Is it true, speed kills?

[burlap1980]

Looking for some info on good home to first time for high school age girls.
Whats considered great average.

How important to you is great speed on the bases?


Any help greatly appreciated.
Thanks for your time and help

 

[Coachw01]

I found the chart below on another sight so take it for what it's worth. Through reading the info my best guess is that with the times below they are looking at girls around 12 and older. My DD just turned 9 and is about 3.8 H21 and 13.8 H2H and is without question the fastest girl on her team but she falls way behind the scale so I was hoping to find one for girls a little younger than 12.

I believe speed is probably underrated in softball and feel it's very important. A girl who can run can beat out an infield hit, take an extra base on one hit to the gap, steal bases, and cause a lot of problems for a pitcher mentally. So I would say yes, speed kills...

speed chart
Home - 1st
2.95-3.2 Average speed
2.80-2.94 Above average speed
Under 2.79 should get some eyeballs lookin at you
(of course how your timed is another discussion)

Home to Home
12.60-13.1 Average speed
12.0- 12.59 Above average speed
11.99 below your movin pretty good

 

[CoachKevin]

Yes speed kills... and the opposite is true as well. I have seen a sharp Single to CF, only to be thrown out at 1st

 

[iMlearning]

My DD is doomed!

 

[starsnuffer]

How you measure the speed will give you a variance of about ~1.5 seconds. Most statistics are a dead sprint from a sprinters start. More realistic ways to measure is from the time the ball is hit off a T until the runners foot hits first. This is where you get the biggest variable. Sadly, you will find that your time is far better spent training your players to run immediately after contacting the ball then any amount of training them to actually run faster. Most HS players waste about a second to get going.

-W

 

[iMlearning]

It is amazing the variances we've seen. A girl on our team who normally tests at about 3.4/3.5 tested 3.1 at Pennsbury Recruiting Camp. She said she was in shock with the time she got.

 

[CoogansBluff]

How important to you is great speed on the bases?

Faster is always better than slower. But is speed underrated? Not sure I would say that. The skill of getting on first base will always be more important than the skill of stealing second base. I realize that faster players can beat out infield hits more often, but the best way to first base is hitting a line drive. At 14U, I always felt like I was hurt more by slow runners than helped by fast ones. So my recruiting philosophy might be more about avoiding slow than seeking fast.

Another way to look at this issue, in terms of how we value speed, would be to ask ourselves this - If a player was average at everything on a softball field but the best on her team at one, what would you want that one to be?

- Best arm
- Best glove
- Best hitter for average (or best line-drive hitter)
- Best hitter for power
- Best speed
- Best softball IQ
- Best attitude/desire

How would speed rank in that context?

 

[starsnuffer]

I think it kind of relates to the branding thread. If the kid is fast, learn how to capitalize on that. If she isn't fast, she isn't fast. "kind of fast" = not fast.

-W

 

[Eric F]

My DD just turned 9 and is about 3.8 H21 and 13.8 H2H and is without question the fastest girl on her team but she falls way behind the scale so I was hoping to find one for girls a little younger than 12.

For your comparison, during 10U player evaluations for our league, there were only a few girls under 14.0 H2H.

 

[stickpile39]

eric,

how about home to 1st? And how did you time this?