. Adding two inches to the diameter adds 6.28 units of speed on the circumference (pi x 2). For the truly smart people out there who will point out that the knob of the bat is NOT representative of the center of the swing I get that but lets not overwhelm! The center of the swing is in reality the point in your body that everything is rotating around. That theoretical point which is not moving. So you can probably add 8-12 inches to the bat length so find the true radius of your swing. But I will leave that to someone smarter who may want to delve into all that!!
So in conclusion lets bring this back to basics... Get big, get strong, swing big stick, hit ball hard.