Cruising speed

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Nov 18, 2013
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Average P5 cruising speeds are anywhere from 61-66. Occasionally you’ll see girls in the upper 50’s or upper 60’s. Despite what we see on ESPN cruising at 70+ is extremely rare. Paige Lowary is the only one I saw consistently throw 70+.
 
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Oct 4, 2018
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Had a dad on our HS team with an app that you tap a button on the release and tap the button again once hits catchers mitt and it calculates mph based off the distance. App said girl was throwing 70+ and damn if he wasn't convinced of it. Last i heard "she had a lot of interest" and they are still waiting on a phone call. shes a super sweet girl though and is just happy to be part of the team, dad on the other hand.

I have that (free) app. My DD is 12U and already in the National Softball Hall of Fame:

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Nov 18, 2013
2,255
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Not a pitcher parent but my real world example is a kiddo who looks the look tall and lanky. Top travel team. #1 pitcher on her nationally ranked high school team. Cruising speed 62-64. She doesn’t break 65 and is struggling to get looks from p5 schools. She has lots of other D1 interest and some from lower/building p5 programs. 65 seems to the magic number for significant highest level interest.


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If she’s really cruising at 62-64 in HS it’s not her speed keeping her from P5 looks. That would eliminate half the young women already at P5 schools.
 
Aug 5, 2022
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I guess I should clarify looks from high level p5. Plenty of interest from teams in the bottom half of the big 10/acc etc


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Feb 15, 2017
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Thr better question is what is the RPM's and speed of power 5 pitchers. You can throw 70 and if there's now movement power 5 hitters will tee off on you.

I watched some of the Athletes Unlimted games and most of the pitchers were between 62-66 but they all had movement.



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Jun 8, 2016
16,118
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Thr better question is what is the RPM's and speed of power 5 pitchers. You can throw 70 and if there's now movement power 5 hitters will tee off on you.

I watched some of the Athletes Unlimted games and most of the pitchers were between 62-66 but they all had movement.



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How much movement does Fouts have? Honest question as I have a hard noticing movement in softball since it is so much less than what you see in baseball…
 

LEsoftballdad

DFP Vendor
Jun 29, 2021
2,838
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NY
How much movement does Fouts have? Honest question as I have a hard noticing movement in softball since it is so much less than what you see in baseball…
I think Fouts has less movement than some but considerably more speed. She's one I believe cruises above 70. Of course, she's about 10' away from the plate on release with her gigantic stride, so the ball doesn't have time to break.
 
Apr 12, 2015
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Once you hit the best-of-the-best level of velocity, movement isn't as important. A ball thrown at 70mph with 2 inches of break will be exponentially harder to hit than a ball thrown at 60mph with 4 inches of break.

At those elite, upper 1% levels of the game, reaction time for the batter (or lack thereof) trumps everything.
 
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Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
Once you hit the best-of-the-best level of velocity, movement isn't as important. A ball thrown at 70mph with 2 inches of break will be exponentially harder to hit than a ball thrown at 60mph with 4 inches of break.

A those elite, upper 1% levels of the game, reaction time for the batter (or lack thereof) trumps everything.
Yeah well the guy I responded to said 70 without good movement was BP for P5 teams……🤷🏽‍♂️
 
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