Pitching Speeds

Feet per second x 1.5 gives you MPH. so a pitch that takes one second to travel 60 feet travels at 90 mph. Yes you have to figure in stride and release point, and catchers distance.

If it only traveled 54 feet in one second it would be 79 mph. A big difference.

60' in 1 second = 41 mph.

did I have it bassackwards?

So, which way do I figure it

Take the time that the ball travels the distance say 60 feet in .5 seconds. Then get the feet per second which in this case is 120 then divide that by 1.5 and you would get 80 which is your approximate mph's.

The reality is that this will be a very inaccurate way of measuring velocity. .5 seconds is 80 and .43 is 95. 7/100ths of a second is not a lot of time but could mean a tremendous difference in your measurement.

this is the exact method of solving it. Take the distance divided by the time. Multiply by 3600, then divide that quantity by 5280. That is your velocity.

I think I will hire my kid a math tutor tomorrow.

jrmbaseball-by the way welcome to the board.

Simple calculation.

Ask the pitcher's dad how hard he throws then subtract 15 mph.

now that's funny

Nice bigger


Keep it simple...use a chart.

assuming a release point at 54':
100 mph - 0.37 sec.
93 mph - 0.40 sec.
82 mph - 0.45 sec.
74 mph - 0.50 sec.

Good luck with the stopwatch. I don't think my 46 year old brain connects to my fingers this fast.

quote:

Simple calculation.

Ask the pitcher's dad how hard he throws then subtract 15 mph.

This is so awesome and true

Getting a good laugh out of this thread. I actually tried the stop watch thing and couldn't come close.

We have lots of Radar Guns, 50 or 60. I think they cost around $1,000 each. Sure would be great if we could replace them with 50 or 60 stop watches at around $30 each.

Of course, we would never hear the ending about some of the velocity readings we reported. Some people are convinced that our guns are broken at times, the way it is.

One funny (I guess) story. We had two guns getting pretty much the same exact readings on a young pitcher. Right around 78-79 mph on his fastball. His dad came up to the table and asked what he was throwing. We said 78-79. He (not so nicely) told us we were all wet our gun must be broke. He said his son was throwing 92 just a week earlier. I guess it's always possible that "both" guns were inaccurate, but you tend to notice it when someone's throwing 92 mph. The dad, left all huffy puffy, believing we were cheating his son. We were fairly certain that his son has never thrown 92, but I guess anything is possible.

Hey PGStaff would you want to sell a $1000 gun for about $200 to a small rural school who can't raise much money?????

I'm still chuckling over biggerpapi's method....sadly, he's probably not that far from the truth.

Coach,

email me please, we do like to help when we can. You probably need it during the spring and spring is our lightest schedule. Maybe we can let you borrow one for awhile. Selling one would just mean we have to buy another one.
jerry@perfectgame.org

I want one?
LoL
I would rather put my money on Results!
Then some Reading of a Radar gun.
EH

A fastball travels 56 feet to home plate and loses 1 MPH for each 7 feet it travels. More if thrown into the wind, less if the wind is behind him


a fastball traveling 56 feet in .38 seconds,
travels 147.368 feet per second

divided that by 1.47
for a 100.25 MPH


YOu can buy a radar gun on EBAY. I bought a Ra- Gun there for $75.00 ,$20.00 shipping and $70.oo for battery.

Works great, Only negatives is it corded. Heavy and MPH rolls down to the slow readings.

This issue came up a few years ago. I had a racing stopwatch and plugged in 55 ft. for the distance. I timed the release to the mitt and compared it with radar guns from scouts at the game. The stop watch converted to MPH for me.

Although not consistently accurate, I was almost always within 1-2 mph at worst.

If you just want to get a very close reading (It's not your job), a racing stopwatch can kill two birds with one stone. It will give you something extra to do at the game.

quote:

I was almost always within 1-2 mph at worst

Hey, Stalkers aren't even that consistent (watch several guns side by side). At best it would take a huge amount of practice and fantastic reflexes. May work okay for timing little kids at the 35-50 mph level. You won't be able to discern 88 from 91, with less than about 50 tries!

Have you ever played the game of clicking a stopwatch on and off to see how fast you can do it? As I recall, 1/10 of a second ranks you with Wild Bill Hickok.

Another problem with the watch method: many pitchers rarely throw 100%. You'd be clicking that watch like crazy to capture his one top-out pitch per inning.

Best cheap and dirty way to measure throwing speed is by how FAR a kid can throw a baseball. Instead of asking Dad how FAST junior throws, ask him how FAR he throws. If he can't sometimes throw 300 feet, then he can't throw 90 mph. (yes I know that max distance will be achieved with a higher than normal takeoff angle)

A distance throwing contest is a great way to keep little kids occupied by the way (warm up well first, of course) Years ago, long before radar, pro teams sometimes put on such contests between double headers. Surviving results from an 1860s contest suggests that 90 mph was reached in those days, at least with a running throw.

quote:

Originally posted by bsaeball21:
Does anyone know how to figure pitching speed by using a stopwatch... I know it wont be exact like a gun, just wanted to get a idea without all the kids trying to hard when they see a gun.. also should you figure in the stride and release point or just figure at 60ft..

You can also count frames on video (count frames between the release point and when the ball hits the glove). You can figure out the math if you know the frames per second of the camera.

micdsguy,
If I remember correctly 90 mph was equivalent to 305 or 310 ft, so they better get over 300' unless their mechanics are way better off the mound or they are throwing for distance into a breeze.

BTW, gunned our JV pitchers with a JUGS gun and the top was 78-79 with one pitch at 80. That kid was clearly overthrowing and should have been working at about 75-76. The others were 70-72 and 73-74. The other team's starter threw 70-71, the setup guy was in the mid to high 60s and their closer threw 76. The plate umpire told me that the freshman we had throwing in the second game was throwing the hardest and given that he had 8 ks in 3 innings I wouldn't be surprised. I was umping in the field the second game so I couldn't gun those pitchers. The parents were quite impressed by 78, 79 so maybe there are some people who live in the real world.

Don't bother using a stopwatch, b21.

quote:

The parents were quite impressed by 78, 79 so maybe there are some people who live in the real world.

Top pitchers even by that age have a pretty good idea how fast they throw. Radar is getting more common. Just about every kid has at least tried a carnival gun (which alway read low for many reasons, mostly lack of warmup)

Ive tried the camcorder route and really hoped it would work. Would be neat but it really doesn't work. 30 frames per second just isn't enough. Again, it might suffice at 35-50 mph.

Understand that some new HD camcorders use 100 FPS which, especially in High Def, might work better than a gun.

quote:

Originally posted by micdsguy:
[QUOTE]I was almost always within 1-2 mph at worst

Hey, Stalkers aren't even that consistent (watch several guns side by side). At best it would take a huge amount of practice and fantastic reflexes. May work okay for timing little kids at the 35-50 mph level. You won't be able to discern 88 from 91, with less than about 50 tries!

micdsguy

I never said it didn't take practice and that it was easy. I also said that I was "almost always" within 1-2 mph. Sometimes I was way off.

If you time several pitches and you keep getting readings within 1-2 mph, it may be close to the actual speed. I was timing kids throwing 83-87.
It was just for fun and not documentaion.

I have no reason to lie. I'm not a stopwatch salesman. I guess I should have gone in to detail of my entire experiment. Try it sometime if you get a chance before you say it can't be done.

Thank you for the comment on my reflexes.

wvmtner,

You definitely have a talent there. I don't think most people can do that. I can sometimes get real close just using eyesight. When I tried the stop watch I was lost. Maybe with lots of practice, but it was much easier to just point the gun and look at the reading.

The problem when comparing the stopwatch method to the gun, is that the stopwatch gives you average velocity because it measures the velocity over the total distance traveled. The gun gives a maximum velocity during the first three feet from leaving the pitchers hand, where it has more velocity than over the distance traveled because of the loss from friction.

PG

It's been about 3 years since I tried it. I can't see good enough now but it was fun doing it. I watch a lot of games and get real close with my estimations too. Not as many as you do I'm sure. I would not bet on my estimations though

I wouldn't use the stop watch alone and swear the speeds were fact either..

Like I said, I was off quite a bit sometimes but was very close to the guns most of the time.

Maybe I was just getting lucky a lot? I have a radar gun and I agree that it is the way to go.