Have you ever gunned your sons velocity?

I think the harder he throws the more interest and curiosity it generates. If he's a hard thrower many people will want to "gun" him. Nothing wrong with a parent wanting to know how hard their son throws. No different than wanting to know how much he weighs, how tall he is, how fast he runs or, how smart he is. It's what you do with that knowledge that will either be good or bad for him.
Fungo

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We have been told by other people that he throws anywhere between 75 and 85. I guess that means he hits 72 on a good day.

Doughnutman, that is probably a good attitude for a parent to have at this point!

My son pitched for a small private HS in the "baseball hotbed" of Minnesota where radar guns were rarely seen, even at the HS level. Several times at games other parents commented "he must be throwing about 90" when he was actually around 80. (We had an idea of his velocity from radar used at private workouts.)

If your son is at 72, that's probably a healthy velocity for a pre-HS pitcher. As the parent of a former pitcher, I can understand you being curious!

Julie

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We have been told by other people that he throws anywhere between 75 and 85.

Were those visuals? I'd like a buck for every time I was told a kid was throwing 90 and he was gunned at 82-84. With younger kids, if a couple of kids throw a lot harder than normal people tend to be way off in their guesses. If your son is throwing 72 in 8th grade he's doing just fine. Given his size he may be throwing harder.

I've never gunned my son. Somewhere along the line since 14U someone has gunned him and shared the information with me. The high school coach guns the kids a couple of times during the season to monitor progress.

While it's normal to be curious of his speed, if he's throwing harder than most kids, has decent mechanics and gets outs, don't worry about his velocity. He doesn't need to be gunned until he's looking at showcases in high school.

My son asked how hard I thought he threw a bit ago, my reply was somewhere between 60 & 80. I tried to explain there just wasn't an easy way to judge w/o a radar gun, it wasn't all that important anyway, etc... He thought about it for a while then let me know the next time I asked about his grades I could expect a response similar to mine Anybody got a gun for loan ???

Yankeelvr:

Sounds like a business opportunity! I will rent my gun for $1/MPH....how hard do you want your son to throw? I will adjust it before I send my gun to you. $1/MPH. I will make him the first 110MPH 13YO!

To answer Dman's question my son was only gunned once before HS at a travel team try out. The coach borrowed one just to get a reference. 13U kids were throwing 62-69. Most HS freshmen are 65-75, with lots of 70's.

Always remember the Dad-7 rule it is very accurate.

Most people do not have the eye to really know how hard someone is throwing. I collect speed data for my sons HS team and it takes me a while to judge velocity. About 1/3rd of the way into the season I get a pretty good eye from behind the plate, I am usually within 2-3MPH, but when I get off to the side I can't tell very well.

Don't dread HS ball it is a great time, if your son loves baseball he will get it 6 days a week, really nothing better.

Have a great season!

We were curious about speed too, because we can hear the whirr of the seams when SP is pitching. (I love that sound and the "pop" of the catchers mitt too). The pitching coach pulled his radar gun out during a lesson where no one was around. We learned by experimenting during the lesson that where the gun is in relation to the pitcher/ catcher can change the read out. In our un-scientific test, the best location for the gun seems to be a few feet behind the catcher - otherwise the readout can be more than + or - 5 mph different.

During the 13U travel tryouts this year, there were many coaches and dads with radar guns (I counted at least 5) standing all over the park There's no way all of these results were accurate because none of them were close enough to "the battery" to get a decent reading.

If your interested in finding out what the speed is, I'd have your pitching coach assist with the analysis.

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During the 13U travel tryouts this year, there were many coaches and dads with radar guns (I counted at least 5) standing all over the park

13U is an insane year to pull out a radar gun. It's a transition year from one size field to the next. The kids can vary in size by a lot.

Back in 13U I put my team in a showcase for the local private high schools. The coaches had radar guns. I was amused. Several of the kids they were interested in have not grown much since and haven't improved velocity that much. Some of the smaller kids have grown significantly and throw harder than the kids the coaches had interest.

we used to bring a pitching coach down from northern nh. John Bagonzi,great guy.really good instructor. he would gun every kid at the start of his clinic. gun them all again at the end of the clinic. average 3 to 5 mph faster. many reason's/theory's why they improved,but a great tool for him.

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Originally posted by 20dad:
we used to bring a pitching coach down from northern nh. John Bagonzi,great guy.really good instructor. he would gun every kid at the start of his clinic. gun them all again at the end of the clinic. average 3 to 5 mph faster. many reason's/theory's why they improved,but a great tool for him.

20dad:

John has always been one of my hero's are far as pitching goes. When my son started to get more serious about pitching I found his book and read it at least a 100 times.

Called him and emailed him - what a great guy, was always gracious and straight forward. He is one of the guys I have always wanted to meet.

He is just on the wrong side of the land mass....

My son was gunned as a 7th grader and that is standard for the organization with whom he plays.

It does not matter at this point for sure other than it can really humble some dads.

I do use a radar gun to set up the iron mike pitching machines for practice. I cannot tell you how many times they will tell me it is set for 70 mph only to find out it is closer to 60 mph. we do this just as a reference point and we vary speeds a lot so they can hit lots of different speeds.

bof

my father in laws cousin was johns catcher in college. pitched both ends of a double header, how's that pitch count.
he is a great guy, fun to talk ball with. i brought my boy's up there one day,lots of instruction.
my favorite saying. "let yourself be good".

My son was never gunned. He had a very accurate OF aerm as three of his four years on the high school team he led in OF assists. The radar was never an issue with him because his bread and butter was his bat. I'd say he ranged from low-mid 80s.

To my knowledge my son has never been gunned during a game. He did throw an indoor bullpen this fall after the season was pretty much over and was at 73 (just kidding..was adding on the 7 mph for a dad..was actually 66 ) That is the only time I know that he has been gunned for what it was worth being indoors and all.

20Dad - I have never heard of john Bagonzi? I need to look him up. Would love to find a somewhat local pitching coach to work with my son at some point before high school next year. Can you tell me more about him..hard to find qualified coaches here in NH..

redsox

john lives in woodsville nh.home of chad paronto. which is about 2 weeks from every where.lol

pitching professor.com i think is his website. lots of good reading,his book is a good read as well.
he was doing saturday clinics at plymouth state,but he's getting up there in age. you must have some good coaching over that way? didn't hobson have a pitching coach that lived in nashua?

I ordered Bagonzi's book from half.com yesterday..lol Googled him and checked out his website...liked his clips. Had to go home and ask son last night about "feeling the burn" on the fastball. He said he did..lol

Hobson had John Roper who does have a facility in Nashua. May look into him next year when looking for a pitching coach. There seems to be one in Dracut, MA too who looks interesting.

I joke with son telling him that there is 5-7 mph hiding in his windup and such that a true pitching coach would probably uncover. I figured that the winter going into his freshman year would be a good time to work with a coach and see if I was right or not..lol.

I guess it depends on where you play.

I'm never a fan of bringing out the gun. My son's pitching coach believed that you do that once a year just to see the progression. He uses it more to judge the difference in the breaking pitches than to see how hard the fastball is. Its a better tool to see if they're trying to turn a curve into a slider.

I've also NEVER been able to guess/calculate or otherwise fathom a velocity real time. My son always looks like he throws slower than everyone else. The gun usually says he throws harder. Some kids look like they're throwing hard, but the gun doesn't agree.

One thing I have learned, anything with a 9 in front of it make whatever your kid throws look REALLY slow...

I made notes of his progression in case there are some younger ones out there wondering...

begin of 10U LL before any lessons or anything - 45mph
end of 11U season - 60 mph
end of 12U season - 67 mph
start of 13U season - 70 mph (2 months of not really playing added 3 mph)
end of 13U season - 77 mph
early 14U season - 81 mph (about 4 months between last two readings)
begin of 15U season - 86 mph
a few weeks ago 86/87 mph at a pro scout tryout bullpen

Those are basically the sum total of all the times he's been on the radar gun.

Well , I am a big fan of the radar gun. I think its a great tool. You train hard and you want to know what type of progress you have made. Its fun to see that progress. Do we break out the stop watch to see the 60 time? Of course we do. We want to measure ourself. We want to see if we have gotten faster. We want to see where we are at. I dont see a problem with breaking out the radar gun to see where we are. In fact I think its great to do and its fun to see where you are at. There is nothing like a kid busting his butt and seeing those results. Of course sometimes there is disapointment in the readings. Just like when you look at the stop watch and it says something you dont want to see. But thats all part of it.

I want kids to know what they throw. I want them to see their progress or lack of progress. I want them to know how much difference in velo their is in their cu and fb. Or their 2 seamer and 4 seamer. What was that cu coach? Ok. You think its a little hard or soft or just right?

When my son was 11 I put a gun on him to see what he threw because I was curious. I wanted to know how much progress he was making over the next couple of months. When he got in hs I put on gun on him to 2b. I wanted to know so we had something to gauge his progress on just like you measure a pop time with a stop watch. I believe in velocity and I believe in building a strong arm. I believe you should train to throw hard and have the intent in throwing the sh*t out of the baseball. I like the radar gun. Have fun with it.

Amen to that coach. Like I said earlier, everything else in life and sports is measured - speed, grades, job performance, scores of games. Pitching velocity is no different. The kids love to hear how hard (or not) they are throwing. Also nice to see the progression over time. Wish I had kept notes on how hard at what age my son threw. I will from this point on.

The first time I saw a gun reading on my son he was 11. He was 62 mph. He is not a pitcher he is a catcher so we used the stop watch to measure his catch to throw and throw to pop and his total pop time. When he was a freshman in hs he was 74 to 2b with a 2.10 2.15 pop time. As a soph he was 76 with a 2.00 to 2.10 pop. As Jr he was 80 with a sub 2.0 pop time. As a senior he was in the low 1.9's to high 1.8's. The last time he was gunned he was 82. He was gunned on the mound at 87 the summer after his soph year. I have no idea what he is now as a fresh in college.

What we learned from the radar gun was his velo was much greater than some other catchers who had better pop times when he went to PG events. He needed to work on his footwork and his ability to get rid of the baseball quicker. He was always very accurate. Once he improved his mechanics he realized he could get it down there much faster and with less effort on the throws. When you are training to improve your arm strength you measure you long toss distance. Don't you? Hey I used to max out at 100 yards now I can throw it 110 yards! The radar gun can be a great way to measure the success of your training program. And it can be a way to measure the failure of your training program. Maybe you need to mix it up a bit?

When your working on your mechanics as a pitcher and you are throwing 78 and then you try something a bit different in your delivery and your throwing 80 how do you know that if you dont have a gun on you at the time? Isnt that some good feedback to have? If I had a son coming back through all of this I would get a gun and I would use it as a training tool and a measuring device to assist him. But thats just me.

My sons MS team played a game last year and the opposing pitchers dad was standing behind the backstop the whole time with the radar gun signally the speed after ever pitch.

3 innings in and 9 runs later, dad put away the gun. I have no problem with this but during a game is not the time to do it.

I totally agree with Coach May.... I use the gun alot for my HS program... we use it for all of the same reasons Coach May mentioned, but we also use it for throwing drills and Medicine Ball Throwing drills... tracking the progress for a player is a huge motivational factor... the same can obviously be said for tracking the progress of the fastball!

I was one of those knucklehead parents that kept a chart of my son's velocity progress prior to and during high school. The most critical period for velocity development IMO is between the sophomore and junior season. It's okay to want to know velocity at the younger ages, or chart it, but it's even more important to work at it. Develop a plan.

Never gunned son but today he was throwing next to a 09 D1 recruit that was being gunned at 94!

I told son we need to get to one of this kid's games so we can see the looks of the batters when he really gets into mid season shape!

94 on February 1 !-just warming up the arm!