Senior league championship 15-16 year olds

[RIstar]

I saw a kid throwing 72 and it looked like he lobbed the ball and the ball was hangging in air for like 2 seconds. My catcher said I throw 70-73 and maybe a little more. Looking at this pitcher fastball with No life or anything it's got me thinking do I throw around high 70's I think I might because my ball doesn't go staright and drop slow because not enough force mine rockets and has another level half way there.

Does it look slow or is 70-75 a ball that takes a little while and is slow?

Ps the other pitcher that was throwing 80 looks a little more the speed I'm throwing.

Could I be throwing upper 70's and not even know it because the 72 Mph pitcher LOOKED REALLY SLOW?

I might video tape a wind-up from the back off the fence right behind the plate could you estimate how hard I throw from that?

[RIstar]

I'm talking 60 feet 6 inches and there is drop in the flight of the ball of the pitcher I saw.

[RIstar]

my fastball doesn't drop maybe like 1/2 an inch. so that's why i think i throw harder plus my fb gets on the hitter quick and looks alot faster so i was thinking I throw harder then 73 mph and more like high 70's.

[CADad]

You don't tend to see the arc on your pitches. They look straight to you. That's because you don't actually track the ball the entire way. The same thing happens with hitters. That's also why curves look like they are breaking more sharply than they really are to a hitter or a pitcher. It is also why left handers seem to have more movement on their fastballs, when they really don't. Our brains expect the ball to tail in to a right hander because we've faced mostly righties and register that as straight. When the ball tails the other way it looks like it is moving twice as much as it really is.

Think back to your early days of little league. Did the pitches look to you as a hitter like they were coming on an arc? No, they looked straight. Now go watch a little league game with 9 or 10 year olds and see just how much arc there is on the ball. It looks dead straight to them.

A 70 mph fastball will tend to drop about 3.5 feet if released level. Generally slower pitchers tend to release the ball with some upwards velocity and that has to be overcome so the actual drop is less. What is surprising is that a 90 mph fastball released level drops about 1.5 feet. There's no way to be exact because it also depends a lot on the amount of backspin on the pitch. I've assumed some fairly good backspin so it will be dropping at least this much.

[RIstar]

Yes it might drop an inch or 2 but not like as much as this kids was. It looked like a johan santana change-up with alot of movement and was 72 mph fb mine doesn't do that.

[CADad]

RIstar,
Have someone take video of your pitches from the side.

[RIstar]

what do you mean side? Right behind the plate or a little behind the plate and to the left or right?

[OffSet]

he means from the side

so u see the side of u and the side of the plate and the side of the ball so he can prove his point

[RIstar]

If i got a video of behind the plate to the left could you estimate my MPH for me? Like low 70's, Medium 70's or high 70's?????

[heelan13]

how about you just buy a radar gun?

[jdfromfla]

Or you could ask CaDad, real nice and respectful like if he would repost that scale he posted that equates your pitch speed with long toss distance.
So without anyones help you can figure it all out.

[CADad]

Working from memory 70 mph = 210 ft., 80 mph = 260 ft., 90 mph =305 ft.

Of course it doesn't alway translate to velocity on the mound, but when my son's shoulder was bothering him and the gun had him at 76 max he was long tossing 240' which is just what you'd come up with using these distances. We never had a chance to long toss later on when he was hitting 81 fairly regularly in games. I'd guess his max was 82 or 83 and he would've long tossed about 270 to 275'. We'll see what happens in a couple months when hopefully we've got him out to or near to his max long toss distance. I'm hoping for up to 285' and he wants to hit 300' which would be quite a stretch this year.

I'd recommend finding someone with a radar gun in your area. A lot of batting cages have a gun to calibrate the machines. And a lot of batting cages also have a pitching lane. If you can find one of those they may be willing to gun you after you rent the pitching lane and warm up properly.

[palo20]

How do you know that the one kid was throwing Low 70s? Or that another kid was Low 80s? They must be getting gun readings from somewhere, right?

[hoseman18]

If i got a video of behind the plate to the left could you estimate my MPH for me? Like low 70's, Medium 70's or high 70's?????

If you have any video editing software, it will have a timer function. Time the pitch from when it leaves your fingers to when it crosses the plate. Then go to
http://www.fastsports.com/tips/tip31/pitchspeed.PDF