Bat Speed
Bat Speed is the amount of time it takes for you to swing your bat from the launch position to the contact point.
The Launch Position is where you get to AFTER your preliminary movement otherwise called the load. So, the bat speed DOES NOT include the load.
The Contact point is determined by the point of contact of the bat with the ball.
Bat Speed is measured by seconds. Actually, split seconds in that a top-level college hitter will be around .14 seconds. Think about that, fourteen hundreds of a second! Also, think about this. The difference between great bat speed and poor bat speed is around .04 hundreds of a second. A great bat speed is .14 and a poor bat speed for a college hitter is .18.
We use the Blast Technology to test bat speed but they call this metric "Time to Contact". That does describe this metric pretty good and then they call the velocity of the bat, Bat Speed". I feel, in the effort to be consistent with the use of the word, "velocity" as MPH, I use velocity of the bat, Bat Velocity and this metric Bat Speed.
The Blast Device is placed on the knob of the bat and we test bat speed on the batting tee. This gives us a really good comparison of all hitters where we can evaluate "apples to apples". The typical testing will be from 5-10 swings on the tee with the Blast Device.
We believe the bat speed is one of the most important metrics that we test. Bat Speed does have a bat velocity component and therefore a power component but the most important aspect that Bat Speed offers is a good strike zone. How does it help with the knowledge of the strike zone? Read more here
How can you improve your Bat Speed? We offer a few options to help you with that: