Pitching and Pitchers Discussion Interesting Statistic

[default]

I came across an article that gives the average pitching speads for girls fastpitch. This past summer I bought a radar gun and clocked every pitcher I could. It was surprizing that most every pitcher said they threw faster than what I was able to clock. My theory is that most every pitcher thows 3-4 MPH slower than what they say. Also, most every pitcher throws 5-6 MPH slower than what their dad says. LOL!

What is the average pitch speed of high school pitchers and the average speed of college pitchers?

This would be typical average pitching speeds expected however there's always exceptions. For example I've seen 12U girls with pitching MPH speeds in the 60's

10-Under Typical 37-41 MPH Top Pitchers 43-46
12-Under Typical 44-47 MPH Top Pitchers 50-53
14-Under Typical 46-49 MPH Top Pitchers 52-55
16-Under Typical 50-53 MPH Top Pitchers 54-57
18-Under Typical 53-56 MPH Top Pitchers 58-61
College Typical 59-64 MPH Top Pitchers 65-72

 

[default]

I think that some kids tense up during games and showcases and don't hit the speeds that they do at their pitching lessons....

 

[default]

Where did the data come from? Just curious.

 

[default]

The following is what I found a while back on another webpage - http://www.fastpitching.com/news.html


Average and Top Pitching Speeds for Various Age Groups:
Keep in mind that the speeds listed are just what we have seen after 17 years of being around fastpitch softball. They are by no means totally accurate, simply a rough estimation.

10U - Avg. Speed 38-42 - Top Speed 48-53 Low to mid 50's is very rare.

12U - Avg. Speed 44-50 - Top Speed 53-59 Upper 50's is extremely rare but we have seen as high as 61 mph from a 13 year who was still eligible to play 12U

14U - Avg. Speed 49-54 - Top Speed 56-61

16U - Avg. Speed 53-57 - Top Speed 60-68 Again high 60's is very rare but there are a few capable

18U - See 16U

 

[default]

A lot of pitching coaches are infamous for telling their students that they throw faster than they actually do ... not sure if it's supposed to be confidence-building or if it's just self-serving on the part of the coaches .... but this no doubt is a contributor to pitchers and their parents thinking they are throwing faster than they are.

 

[default]

We clock our 12U pitchers pretty often, just to see if they are picking any speed up. We find that when the girls are throwing to be clocked, they really put their butts into it and throw hard. When they throw with speed on their mind instead of accuracy, they can consistantly hit 53-54. When they throw in games or are throwing for accuracy, they don't tend to hit those speeds they throw when they are looking for speed, but hit more around 49-51. So if you ask them how fast they can throw, they will tell you 53-54 which they can, but it is not the speed they throw in the games. I don't think they understand that concept yet, they only hear that they are throwing 53-54 so that is what they say when asked. Parents tend to embellish speeds like nothing I've ever seen before. I've been told by a parent before that a 11 year old girl threw 85... Needless to say, she didn't.

 

[default]

Not to mention I have yet to see any two guns side by side register the same readings, so I suppose a range is appropriate. The other unknown is top speed a consistent speed under control or just an occassional achievement....be interesting......

 

[default]

We find that when the girls are throwing to be clocked, they really put their butts into it and throw hard. When they throw with speed on their mind instead of accuracy, they can consistantly hit 53-54. When they throw in games or are throwing for accuracy, they don't tend to hit those speeds they throw when they are looking for speed, but hit more around 49-51. So if you ask them how fast they can throw, they will tell you 53-54 which they can, but it is not the speed they throw in the games. I don't think they understand that concept yet, they only hear that they are throwing 53-54 so that is what they say when asked.

This is a very good point. I have seen this often when pitching coaches are clocking the girls for maximum speed. Accuracy is not necessarily the objective when checking for "maximum" speed. Eventually it is hoped that the maximum speed can also be thrown with accuracy.

I have also seen girls get tense when the gun comes out, and not be able to achieve their maximum. In order to get the highest speed you want the muscles to be loose, and not tight. Another thing my dd's pitching instructor will do when clocking her, is to also clock pitches when do walk-throughs or run up drills. The goal is to have your speed be the same from your regular pitching motion as it is when doing the walk-throughs. If you are faster doing walk-throughs, then you aren't getting the maximum benefit from using your legs in your normal motion.

 

[default]

Not to mention I have yet to see any two guns side by side register the same readings, so I suppose a range is appropriate. The other unknown is top speed a consistent speed under control or just an occassional achievement....be interesting......

A good quality radar gun, such as a Jugs, should be accurate to within 0.5 mph. I would think if you had two of those side by side, you would read within 1 mph. The Jugs guns are in the neighborhood of $750, or more, so they aren't obviously in everyone's budget.

That's not to say that there are not benefits to a cheaper gun such as a Bushnell (~$150) though. They can be a good tool to use to measure progress of the pitcher over time. The accuracy may not be as good as the Jugs gun, but a gain of mph measured on the same gun is still a gain irregardless.

 

[default]

was down in S Carolina this past labor day with my oldest as she was playing in the 14u queen of the d tourney there and we drove over to Winthrop U to watch the showcase for a few hours between games .For those that have not attended a showcase like that behind all the back stops they have radar gun screens set up to see the speed that all the pitchers are throwing as they play the games.There were like 4 fields being played on with a screen on each.In the hour or so that we watched only one girl was hitting over 60 and that was a freshman from N Carolina i believe and she was consistently hitting 67 as we watched and had hit 70 earlier we were told.All the rest of the girls were hitting in the 50s from low to high and i hurd more than i person complaining (must have been dads)that they new she threw harder than the speed being shown,lol.The best pitcher i watched was hitting 56-58 with very good movement and change of speed and totally handcuffed the hitters while the freshman throwing 67-70 was getting hit and in trouble everytime i looked up as she had no change of speed and very little movement with several walks.Its a eye opener for anyone who thinks speed is king because if you would have watched those 2 warm up side by side you would think the flame thrower was the stud but once it was game on the spin and movement was king.

 

[default]

One more thing to understand and take into account is peaks. A pitcher may peak at 58 that is not her true pitching speed. When we did QDSN a few years back I was amazed at the one line profiles that read 60 mph and then you see them and most struggled to keep the gun going at 57 or so Even though they had probably peaked at 60 when everything came together at least once and daddy used the peak speed as a selling tool for his dd.

The most honest and best approach for pitchers would be to train as we train our hitters, 10 swings in a pitchers case 10 pitches, take the total and devide by 10 and that will give you a pretty close number for their actual pitching speed.

Your most successful pitchers are the ones that can change the plane and the speed of the pitch on command. Those are the pitchers that hitters will or should train hardest against and are the ones that can befuddle batters. If all you have is speed.......... the faster it comes in the faster it goes back out.

Tim

 

[default]

We clock our 12U pitchers pretty often, just to see if they are picking any speed up. We find that when the girls are throwing to be clocked, they really put their butts into it and throw hard. When they throw with speed on their mind instead of accuracy, they can consistantly hit 53-54. When they throw in games or are throwing for accuracy, they don't tend to hit those speeds they throw when they are looking for speed, but hit more around 49-51. So if you ask them how fast they can throw, they will tell you 53-54 which they can, but it is not the speed they throw in the games. I don't think they understand that concept yet, they only hear that they are throwing 53-54 so that is what they say when asked. Parents tend to embellish speeds like nothing I've ever seen before. I've been told by a parent before that a 11 year old girl threw 85... Needless to say, she didn't.

The parent did not lie. DD really did hit 85. Parent just failed to tell you that there was a 40 MPH tail wind.

 

[default]

I will still take accurracy over speed any day.

 

[default]

The NFCA publishes the showcase data from most of their showcases. (For example: http://www.nfca.org/pagebank/?id=1608) I took the 123 pitchers at Pennsbury in 2010 with complete data and averaged their speeds.(This data was the last station so I would suppose that this would be a working speed) The average pitching speed was 55mph for all pitchers. The fastest was 62. There were only 9 pitchers that threw 60MPH or over (7%).The average Revs (Revolutions per second) were 18.8RPS with a high of 26. Only 6 players spun the ball more than 23RPS (5%). I checked a few other of the NFCA showcases and found that the speeds were similar regardless of location including the Ohio Stingrays NFCA showcase.

When any pitcher is asked what speed she throws she will answer with her all-time best pitch, her dad might add a few mph because his hand is hurting more than last week. These kids have an 'average working speed' and then what I call a 'peak speed'.

If you are a high school senior throwing in the mid-fifties and spinning the ball 19RPS then you are in good company. If you are breaking 60MPH and your spinning pitches are breaking 23RPS then colleges will find you.

 

[default]

I was at the Queen of Diamonds tonight and watched the 8:15 game on field B.....not too sure about the accuracy of the pitching radar that was set up....one minute the pitch read 54 and then the next pitch was 68 (same pitcher back to back pitch)....M.Wear was 59-61 consistently I think she hit 67 once. Another pitcher was reading 52-56 but her 52 readings sure looked fast

And whoever the 2nd baseman was in the all black and orange holy cow she can hit and fly around those bases!

 

[default]

Pitching speed should be stated as the fastest speed she can throw.

Just like any sport.
Basketball stat; vertical leap of 38"
Football stat; 40yd dash time of 4.15
Baseball hitter stat; can hit 500ft bombs
Baseball/softball runners; home to firstbase in 2.7 seconds
Tennis stat; can serve 132mph
Weight lifter stat; max bench press is 500lbs

Non of these sports can or do play at this level every time they are doing it.

These are stats, of what their maximium speed/leap/power etc is and not what their everyday performance is. This is the best way to say what someone is capable of doing. No one will or can match their maximium everytime they preform the task, especially when they task is doing it 100 times in a 2hr period.

Few sports will rely on just the one stat. Sports like track, runners at the Oylmpics running the 100yd dash will set a world record. Have that runner run the event 50 to 100 times in less than 2hrs and i bet they dont hit that time more than once or twice, yet it will be referred that they can run the 100yd dash in what ever that 1 timed world record speed was......

 

[default]

Pitching speed should be stated as the fastest speed she can throw.

Just like any sport.
Basketball stat; vertical leap of 38"
Football stat; 40yd dash time of 4.15
Baseball hitter stat; can hit 500ft bombs
Baseball/softball runners; home to firstbase in 2.7 seconds
Tennis stat; can serve 132mph
Weight lifter stat; max bench press is 500lbs

Non of these sports can or do play at this level every time they are doing it.

These are stats, of what their maximium speed/leap/power etc is and not what their everyday performance is. This is the best way to say what someone is capable of doing. No one will or can match their maximium everytime they preform the task, especially when they task is doing it 100 times in a 2hr period.

Few sports will rely on just the one stat. Sports like track, runners at the Oylmpics running the 100yd dash will set a world record. Have that runner run the event 50 to 100 times in less than 2hrs and i bet they dont hit that time more than once or twice, yet it will be referred that they can run the 100yd dash in what ever that 1 timed world record speed was......

Yet, at the same time, if you can't achieve those levels of performance in the context of actual competition, it's moot.

 

[default]

Yet, at the same time, if you can't achieve those levels of performance in the context of actual competition, it's moot.

No not really, if I run a 40yd dash in 4.4 seconds and you run it in 4.8 seconds on game day every play i should be faster than you because we should both play every play slightly slower then our top speed level..

A cheetah can hit speeds of 70mph yet it takes awhile for it to catch its prey that only runs 35mph, and most of the time does not make the kill the prey gets away...But the cheetah can still run as fast as 70mph....

 

[default]

A cheetah can hit speeds of 70mph yet it takes awhile for it to catch its prey that only runs 35mph, and most of the time does not make the kill the prey gets away...But the cheetah can still run as fast as 70mph....

That a cheetah that runs 70 mph, and takes it a while to catch a prey that runs 35 mph is a given, due to the distance between the two at the start. The telling thing here is your admission that it does NOT make the kill MOST of the time. It is the same thing with the pitching speed, if you can throw 60 mph in a controlled environment, i.e. practice, yet you can NOT throw 60 mph in a game, but only 52 mph, you may not get the desired results MOST of the time.

 

[default]

If you set a world record time in practice, does it count? In my opinion, it only matters what you can do in competition. That's when it matters.