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Hi, I am a freshman baseball player and I am small for my age. I've been working on getting bigger, and in 3 months I've gone from 5'4" 106lbs to 5'6" 120 lbs. I was at a tryout when I weighed around 110 lbs and my 60 yard dash time was a 7.2. That is with official timers and everything. Now, timing it on my own, the best I can get is an 8.3. The weight I have gained has been muscle and not fat because it is from a lot of chicken and muscle shakes and almond butter sandwiches. I also have a very fast metabolism and workout three days a week and hit just about everyday. Could the time be different because I am not using an official timer? Because I also do speed and agility drills. Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

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BBPlayer29: Welcome to the site. Though you may be a pitcher, from your size I am guessing MI or CF. If you are hoping to play beyond HS, the 60 yard dash will be very important measurable for you. Absent laser timing, you'll see much variation in your times, though the more you run it, you will come up with times "typical for you." Also the more places you run it (unbiased third party), the better chance of reaching your best time, whatever this is. After running one at a showcase or camp, coaches often asked my son what "was a usual time". 

7.2. is a good benchmark time. I am with Freddy in that you can get a large margin of error timing yourself. Also key is to make sure that you are actually running 60 yards. Son used to practice on football/soccer fields as the yard markings were there. Technique also plays a role in the time (bobbing head back, not running straight or through finish will slow one down) . Search this site for other threads. PG staff had a useful article as one of the links that could help you out.

Stay dedicated and keep working hard. 

Make friends with the HS track coach (men's or women's).  Ask if you can run for him/her and get a time, and more importantly, some pointers.  Tweaking some key elements (body position during the start, arm movement, finish) can reduce your time very quickly.  It won't be an official "baseball time" but it sure beats doing it yourself and the coach will know when to start and stop the clock.

There may be a running professional around your area that can do this for a fee.  My son had several sessions with a fellow that did wonders.  

Page to the 55 second mark on the clip below.  That is what what one my son's travel teammates told him he looked like running:

 

Welcome to the forum!  Here's a good Perfect Game article titled "Do You Want To Run Faster?".

http://www.perfectgame.org/Art...ew.aspx?article=1300

Also, if you're good with video, take a 10 second clip of your phone's stopwatch. Then insert that clip into your 60 video, lining up your 60 start with the stopwatch start. The hundreds may be blurry on the stopwatch video since standard video capture is 30 frames per second (0.033 seconds between frames), but it should be good enough for a 60 time.

Lots of factors can impact 60 time: footwear, running surface/condition, wind, slope, accuracy of the distance, timer, warm-up, competition (running next to someone)... 

MidAtlanticDad posted:

 

Also, if you're good with video, take a 10 second clip of your phone's stopwatch. Then insert that clip into your 60 video, lining up your 60 start with the stopwatch start. The hundreds may be blurry on the stopwatch video since standard video capture is 30 frames per second (0.033 seconds between frames), but it should be good enough for a 60 time.

That's certainly one way to get an accurate reading!!!

May sound obvious but some baseball cleats are heavy and can slow you down - My son 2016 OF achieves sub 6.7 (best 6.52) when he wears his very light weight soccer cleats - so when it really counts (showcase or PG) he slips them on to run.  Maybe just coincidence or false confidence but this has shaved 0.5 off the 60.  Of course when running the dirt base paths he uses the metal BB cleats but in the grass a shoe designed to run in grass and super light weight helps.  Also he videod himself and took out head bobbing, worked on exploding first 2 steps, tries to run along a line or fence if present to keep a straight path, and tries to run against other outfielders when he can to push his competitiveness.  When hand timing is the assessment the best you can do is run your fastest and hopefully pair up to run against someone else that is perceived to be fast and be "faster".  Love the events with the laser start to end reads - only fair gauge in my opinion.  

Usually 60 is run at the beginning of a showcase. Son had some of his best times running without a protective cup, ala Carl Crawford (remember this http://www.tampabay.com/sports...otective-cup/1110370) . Son would find some nondiscreet way to put it back in for skills set and remainder of showcase.

As others posted big factors as to time variances are surface, shoes, and whether you are running alone or with "competition." Like a good hitter who wants to hit the best pitcher's fastball, a good runner will want to run against (and beat) the perceived "best runner".

My son runs his 60 time barefoot whenever they allow it.  When his travel coach recommended this we thought he was BSing us.  Side note, his travel coach is OLD SCHOOL, coached decades at a major D1 University and is a Marine.  So, we have done multiple tests and all the kids test fastest barefoot.  One teammate consistently runs Low 6.4s.  Fall Classic we had some new players with us.  All the boys took off their shoes and the new players and parents thought it was outrageous to remove your cleats.  We told them to make 1 run w cleats and one barefoot.  Best times were barefoot.  One player ran his best time ever by .2, and the event was laser timed.  He did run both times barefoot.  His mother said wow that's awesome, maybe you should have run with your cleats, it may have been faster,,,AY, DIOS MIO!

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