How Swing Speed and Batted-Ball speed relate to Distance
(A Real-World Experiment)
by
Dr. Mark McDowell
There is currently much debate over 3 key issues regarding the safety of the sport of softball.  Below is a definition of these key issues along with an explanation as to why they are so important to the safety of the sport of slow-pitch softball.
1) Swing Speed – how fast is the typical softball player’s swing?
This statistic gives us a general idea of what should be used for the average swing speed of the typical softball player.  Most testing methods use either a 60MPH or 70MPH swing speed value.
2) Batted-Ball speed – how fast does the ball come off the bat?
This statistic is the best indication of how “lively” a ball is and also has the biggest impact on the safety of the sport of softball.  Our article, “How Ball Circumference And Compression Affect Pitcher Response Time!!! used the Batted-Ball speed statistic to show that most players can’t respond when a high-compression ball is used.

3) Distance – how far does the average player hit with a given ball?
This statistic is a good indication of the ultimate performance of a bat.  Since most players want to hit the ball farther, the bat that yields the highest distance, will usually be the bat of choice.

While Swing Speed is used as a valid statistic for numerical models, it is impossible to predict distance based solely on swing speed alone.  The difference between Swing Speed and Batted-Ball speed is what we call Batted-Ball Delta (BBD) and is used to calculate the energy return for a particular bat.  The higher the BBD, the more energy return and the livelier the bat-ball combination.  Since Swing Speed is used in both the ASA and BPF testing, it is presented in this article to get an idea of typical swing speeds from actual players.

Batted-Ball speed and Distance take into account the actual bat-ball impact phenomena, which ultimately controls the safety of the game.  You can have a swing speed of 100MPH, but if you can’t convert that speed into batted-ball speed and distance, it will not mean very much.  We will present our research conducted over two full days of testing.

Using the three statistics above, we choose to utilize a group of 9 men from OH, PA, and MD and 6 women from OH who are Certified Bat Testers.  A Certified Bat tester is a player that has been through one of our hitting clinics/bat testing sessions and identified as one of the most consistent hitters in our Bat Testing database.  We have had over 300 players participate in our hitting clinics/bat showcases and have selected approximately 35 players from around the country as our Certified Bat Testers and rely on them to generate reliable and consistent data for our research.

Experimental Setup:


1. ATEC Sports Speed Trainer 2000 bat speed meter. This device is used to measure bat speed and we take the top 3 swings without impacting a ball.

2. Jugs Professional Cordless MPH RADAR GUN. This device is used to measure batted-ball speed. The gun is used to record the batted-ball speed right after impacting a ball.

3. Bushnell Range Finder. This device is used to accurately measure distance from the batter to where the ball initially lands.

4. The Balls used had a compression value between 398-435pqi, which is a medium-level, Mid-Compression ball.

5. We used a total of 17 bats and 2 classifications as follows:

Multi-Wall bats:  DeMarini B-52, DeMarini Demolition, DeMarini Double Wall, DeMarini Double Wall Classic, TPS XXL, TPS XXL Extreme Load, TPS XXL Cu31, Miken Velocit-E, Miken Velocit-E Max Load, Steele's Triple XXX, Nike Air Max Thrust 45PSI, Easton Tri-Shell, Worth 3DX and the Kelly Wraptech.

Single-Wall bats: DeMarini Single Wall, deBeer Icon and the Steele's Blue

6. The players ranged in skill from Class ‘A’ down to Class ‘C’.  This will give us a more realistic idea as to the overall performance of the bats and ball chosen for this experiment.


Experimental Results:
We used the averages for each player for all of the multi-wall and single-wall bats combined.  Each individual male and female player’s scores are listed in Table 1 and Table 2 with labels PM1-PM9 and PF1-PF6 listing multi- and single-wall bats for males and females respectively.

Table 1. Multi-Wall Bat Data

   
MEN
  
 
SS
BBS
Ave. Dist
PM1
80.07
84.21
330.07
PM2
83.14
80.00
310.71
PM3
91.79
82.93
343.21
PM4
81.79
81.86
324.43
PM5
90.29
90.07
367.21
PM6
93.00
81.71
332.93
PM7
80.86
76.64
325.21
PM8
84.29
84.43
347.43
PM9
83.79
80.14
333.29
 
85.45
82.44
334.94
       
MAX
96
93.00
390.00
       
   
WOMEN
  
 
SS
BBS
Ave. Dist
PF1
60.35
52.14
190.86
PF2
59.21
57.93
203.36
PF3
68.79
62.00
218.00
PF4
64.21
56.00
216.43
PF5
62.14
56.14
184.00
PF6
57.50
54.71
198.07
 
62.03
56.49
201.79
 
 
 
 
MAX
74
68
246

The average results for male players swing speed testing range from approximately 80-92 MPH using multi-wall bats and 74-92 MPH using single wall bats and approximately 58-69MPH for female players using multi-wall bats and 56-70 MPH using single wall bats.

The average batted-ball speed for male players range from 77-90MPH using multi-wall bats and 72-86 MPH using single wall bats and approximately 52-62MPH for female players using multi-wall bats and 50-61 MPH using single wall bats.

The average distances for male players ranged from 311-367feet using multi-wall bats and 285-339feet using single wall bats and from 184-216feet for female players using multi-wall bats and 171-204feet using single wall bats.

The maximum swing speed, batted-ball speed and distance data for multi-wall bats was 96MPH, 93MPH and 390feet respectively for male players and 74MPH, 68MPH and 246feet respectively for female players.

The maximum swing speed, batted-ball speed and distance data for single-wall bats was 95MPH, 88MPH and 348feet respectively for male players and 71MPH, 62MPH and 233feet respectively for female players.

The data shows a significant increase in batted-ball speed and distance when using multi-wall compared to single-wall bats for male players but was not as significant for female players.  This leads us to believe that female players, for the most part, do not flex both walls of most multi-wall bats due to their batted ball speed results.  It also leads us to the biggest issue still facing the sport today, Controlling THE BALL.  We used a medium-level, mid-compression ball for our study since it is primarily the type of ball that we recommend for all levels of play.  If we were to use a high-compression ball, the results would be much higher for sure.  During recent testing of high-compression balls, our test team achieved maximum batted-ball speeds in excess of 100MPH and distances over 400ft.  I am not sure the sport of softball was ever meant to rival the distances achieved in the sport of baseball?
 
 

Table 2. Single Wall Bat Data

   
MEN
  
       
 
SS
BBS
Ave. Dist
PM1
73.67
84.00
305.00
PM2
81.33
78.33
285.00
PM3
92.00
84.33
335.67
PM4
83.00
79.00
296.33
PM5
90.33
86.33
330.33
PM6
91.33
77.67
308.00
PM7
82.00
78.00
296.33
PM8
83.33
82.33
339.00
PM9
81.33
72.33
312.67
 
84.26
80.26
312.04
 
 
 
 
MAX
95
88.00
348.00
 
 
 
 
 
 
WOMEN
 
 
 
 
 
 
SS
BBS
Ave. Dist
PF1
59.33
49.67
175.00
PF2
57.67
58.67
199.00
PF3
70.00
61.33
204.33
PF4
66.00
54.67
203.33
PF5
61.33
54.00
170.67
PF6
56.33
50.67
179.67
 
61.787
54.84
188.67
 
 
 
 
MAX
71
62
233

Conclusions:
The first observation that must be noted is Swing Speed.  Based on our testing, the use of a 60MPH-70MPH Swing Speed value is not realistic.  A swing speed of at least 75MPH is perhaps a more realistic value to use.
By the data produced in this article, using a medium-level, mid-compression balls resulted in great performance by our test players.  Not one player complained about the performance of the ball in our testing.  Increasing the compression value will yield even better results and in turn, compromise the safety of the sport of softball.  It is our goal at to present our research to all of the governing bodies, safety committees and softball associations so that they can become well informed on bat and ball performance in real-world testing.  We have no vested interest in any bat or ball company, we are only interested in making sure that the sport of softball is safe for all levels of play.  Our #1 goal is to protect the most vulnerable person on the field, the pitcher.
Our next goal is to analyze the effect of Ball COR and Compression, which you will read about in an upcoming article.

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