Zepp Hitting Sensor

[Safebyahare]

I believe Spazsdad hit the nail with a wink,,,,feedback at practice.
Practice practice practice. Reps reps reps. If you are not getting your reps,,get them on our off time.
This is why they call it practice. Not routine or going through the motions.
The more the batter practices and does reflex hitting the less they think in the box.
The rule remains the same.....from 12u to and through college, if you can hit, we'll find a spot for you.

[Mark H]

Time to impact? You always have such great insights in these matters. Hitting conversations in the past were getting a bit long/boring, but HB is slow right now, so I will ask my question.

I would think primary measure, if you can measure it, would be instantaneous bat speed at exact moment of contact. That plus contact angle (how square you hit) seem to be the main things that determine how hard it is hit.

I always felt like most bat speed measures were radar based, and often fell into the trap that they register the highest bat speed over the entire path. I have found it common to find hitters that over accelerate at the early part of the swing and then slow down the bat as they get to contact, waiting on the ball, because they were ahead.

AI,

Bat speed at impact is interesting but good mechanics will have it plenty high. The fence just isn't that far and I'm more interested in how often you hit it far than I am how far you hit it. As to the geometry of how she hits it, the ball will tell me that.

Fair point on the timing of when and where that max batspeed is achieved.

[Mark H]

Can she hit a change up with that bat speed??
Hitting into an open field gives you all the measurement you need.
Whether off the tee or soft toss of live pitching.
The batter has the results right away.
Cell phone video is the only batting tool needed for HER to see a visual of what if any needs to be corrected.

PS What is time to contact?? Is she hitting it out front?? Too deep??? That is all timing and judgement.

Yeah except on the "time to impact" the quicker she can get that information the more her brain will connect that information with the feel of a particular swing. Immediate objective feedback is a huge learning factor.

On your last sentence, yeah but it can also be mechanics. A caster/bat dragger HAS to make contact way out in front because of inefficient mechanics so I'd have to add that caveat to your last paragraph

[Mark H]

I'm sure the Zepp Hitting Sensor is "fun".

But do we really need to know these details to determine whether or not a girl can hit?

I personally feel like I can watch a girl for about 10 games worth of at-bats and know whether or not she's got the goods.

This just feels like another one of those overvalued things like that device that calculates the number of spins a pitcher throws.

Two questions...one for the pitcher and one for the batter:

Pitcher: Can you get batters out on a consistent basis?
Batter: Can you get on base on a consistent basis?

Done.

Yeah but what if it's your kid who doesn't have the goods or what if it's a kid you coach who is good and wants to be the best? You quit working on your swing the day you retire and if this device gives reliable immediate objective feed back on time to impact, it may be a big deal. I don't think I care at all about the rest of their metrics interesting though they may be.

[fastpitchdad05]

I'm sure the Zepp Hitting Sensor is "fun".

But do we really need to know these details to determine whether or not a girl can hit?

I personally feel like I can watch a girl for about 10 games worth of at-bats and know whether or not she's got the goods.

This just feels like another one of those overvalued things like that device that calculates the number of spins a pitcher throws.

Two questions...one for the pitcher and one for the batter:

Pitcher: Can you get batters out on a consistent basis?
Batter: Can you get on base on a consistent basis?

Done.

Yeah but what if it's your kid who doesn't have the goods or what if it's a kid you coach who is good and wants to be the best? You quit working on your swing the day you retire and if this device gives reliable immediate objective feed back on time to impact, it may be a big deal. I don't think I care at all about the rest of their metrics interesting though they may be.

I see your and Spaz's point, but for my kid I'll continue to spend my money trusting the advice she gets from her batting coach. If this device proves to be extremely useful and BA's are skyrocketing then I'll take a second look.

For now (for me) it would just be a fun new toy to play with.

[Mark H]

Do it the cheap way. Get a video clip and count the individual frames from first move of the bat head into the swing plane till contact. If she's four to five frames on 30fps video then she doesn't need this gadget. If she's six or seven frames be concerned. You can get three dollar programs on your smart phone to do this.

[fastpitchdad05]

Do it the cheap way. Get a video clip and count the individual frames from first move of the bat head into the swing plane till contact. If she's four to five frames on 30fps video then she doesn't need this gadget. If she's six or seven frames be concerned. You can get three dollar programs on your smart phone to do this.

Thanks, I was able to determine from her YouTube Videos that the videos are 30 frames per second, but I'm not sure how to go frame by frame on YouTube or if it's even possible.

Researching now..

[AlwaysImprove]

http://rowvid.com/

[Mark H]

There you go. Knew there would be someone on here that could sort it out.

[fastpitchdad05]

http://rowvid.com/

Thanks AI, I had found that last night and used it already and meant to come in today and post that if I am doing this correctly she seems to be coming in at between 4 and 5 frames.

What's interesting is how dramatically her bat speed increases from the first two frames to the last two or so frames...big difference.