Pitching and Pitchers Discussion Calculating Pitcher MPH WITHOUT Radar (?)

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Hello All, I'm sure a thread has been done on this in the past, but I am fairly new and figured I'd pose this question. Does anybody know how to figure a pitcher's pitch speed in MPH WITHOUT using a radar gun? I've been told there are mathematical equations one can use to estimate MPH, but have yet to find one that makes any sense.

I know the only one variable you as a coach would have control of is timing on a stopwatch the time it takes for a pitched ball to travel from pitcher's hyand to the catcher's mitt... but what other variables are factored in, and how are they calculated to give you MPH?

www.CincyFury.com

 

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1 Foot per Second = 0.681818181818182 Miles per Hour

So... if a ball thrown 40 feet takes 0.47 seconds to reach it's target it is travelling at 58.0 miles per hour.

Another way to calculate it is to take the distance / mph / 1.4666666666 = seconds to travel the distance.

I have a chart in Excel if anyone is interested PM me your email address.

 

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Ringer sells specially made (imported glass from Biasville, OH) rose-colored glasses that are mathematically, ergonomically and scientifically enhanced to accurately calculate the MPH of a pitch within .00000000008 to the power of 12th of a second....problem is, they have to be worn by the pitcher's dad

 

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Sorry but the Biasview-TruSpeed glasses are on backorder. Daddy Dice and TheTruth bought the last 10 pairs before tryouts started. You'll be better off dropping the money for a gun. We still do have some of Binocu-Vu Chainlink glasses available for purchase. These are especially usefull to recruit players from afar. Get your orders in quick because I had an inquiry for a large order from LNation. Don't know who that is, but the order is substantial.;&

 

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everything's on backorder at ringermoneypit.com! i'm still waiting for my Deluxe PadStat TruBook to come in the mail (along with the mechanical pencil the newly designed ErrSpot Erasure that eliminates all errors made by DD)....

 

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... but what other variables are factored in, and how are they calculated to give you MPH?

Here is something else to consider -- stride length. Say you have a stepping style pitcher (4' stride length) vs. a leap & drag style (8' stride length) pitcher and both pitchers get gunned at 50 mph. The step style pitcher's ball reaches the batter in .464 seconds. The leap style pitcher's ball reaches the batter in .436 seconds. In mph terms, the leap style pitcher's ball is 3 mph faster.

 

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here are a few links to older posts where the subject was discussed (look at post #3 on the first link for a pitching speed chart, and the stopwatch discussion starts at post #22 on the second link)


http://www.game-ex.com/vb3/showthread.php?t=5047&highlight=pitching+speed+chart


http://www.game-ex.com/vb3/showthread.php?t=4739&highlight=pitching+speed+measure

 

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Sent you a pm on a chart I have.

 

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THANKS Kindle and Cshilt... I received your messages with attached docs, and I really appreciate having this at least as a very basic starting point. Since I can't afford a radar gun, I will trust my timing and allow others to time our pitchers and see what times they get, just for fun. ;-)

 

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Here is a way - if you have access to a video camera.

Video your daughter from release to glove. Measure off the distance. Remember this is not a perfect way to do it but it should give you a good guessimate. Lets say your daughter is 10 and you measure off 35 feet (catcher 4 feet behind home plate, 4 feet leap of pitcher to offset). Again these numbers are not perfect - just an example.

Now - count the number of frames from the moment the ball left your daughter's hand to the moment the ball hits the catcher's mitt. Lets say for example it is 16 frames. I have some cool software that allows me to view the video frame by frame. There are a number of free editing tools on the internet, you should be able to find one that will allow you to move frame by frame (good for watching a batter's swing as well).

Here is the calculation - pretty simple

Convert frames to seconds = # of frames (16) / # of frames in a second (30) = 16 / 30 = .533333 seconds.

We know that right now she is throwing 35 feet in .5333 seconds. Since we don't measure speed in feet per second. We measure it in miles per hour so we will need to convert the time and distance to miles and hours.

Convert seconds to hours = .533333 / 3600 seconds in an hour = .000148 hours

Convert feet to miles = 35 / 5280 feet in a mile = .006629 miles

Convert to miles per hour = .006629 miles / .000148 hours = 44.744 miles per hour.

It is really not difficult after you build it into a spread sheet. I have it build now - all I need to do is enter the feet and number of frames into the spread sheet and it calculates the rest.

 

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Wow, this is all very complex. I think I'll stick to borrowing a radar gun.

 

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Or you can buy a stop watch at dick's or mc sports and program the distance in and it will give you the mph as well as number of pitches for about 20 bucks.

 

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I am using a flow sheet that a fellow OFC user gave me, along with a nice $12 stop watch, and it is wonderful. Once you are able to best time a pitcher's delivery, the rest is cake, b/c it's not too hard to hit the 'stop' button when a pitch slams into a catcher's mitt. So far, this method is about 2-3mph faster than the last radar reading we got on my pitcher/DD, but then again, that last radar reading was 6-9 months ago, so who knows? As long as she throws hard-to-hit balls and strikes, I'm happy. ;-)

 

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If DD is getting batters to ground out, fly out, or strike out, speed is a secondary thought. Speed is good, movement is great.