The 60-yard dash is often one of the first quantitative tests scouts at both the college and professional levels wish to see performed well.
This test has been deeply engrained into the dogma of baseball, while science and many coaches believe that there are better options. The 60-yard dash tests acceleration, top speed, and maintenance of top speed over 180 total feet. In general, baseball is a sport of acceleration and deceleration, not top speed. Regardless of it’s applicability many coaches and scouts use it as a gauge of athleticism and should at least be a consideration for athletes wanting to been seen as competitive. Here’s a case study to show how we address improving speed.
As an incoming freshman shortstop at Sacred Heart University, John Murphy had a 7-7.1 60-yard dash. With a front squat max of 245 and a vertical jump of 25 inches his power and strength was considered average to below average for SHU’s program.
My favorite test for both power and asymmetries is the single leg triple jump (SLTJ). The test is performed by standing on one leg and making 3 consecutive broad jumps on the same side while remaining in control. The goal is to jump as far away from the starting point while sticking each landing. When there is a side-to-side discrepancy of over a foot I investigate deeper to see if we are dealing with strength deficit or something more structurally.
Scoring an average of 21 feet on each side puts John right in the middle of a team average of 22, nothing special to say the least. The ability to apply force into the ground and accelerate your body forward gives us a nice picture of single leg power and a large carryover to running.
As you can see in the chart, as the years progressed, John’s squat, single leg triple jump, vertical jump, and front squat to bodyweight ratio make improvements every year. Increasing relative strength compared to bodyweight and teaching how to increase force production once movement dysfunctions are addressed will consistently increase speed— more importantly acceleration.
An interesting fact to note when looking at the data is that John’s junior year is when he really took his diet to the next level. When dealing with athletes of all levels it clicks at different times. Sometimes this has to do with whom they spend the majority of their time with and sometimes it just takes time to see the light at the end of the tunnel with a goal. Either way, John honed in on his diet by adding about 10 lbs of muscle and dropping a few of fat, again increasing his potential to produce force and become faster.
By John’s senior campaign he had been clocked as low as 6.5 in his 60 and was easily the most powerful athlete in his program. Looking back at his freshman year 21 foot triple jump (7 feet per jump) and increasing it to 26 feet (~8 ½ feet per jump) is a very large difference. This effectively lengthens his stride without changing his mechanics and drops 3-5 strides or ground contacts during his 60-yard dash, dramatically decreasing his time to plus speed in the eyes of MLB organizations.
When training athletes, strength coaches often forget the goal of athletic performance. Our job in the weight room is to help minimize or prevent injury, increase movement efficiency, increase overall strength, and increase force production in a way that it relates to our athlete’s events. You can see we did not test vertical jumps in 2012 because after the past 6 years I have come to realize that the carry over to baseball or other athletic development is much larger with the triple jump gave me lots of qualitative and quantitative data to use in our programming compared to vertical jump data.
Tips to Increase Acceleration Speed
-Video tape and practice your 10-yard dash. Use the video to get your current time and work to improve it. Once your 10-yard dash goes down, your 60 will drop dramatically. -Increase your front squat max to 1.7-2x bodyweight with solid depth.
-Minimize fat mass and optimize muscle mass. Murph has had his bodyfat as low as 4.5%. By carrying minimal fat mass all weight is functionally producing force.
Last Updated on April 21, 2014 by Amir Rehman
60 yards is 54.864 meters, which is almost equivalent to the rarely held indoor 55 meter dash. The 60 meter dash is the indoor standard today. Please don’t forget the crash mats!
Why a 60 yard test for baseball? Everyone knows it’s 90 feet between bases or 30 yards, so in theory, second base is “only” 60 yards,
BUT…
If you are trying to beat out a ground ball with a play at First base, that run would easily be 30 yards, or 90 feet in a straight line. A double or triple entails running in a curved fashion, sort of like question mark (?)… you would start straight from home plate, then run wide to touch the bag at first base in a curved fashion.
Thus the 60 yard dash is only valuable to show straight line linear speed and really nothing else. What is important is the ability to score from second base to home plate with two outs! [Tweet “Baseball 60 Yard Dash – What’s a Good Time?”]
Most Major League Baseball (MLB) clubs look for times under 7.00 seconds. A 60 yard dash time between 6.7 – 6.9 usually equate to an average runner on the playing field.
The 60-yard dash is a short race that spans 60 yards and is most often used in professional baseball. The fastest 60-yard dash was run by both Herb Washington and Mel Pender, who ran it in 5.8 seconds in 1972 and 1973, respectively.
The 60-yard dash is used in Major League Baseball to evaluate the players’ acceleration and speed. Although running to first base is only 30 yards, players need to be able to run a double as fast as possible. In fact, for the American League, you have to run it in under seven seconds.
But who started the 60-yard dash, and why? Let’s take a look at this in more detail to find out.
What is the Purpose of the 60-Yard Dash?
There is no record of who started the 60-yard dash, but there is plenty of information on its purpose.
The purpose of the dash is to determine a player’s acceleration, agility, and speed. It is one of the first tests that baseball scouts use at the college and professional levels.
Baseball Scouts Use the 60-Yard Dash to Rate Possible Recruits
According to the baseball recruiting guidelines for the All-American Baseball Academy, the 60-yard dash is an integral part of their search and recruitment process.
Both middle infielders and outfielders have to have a 6.8-second 60-yard dash or faster. Catchers and corner infielders need a 7.25 or lower.
How Fast Should A 14-Year-Old Run A 60-Yard Dash?
A good speed for a 14-year-old in a 60-yard dash is between eight and nine seconds. However, those who are in training for baseball can reach speeds below eight seconds.
One study found that age difference is a significant factor, while others claim that the 60-yard dash speed is unimportant. Still, it is widely used in scouting so it remains one of the most essential skills to master for those wanting to get into the majors.
For comparison, most Major League Baseball players run a 60-yard-dash in under seven seconds. In fact, some of the fastest players in baseball run a 60-yard-dash in around 6.5 seconds.
How to Improve Your 60 Yard Dash Time in Baseball
The First 15 Yards of the 60 Yard Dash are Important
According to the experts, quickness is the most important part of a faster 60-yard dash.
The first 15 yards is a linear sprint, and you should have a forward lean to gain momentum and overcome the forces of gravity. And you should keep your body angled forward during the entire dash – not just at the start.
Take Longer Steps to Improve Your 60-Yard Dash Time
Another important tip from the pros is to lengthen your stride.
By making your gait longer, you will get from point A to point B faster, no matter what. After the first 15 yards, your strides should be more cyclical with the top to bottom knee drive over lengthened strides.
Check Your Posture to Improve Your 60-Yard Dash Time
To get faster speed, one thing you should do is to videotape yourself practicing a 10-yard dash. Watch that video to check your posture and forward lean.
After you get your 10-yard dash speed down, your 60-yard dash speed will instantly be much faster.
Lose Fat and Build the Muscle to Improve Speed
Another thing you can do to increase your speed is to lose your fat mass and build more muscle mass. In doing this, you are using almost your entire body for performing.
The more fat you have, the less muscle mass you have to propel you faster.
Building Strength is Important to Improve Speed
Building your strength is incredibly important in improving your 60-yard dash time.
Squats can be an excellent way to build strength in your legs. For example, take a baseball player who is 175 pounds and can squat 400 pounds versus a 175-pound baseball player that can only do 300 pounds.
The player who can squat 400 pounds is putting 200 pounds of force per foot into the ground. The other player is only putting out 150 pounds of force per foot.
That means the one who can squat 400 pounds will be a faster sprinter. Although other variables can change their speeds, this example is specifically about the strength to propel.
You should also have excellent mobility and flexibility. Being able to flex and move your legs and hips improves the extension in your hips and knees, giving you a longer stride and faster speed.
Perfect the Leg Drive to Improve Your 60-Yard Dash time
No matter how strong you are, your legs have to move right to get the best time. You need to hit the ground with the ball of your feet to accelerate your body forward as fast as possible.
Try this drill to improve your speed:
- Put your hands on the wall and lean forward. Make sure you keep your ears and ankles aligned.
- Pushing up on your toes, bring one knee up to a 90-degree angle.
- Run in place, pretending to push the wall over.
- Continue to lean forward and keep your posture as you get faster for about 10 seconds.
Practice Arm Swings to Improve Speed
Correctly swinging your arms has a lot to do with your 60-yard dash speed. You should focus on keeping your elbows locked at a 90-degree angle while keeping them tucked in close to your body.
Your hands should go all the way from your hip up to your face. Also, you have to move your arms from your shoulder joint forward and backward.
One of the best ways to practice this is with this drill:
- Sit up straight with your legs straight in front of you.
- Lock your elbows at 90 degrees and start with one arm back and the other forward.
- Move your arms back and forth slowly like you are running.
- Continue to speed up your movements until you are at your top speed and keep going for ten more seconds.
Have Warm-Up Routine Before Running the 60-Yard Dash
Whether you are running the bases or pitching a game, everyone has to warm up first.
Here are some of the top warm-up routines for the pros:
- 25 to 30 jumping jacks
- 15 iron cross lifts
- 10 cossack squats per leg
- 10 forward to reverse lunges per leg
- 15 to 20 hip thrusts
- 20 to 30 yards of A skips
- 20 to 30 yards of B skips
- 3 laps on the track
Try Some of the Speed and Agility Tools Used by the Pros
The pros have their own special tools in their warm-up routines that they like to share. It does not matter whether you are a track and field runner or a baseball player. Each player has a unique thing they do.
Some of the most common include:
- An agility ladder
- Training cones
- Resistance parachutes
- Hurdles
- Resistance bands
- Medicine balls
- A jump rope
The Controversy Over the 60-yard Dash
There is a bit of controversy about the 60-yard dash being integral to scouting a professional baseball player.
It centers around the fact that the distance between home plate and first base is only 30 yards. Gerry DeFilippo, a strength coach for the United States Premier Hockey League (USPHL), asserts that the 30-yard distance is the only real sprint time on which they should focus.
Since 60 yards is equal to running two bases, the 60-yard dash speed may be relevant for that purpose. But because running two bases is never in a straight line, the 60-yard dash is not accurate for this either.
As far as stealing bases, this is not a 60-yard dash either. When stealing a base, the player is typically already about 10 feet off of the bag. And then they use about 10 feet of sliding space to slide into the next base, right? So that only leaves 20 yards of sprinting.
How does the 60-yard dash play into this? Those who are contesting this suggest that a 20-yard dash speed-test would make more sense.
A Final Note
Whether the 60-yard dash is accurate for baseball scouting or not, it is still used as one of the essential qualities that scouts look for. So, you must get your speed below seven seconds if you want to make it to the big leagues.