How fast do your high schoolers run?

I would think that speed is just one of the many attributes the coach would look at.

There are FIVE tools, right?

5'10" is not big, but 9.2 is really slow. Unless he's a catcher, it's going to be tough. Even the slower catchers are typically in the low 8s.

It may be only a second, but the difference between a 100 mph fastball and a 50 mph fastball is much less than a second.

A second is equivilant to 5 full strides. That is a big disadvantage. However, it can be overcome by being a real good hitter.

The 9.2 runner really needs to do whatever possible to improve in that area.

How fast was Prince Fielder in high school?

This may shock you, IB, but according to PG he ran the 60 in 7.17.

quote:

Originally posted by Holden Caulfield:
This may shock you, IB, but according to PG he ran the 60 in 7.17.

Wow, that's fast. I would say he is among the top 5 in our HS.

The heavy kid I mentioned plays 3rd base. Is there a standard for this? For example, what's the slowest speed limit for a kid to make the HS team?
Do you think if we work him under 9' then he will have a good chance making the team? Or he should at least hit the 8'50" marker?

Holden,

That is true, but Prince was also timed at 6.98 by scouts before the draft that year.

Big doesn't necessarily mean slow...

Last year at the PG National Showcase in Cincinnati. Howie Long's son Kyle ran a 6.95. Kyle was 6-7/280 at the time.

quote:

Originally posted by coachbwww:

quote:

Originally posted by Holden Caulfield:
This may shock you, IB, but according to PG he ran the 60 in 7.17.

Wow, that's fast. I would say he is among the top 5 in our HS.

The heavy kid I mentioned plays 3rd base. Is there a standard for this? For example, what's the slowest speed limit for a kid to make the HS team?
Do you think if we work him under 9' then he will have a good chance making the team? Or he should at least hit the 8'50" marker?

Tons of variables in the scenario. What High School team? Is it a top 50 in the State? What is the competition on the team? How good of a hitter is he? .500 or better with power? Is he a smart baserunner? He could not play as a 3b on our High School team and doubtful anywhere else other than Catcher or Pitcher where he could get a "courtesy runner" each time. For any position player, I would say 8 or under is the minimum to play on a top High School team.

Hard to believe, but we've got half a dozen under 7.0 at our school. I wondered about the accuracy, but my son, who wasn't one of the sub 7.0 guys, got the same time at a college camp as at the HS.

The question is why is he that slow? If he's that big and a freshman then I wouldn't be surprised by the time, but as they get older they typically get faster. Speed is genetic to some degree but there are a lot of things that can be done to improve running speed within those genetic limits. I'd recommend a speed and agility training coach and building leg strength through weight lifting.

No way to tell over the net, but it looks like he may be overweight at 5'10" and 215 lb. If that is the case and he wants to make the team then he'll have to do what it takes to lose weight and/or reduce his percentage of body fat.

quote:

Originally posted by PGStaff:
Holden,

That is true, but Prince was also timed at 6.98 by scouts before the draft that year.

Big doesn't necessarily mean slow...

Last year at the PG National Showcase in Cincinnati. Howie Long's son Kyle ran a 6.95. Kyle was 6-7/280 at the time.

Wow! Some people are born with it. For the rest of us there's...

Speed alone can get you on the team, but speed (lack of) alone wont keep you off of the team.

In HS, generally speaking, a good bat and good hands will trump the poor 60 time.

The team trainer was explaining nutrition to the parents at a team meeting and responded to the following question: "How can my son who is slow in the 60 yard dash become faster?. To that he responded: "Well, that's what baseball is for; it's for all those kids who are dreadfully slow and can't help out on the football or basketball team and certainly not the track team. I wouldn't worry about you son running a terrible 60 time because no one cares in baseball, you need to worry about whether he can hit or not." Wow, I was astounded! to say the least.

quote:

Originally posted by switchitter:
The team trainer was explaining nutrition to the parents at a team meeting and responded to the following question: "How can my son who is slow in the 60 yard dash become faster?. To that he responded: "Well, that's what baseball is for; it's for all those kids who are dreadfully slow and can't help out on the football or basketball team and certainly not the track team. I wouldn't worry about your son running a terrible 60 time because no one cares in baseball, you need to worry about whether he can hit or not." Wow, I was astounded! to say the least.

quote:

Originally posted by switchitter:
The team trainer was explaining nutrition to the parents at a team meeting and responded to the following question: "How can my son who is slow in the 60 yard dash become faster?. To that he responded: "Well, that's what baseball is for; it's for all those kids who are dreadfully slow and can't help out on the football or basketball team and certainly not the track team. I wouldn't worry about you son running a terrible 60 time because no one cares in baseball, you need to worry about whether he can hit or not." Wow, I was astounded! to say the least.

Do you mean baseball is reserved for the slowpokes?
I think the muscle type makes a huge difference. Usually speedy muscle has less power, Track player can't play baseball, because they are so slim and weak. Hitting the ball over 300 feet will be a impossible task for those pencil-neck runners.

Actually, most of the fastest players we have ever timed are pretty well put together and some of them can hit a baseball well over 400' with a wood bat.

Well those guys are certainly big leaguers or will be, I'd say that those are the more exceptionally talented kids.

You haven't asked this, but if this kid is the size you say and runs as slow as he does, he'll not likely play infield for any other team, even if his high school team keeps him. In this day and age, at least for the warm weather states where a lot of baseball is played, your corner infielders are pretty outstanding athletes. And, don't think you can put him behind the plate if he isn't athletic, either. In this day and age, the catchers who move on past high school are all pretty darned athletic. The ones who are a big less had better have really big bats and throw the you know what out of the ball when they let it go. The day of the short, pudgy and slow catcher is pretty much gone at most competitive levels.

You can probably help this kid with a running coach, and perhaps also with a nutritionist. I don't know any college coaches or scouts who'd take a 5'10" kid that weighs 215, unless that's a super lean and cut 215, and even then they're gonna wonder how he got that way.

We are still indoors in a rural, cold-weather area, so these times may be a little fast, since they are running in turf/tennis shoes in a hallway. We had only 16 guys try out, so we will just keep everyone. However, in our likely group of starters, we have three guys consistently below 7 seconds. One guy in the 7.1-7.3 range. Most of the rest of the starters and primary subs are 7.4-7.6. Our likely first baseman is 7.8-8.0. We do have one of those 9-10 second guys, but he won't likely play much (occasional pinch hit in an already almost decided game, maybe).

In the last three years we have only had one player that was a sub 7 runner. This year we dont have one.

SS - 7.1
3B - 7.2
1B - 7.4
C - 7.5
LF - 7.2
CF - 7.0
RF - 7.4
2B - 7.2

To be honest with you in the last ten years I would say we have probaly had around 4 or 5 sub 7 runners. We have played against alot of reported sub 7 runners but they always seem to be about as fast as our guys. I was at a showcase this summer with over 100 08's and over 100 07's in attendance. There were 7 guys out of the over 200 players in there who ran a sub 7 60. Could it be that the sub 2.0 pop the sub 7 60 and the 90 mph fastball are not as frequent as reported?

you're right. they are not that common. a 90 MPH pitcher actually hitting 90 to a live batter consistantly with a reliable radar-gun is even more uncommon. sub 7.0 60's are very hard to come by for a non-track runner.

Another thing to remember is that the college camps usually have the players run the 60 two or three times and report the best time, while Perfect Game may only have them run once. You are generally going to get a bit faster times having them run more than once. Also using a stopwatch adds some variability, while PG often uses a laser timer.

How do PG and other showcases time the 60? When my son was timed for the 40 in football it was all electronic. A fast or slow finger on a stop watch can affect a player's future.

PG events are just not the same. Most PG events have top tier guys in attendance. Your going to have more sub 2.0 guys more sub 7 guys and more 90mph guys. Most people are not going to spend that kind of money unless their kid has already proven he is above the norm before attending the event.

If I had a nickle for everytime I was told - "Look out for #5 he throws 90." And then we saw him and he touched 85 I would have alot of dollar bills. The same can be said for the sub 7 and sub 2.0 catchers.

We have one outfielder who has run as fast as 6.4. I would say 6.6 is more typical, though. This kid is a naturally gifted athlete, though his baseball experience is not terribly deep and sometimes that shows. He's not really taking full advantage of his speed just yet, but he's working hard on it.

Our CF guy has run 6.8 but is more typically 7.0. He functions as our "speed guy" because he is also a smart base runner.

I think we have several 7.0-7.2 guys. Most of the rest are in the 7.2-7.4 range. The good news is that while most of our guys are not world class sprinters, they are in excellent physical condition and that's a lot of it right there. I would bet even our slowest guy is no worse than 7.6. I read a thread elsewhere on this site about a kid who ran an 8.9 and was 30 lbs overweight. We don't have anyone like that who made it through the cuts. Our team is competitive enough that if you come out not in shape, you can forget being issued a uniform.

As for pop time, we had a guy last year who had been clocked 1.9 once, 2.0 several times, but was probably more typically 2.1-2.2. The good news is, he had great skills and a very accurate arm, so he gave up next to nothing on the bases. Unfortunately he graduated! Our current C is slower out of the crouch, has a stronger arm but is less accurate. I haven't clocked him but if he's better than 2.2 I'd be shocked.

MPH is a funny thing. Everyone likes to talk about the one time they got clocked at 90, even though if it only happened once it could well have been an errant reading. But even a guy who has legitimately hit 90 once is more typically going to top out on any given day at 87-88, and will cruise around 85. Still, he's hotter than the kid who'll tell you he throws 85, because that kid will typically top out 82-83 and cruise at 81.

Our top 3 guys right now:

RHP cruises 91-93 tops at 96
LHP cruises 86-87 tops at 89
LHP cruises 82-83 tops at 85

We have a boatload of guys who can throw 80-ish, but it's not clear how many chances they'll get in game action. The three guys above will probably cover 80+% of our innings.

I am a bit skeptical of our "sub" 7.0 times, as well, and tend to agree with the comments here. That was why I mentioned that this was indoors with turf/tennis shoes. I told the team yesterday that if they told someone these times (like a college coach) that they put that caveat in their reference. Also, I can't vouch for the head coach's trigger finger on the stopwatch. For what it is worth, we ran these over two days and here are the three fast guys' times:

Player A: 6.97, 6.72
Player B: 6.94, 6.88
Player C: 6.93, 6.82

I think in grass with cleats, these times would be 1-2 tenths slower. I say this because Player B is my son and he was hitting 7.0-7.15 consistently (with a fastest 6.81) by the end of the summer in our yard after working on his crossover and start (he was a 7.2-7.3, timed at tryouts early summer). So, I am guessing these guys are really 7.0-7.2 runners that occasionally can break 7.0. Player A was 19/19 (also hit a clean, beat the throw to home, inside the park home run) and player B was 19/21 in stolen bases last year, so they can run the bases and have good speed. Player C is a freshman, but he is likely going to be plugged into the starting lineup as he can do more than run fast (but that is a big help).

I am a 2B/SS and i run a 6.97 - 7.04. Got that at a showcase. Last year i ran a 7.70. Doing squats/deadlifts helped alot.

Midlo,
Not too shabby on those velocities. Going to have to go far and wide to find a HS pitcher topping 96 on a Stalker. Guess that's why PG has him rated pretty high.

Taking 2 mph off JUGS readings I get the following for ours:

RHP cruises 85-86 max ??
RHP cruises 84-85 max 87
RHP cruises 81-82 max 85