The Fastball:

Speed and Reaction Times

A fastball moving at 90 miles per hour covers the distance from the mound to the plate in less than half a second, requiring lightning reflexes and judgement from the batter to even make contact. Normal human reaction time is about .2 second.

To see if you have a reaction time fast enough to hit a fastball, let’s do a little experiment! Go to:

You and a partner should take a few practice turns at trying out reaction time to get used to the activity. Once you feel you have the hang of it, have each partner take 10 "swings" and record the reaction time for each swing below.

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This is how to hold a baseball for the fast pitch.

Out on the field, a pitching backstop has been set up so that it is 20 feet from the pitching line.   You will need to pitch 5 fastball pitches into the backstop.  For each pitching trial, have a partner record your time in seconds in the data table below.

To figure out your average time, in seconds, to pitch a fastball 20 feet, add up your 5 trial times and then divide by 5.

Now we need to figure out how fast you pitched in miles per hour. (Who knows? Maybe you have what it takes to be a major league pitcher!)

First of all, remember that speed is calculated by the distance divided by time, or

      t

where d = the distance you pitched (which was 20 feet).

and t = the time it took to make the pitch (measured in seconds)

You will need to convert feet per second into miles per hour. Here is how:

         20 ft           60 sec        60 min     1 mile      72,000 miles