What is Exit Velocity and Launch Angle? How Data is Making Hitting Better

What is Exit Velocity and Launch Angle? How Data is Making Hitting Better

"It's unbelievable how much you don't know about the game you've been playing all your life." - Mickey Mantle

Times in the baseball world are indeed changing. You cannot watch a game of professional baseball without hearing the terminology of exit velocity and launch angle. You also see a ton of defensive shifts. Let's face it, this isn't your grandpa's baseball. The game of baseball is dominated with reasoning and data. Simply put analytics have taken over. There are shifts for every single player in the Major Leagues. You can even see the shifts in Minor League games as well. To old timers, they would say the nerds have won. That is partially true, I would say the nerds have made the game better. The reason being, is the analytic fans have given us proof on how and more importantly why things are happening to players. You look into a Major League dugout and you will see plenty of electronic devices showing prior at bats to hitters and showing pitchers how they got batters out. 

With any change in life, there will be push back. Exit velocity and launch angle has been denounced by many coaches, players, and fans. I do not understand this. When evidence is shown of why something is effective and works, and you still frown upon it, it makes no sense. The data given makes everything better and easier. It is a win-win. And it shows the coach and athlete what is working and what is not. I liken it to a football coach, not watching film. How can you measure where your team is at? The answer is you can't. 

So what is exit velocity? Exit velocity is the speed of how hard the ball is going off the bat at contact. Think of exit velocity as being the counterpart to velocity of a pitch thrown by a pitcher. The speed of the exit velocity off of the bat will determine your launch angle. 

The next question is, what is launch angle? Launch angle, is the vertical angle at which the ball leaves the hitter's bat at contact. Every single hit has a launch angle. Let me repeat that, every hit has a launch angle. A ground ball has a launch angle of less than 10 degrees, a line drive goes from 10-25 degrees, a fly ball goes from 25-50 degrees, and a pop up is greater than 50 degrees. The success of a hitter is based off of their exit velocity. The exit velocity of a 12 year old will be different from that of an 18 year old. With that being said, the exit velocity will determine the launch angle needed for success of that hitter.

Both exit velocity and launch angle will help prevent the enemy of any hitter, the ground ball. Why are groundballs the enemy? It is because you are out more often out than not. Especially if that team is prone to shifting. There are two ways to defeat the shift, bunt or drive the ball past the shift. Now I know for most amateur coaches, the shift will not be as extreme as in a Major League game, but groundballs can be the enemy. With that being said, it is also important to understand in special cases groundballs can get a slide. That is in hit and run situations. Ground balls are inevitable, but it is important to understand they are mistakes when it comes to hitting line drives and getting the ball in the air. 

To simplify both exit velocity and launch angle, I will give a quote from one of my dearest friends, and a great baseball mind Robin Green. Robin said, "Exit velocity and launch angle have been around forever, just said differently. They measure how hard and far a ball is hit." That is simply it, exit velocity and launch angle just determine success of each hit. We get data to enhance our learning on how we can be the most complete hitter that we can be. There is no need to bash this data, since the philosophy has always been successful in teaching hitting. What is old is new, and what is new is old. Now there is just data with it. Let us get on board to make our athletes, coaches, and game better!