Every week a parent tells me their kid's exit velocity, and every week I have to decide whether to believe it. Half the time the number came from a phone app in the backyard. A quarter of the time it came from “a guy.” And almost every time, it's 5–10 mph higher than what my radar says when that same kid steps up at an event.
Nobody's lying. They're just measuring wrong — and bad numbers lead to bad decisions: wrong training priorities, wrong level targets, wrong expectations in the car ride home. So here's exactly how to get your player's three real numbers at home, the same way we measure them at Bass Performance Series events. No fancy facility required.
1. Exit velocity — off a tee, with real radar
The setup: a tee, a net, and a radar unit. Set the tee belt-high, middle of the plate. The radar sits on a tripod (or a bucket) directly behind the hitter, in line with where the ball is going. That last part matters — radar reads low at an angle. Straight line: hitter, ball flight, radar.
The protocol: five swings, full intent, best reading counts. That's it. Off a tee, not front toss — the tee removes the pitcher from the equation so you're measuring the swing, not the setup.
The radar: this is where most home numbers go wrong. Phone apps that “listen” for ball speed flatter everybody — I've seen them run 8 mph hot. A real radar unit (a Pocket Radar-style device is plenty; you don't need the $2,000 scout gun) reads within about 1 mph of the equipment pro scouts use. If the number is going to mean anything, measure it with something that measures.
One more honest note: game exit velos and tee exit velos are different animals. A kid who hits 70 off the tee might touch 75+ on a perfect barrel in a game. That's fine — just compare tee to tee. Consistency is the whole game.
2. Throwing velocity — crow hop, warm arm
The setup: same radar, same rule — directly behind the thrower or directly behind the target, in line with the throw.
The protocol: full warmup first. Never gun a cold arm — not because the number's wrong, but because that's how arms get hurt. Then three throws with a crow hop, best one counts. The crow hop matters because it's how scouts measure position players — it lets the whole body work, so you're reading arm strength, not flat-footed mechanics.
The cap: three max-effort throws is enough. Chasing a bigger number on throw seven is how a great day at the field turns into a month of rest.
3. Home to first — through the bag, from contact
Forget the 60-yard dash for a minute — the sprint your player actually runs, in every game, in both sports, is home to first. Here's how to time it right:
Start the watch at contact — the moment bat meets ball — and stop it when the foot hits the bag. Have them run through first like they're beating out an infield single, never slowing into it. Two or three attempts, best counts. A phone stopwatch and a parent's thumb is exactly how scouts have done it for decades — you're in good company.
One heads-up for baseball families: when your player moves up to the 90-foot bases around 13U, the time jumps. That's the field growing, not your kid slowing down.
The one rule that makes any of this worth doing
Enter the real number. Not the best-ever, not the rounded-up, not the one from the app. The real one. A flattering number feels good for a day and costs you a year of training the wrong thing. An honest number tells you exactly what to work on — and in my experience, the families who measure honestly are the ones whose numbers actually move.
Got your three numbers? Here's what they mean.
Check any single number against the bar in about ten seconds with the free Standard Lookup, or run the full Player Eval to grade all three together and find out what actually moves the needle. And when you're ready to make them official — measured by us, certified on the Bass 100 — that's what a BPS Pro Day is for.
No hype. Just the numbers, measured right.
— Coach Kevin Bass