Bat Speed

Tiger;

why do you ask the question?

Bob Williams

I was just wondering how my 8 year old son compares to High School players, yesterday we were in a sporting good store that had a bat radar and it measured his swing at 52 mph using a 33 inch bat that was a minus 3 high school bat. We knew the 20 year old that worked in the store and using the same bat he could swing it at 64 mph.Hope that answers your question Bob. CT

cullmantiger


You have to be kidding!!!!

Comparing an 8 yr to a HS player

Let the boy be a boy and enjoy the sport before you put him in the pressure cooker

Who said anything about a pressure cooker, I didn't. But just so you know my son doesn't play travel ball, he doesn't practice and play from January to July, then take a break until September. He doesn't go to the local baseball academy to practice in the off season, he doesn't take part in a 18 week pitching camp.These are all things that parents have their kids his age do, Instead he plays park and rec and does just fine. Why is it everybody wants to read more into my post than is there. I took him to a sporting good store to get a new batting helmet since the old one didn't fit, while there he took a few swings with a bat, then I wondered what a high school kid could do.Do you need anything else?

Measuring bat speed IN A STORE! Wouldn't want to be in that store with kids (many not baseball players) swinging lumber at 100% effort.

Don't know about bat speeds but hit balls can travel up to 100 mph in HS

Can your son hit balls 350 feet? That will tell you how he compares with a pretty strong HS player? LOL

God am I ever sorry I used the word compare, didn't realize it was some kind of buzzword for idiot on this board.

Your a new member so we will let the "nasty" comment slide. What will you get from this site? Alot of really good information. Learn and chat but don't go down a name calling road right off the bat.

The context of the word idiot was addressed to myself, in other words everybody else here seems to think I am an idiot for using the word compare w/ an 8 year old and a H.S. player. I didn't call anyone else a name and I w/o doubt used the wrong word in my previous post. Thank you

Would suggest you forget about bat speed for the time being and focus your training on developing bat quickness. Being able to swing a bat a 100 mph is meaningless if the barrel enters the hitting zone as the catcher is throwing the ball back to the pitcher

Thank you for your response NYdad, I was just wondering what speed a high school kid can swing a baseball bat.I'm not too concerned with training my son right now, after all he is just 8. Sorry that I haven't stated myself clearer.

Agree allaboutbaseball.
I'm more mad about a store that measures bat speed except in the most protected of areas. One slip and a slugger could launch a heavy bat 150 feet at lethal speed.

Some benchmarks for HS:
-------------------------
Throwing speed: 80 mph
Throwing distance: 250 feet
Hitting distance: 300+ feet
Max Bat speed (my guess): 90+ mph
60 yard sprint: 7-8 seconds

Take your son to see a HS game. Both of you will probably be very impressed by the quality of play.

quote:

I was just wondering what speed a high school kid can swing a baseball bat

The answer to that question varies so greatly it's serves no purpose.

Good point about the store,
I take my son to 9th grade games,jv games, varsity games, jr collage, collage and AA games. I take every opportunity I can to show him good clean hard working H.S. kids.

Cull, exposing him to quality baseball at all levels at such a young age is a good thing

If I've offended anyone with my answers then I am sorry, if you look at some of the answers I got then maybe you can understand my feelings. I take great pains NOT to place my son in the pressure cooker at age 8.For someone to suggest that I have based on one question is unfair. And while he cannot hit a ball 350',I wouldn't think that would be a fair comparison either. He is what I would call a natural hitter, a 200' shot would not completely surprise me. But this 350' comparison was what another poster jokingly suggested.Finally, I certainly never in my mind got "nasty" towards another poster.

I did ask one simple question and I did get one answer to my original question and that is all I asked for. Thanks

Cullman..what you'll soon realize is that some people on here take everything we say very seriously... I myself read what you said and took it as pure curiousity. There's nothing wrong with that and I would encourage you not to shy away from questions like the one you posted.. As for my answer to your question. I'm a high school senior and am signed to a D1 school and my bat speed is 94 according to one of the Perfect Game showcases I went to.

cullmantiger,

I think what you’ll find out after you’ve been hangin’ around a long as some of us have is, you’ll see how often idle curiosity, which is a great thing in and of itself, often turns into something much more involved.

I’m not saying you’d do this, but it happens more than you’d think where dad sees the 8YO with bat speed 30MPH slower than the average HS player, or throws the ball 30MPH slower then the average HS pitcher, an suddenly they lose all concept of what they’re looking at.

When that happens, often all of a sudden the dad starts trying to get the kid to that magic number by spending money on every video he can find, countless hours of PCs, getting on every bulletin board he can find, picking up every piece of equipment that will give the kid a 100% improvement, and generally, ruining his child’s time in the sun.

Unless they die or have some kind of unfortunate circumstance happen to them, kids will always get better as they grow older if they keep playing, so it isn’t fair to start comparing little kids to what are almost mature adults.

In short, curiosity is a good thing, overreacting is a very bad one.

It's good and it got the cat!

It's pretty sad commentary when any dad feels he needs to apologize for allowing his kid to play too much baseball. Especially on a baseball site.