Average Pitching Speed by Age: Baseball and Softball

Every parent with a radar app asks the same question sooner or later: is my kid throwing hard enough? Below is the average pitching speed by age for baseball and fastpitch softball, taken from published research, Perfect Game showcase data and pitch-tracking device data. Every number comes with who collected it, and that part matters more than the numbers. Showcase and training-facility data comes from the kids who go to showcases and training facilities, and it runs well ahead of a typical rec or Little League pitcher.

The short version:

• Research samples of 10 to 12 year olds land in the low 40s to low 50s mph.
• Perfect Game showcase pitchers average 72 mph at 14U and 82 mph at 17U.
• Fastpitch pitchers tested in a lab averaged 41 mph around age 11 and the mid 50s in high school and college.
• None of these is a target for your kid. Strikes are.

Average pitching speed by age: baseball

The table puts two kinds of data side by side. The middle column is research on broader groups of players. The right column is showcase and device data, which skews toward the best players at each age. The distance is the field a kid is most likely on at that age.

Age	Pitching distance	Research samples	Showcase and device data (skews high)
8	Coach pitch in most leagues	Thin. We found no published radar data.	None found
9	46 ft	Thin	None found
10	46 ft	Ages 10 to 12 in Japan (average age 10.6) peaked at 42 to 45 mph, group averages, throwing into a net (Kida 2022)	Rapsodo users: 54 mph average fastball (Rapsodo)
11	46 ft, or 50 ft in 50/70	Eleven 11U pitchers in Quebec averaged 53 mph over 10 pitches from 44 ft (Tremblay 2022)	Rapsodo: 60 to 61
12	46 or 50 ft	Thin beyond the Japan sample	55 mph bullpen average was the middle of Driveline's 12U academy group (Driveline); Rapsodo: 62 to 63
13	50 ft or 60 ft 6 in	Quebec 13U averaged 55 mph from 48 ft (Tremblay)	Rapsodo: 67
14	60 ft 6 in	No single-age data; see 16	Perfect Game average 72, plus 80, elite 83 (Perfect Game); Rapsodo: 71 to 72
15	60 ft 6 in	Quebec 15U averaged 67 mph from 54 ft (Tremblay)	Perfect Game 76, 81, 85; Rapsodo: 75 to 76
16	60 ft 6 in	115 US high school pitchers, ages 14 to 18 (average 16.3), peaked at 73 mph by radar, give or take 8 (Erickson 2023)	Perfect Game 79, 86, 89; Rapsodo: 78 to 79
17	60 ft 6 in	No single-age data; see 16	Perfect Game 82, 88, 92; Rapsodo: 80 to 81
18	60 ft 6 in	Quebec 18U averaged 73 mph (Tremblay)	Rapsodo: 82 to 84

How to read it. The two columns disagree, and each is right about its own kids. The 10 to 12 year olds in the Japan sample peaked in the low to mid 40s. The average 10 year old in Rapsodo's data threw 54. Families and facilities that own a pitch-tracking unit are not a random draw of 10 year olds.

If your 11 or 12 year old throws strikes in the mid 40s to low 50s, that is where the research samples sit. Size drives a lot of it at these ages. In the Quebec study, height, weight and strength measures all tracked with velocity, and in the Japan study the kids with the most elbow stress were also taller and heavier. Kids also gain fast. Among Driveline's academy players, fastball velocity rose about 5 mph a year from 9U to 11U and about 3 mph a year from 14U to 16U.

What about the Little League World Series? Those are the outliers of the outliers. In 2025, Lin Chin-Tse of Chinese Taipei hit 82 mph on the ESPN broadcast (Sports Illustrated). From 46 feet, that gives a hitter the time of a pitch of about 108 mph from 60 feet 6 inches.

Fastpitch softball pitching speed by age

Softball pitchers throw underhand from a flat circle, the bases stay at 60 feet, and the pitching distance moves with age. Most of the published radar data comes from one biomechanics lab at Auburn University, where pitchers throw a few full-effort fastballs for strikes while wearing motion sensors.

Age group	Pitching distance	What the research measured	Recruiting view
10U	35 ft	Thin. We found no published radar data for 10U pitchers.	None found
12U	40 ft	35 pitchers averaging 11 years old: 41 mph average, range 31 to 52 (Wasserberger 2021)	None found
14U	43 ft	40 pitchers averaging 13.7 years old, from their age group's distance: 47 mph average, give or take about 6 (Downs Talmage 2021)	None found
16U and 18U	43 ft	90 high school and college pitchers averaging 18: 54 mph average of their three fastest, give or take about 5 (Jump 2026)	Junior college coaches look for 54+ (NCSA)
College	43 ft	College pitchers in the lab, mostly Division 1, averaged 55 to 57 mph (Bordelon 2022, Downs Talmage 2021, Wasserberger 2021)	Division 1: 63+, Division 2: 58+, Division 3 and NAIA: 55+ (NCSA)

How to read it. Lab numbers run low. Pitchers wear sensors, throw a handful of pitches and only strikes count. In one Division 1 study they threw from flat ground with no pitching rubber to push off. That is part of why the lab's college averages (55 to 57 mph) sit below the 63 mph NCSA says Division 1 coaches look for. NCSA does not publish the data behind its numbers, so read them as what recruiters ask for, not as an average.

Ages overlap, too. In the Auburn youth and college comparison, several advanced youth pitchers threw as fast as some college pitchers. And for 10U, the honest answer is that nobody we could find has published radar data at 35 feet.

Why raw mph misleads across levels

The radar gun reads the same at every field. The hitter's clock does not. What the hitter feels is how long the ball takes to arrive:

Time to the plate = distance ÷ (mph × 1.4667)

One mile per hour is 1.4667 feet per second (5,280 feet ÷ 3,600 seconds). The speed that gives the same time from a big-league mound is:

Big-league equivalent = mph × 60.5 ÷ distance

A 55 mph pitch from 46 feet reaches the plate in 0.57 seconds: 46 ÷ (55 × 1.4667) = 46 ÷ 80.67 = 0.570. From 60 feet 6 inches, a pitch needs about 72 mph to get there in the same time: 55 × 60.5 ÷ 46 = 72.3.

Here is that same 0.57 seconds at every distance a youth player will see:

Distance	Level	Speed for the same 0.57 seconds
35 ft	10U softball	42 mph
40 ft	12U softball	48 mph
43 ft	14U softball and up	51 mph
46 ft	Little League Majors	55 mph
50 ft	Intermediate 50/70	60 mph
60 ft 6 in	13 and up, high school, college, MLB	72 mph

Three things fall out of this.

• The big field is a cliff for pitchers. A 13 year old who threw 55 from 46 feet needs about 72 from 60 feet 6 inches to give hitters the same trouble. At the 3 to 5 mph a year Driveline's academy players gained, that takes years. Hitters will see a slower pitch for a while, and that is normal.
• Fastpitch speeds are not slow. The lab's 55 mph Division 1 average from 43 feet arrives in 0.53 seconds, the time of a 77 mph pitch from 60 feet 6 inches (55 × 60.5 ÷ 43 = 77.4). NCSA's 63 mph mark is about 89 mph in big-league terms (63 × 60.5 ÷ 43 = 88.6).
• This math ignores the stride. Every pitcher lets go of the ball a few feet in front of the rubber, so real times are a little shorter at every level. It is the same simple conversion our calculators use, and it works for comparing levels.

Who collected these numbers, and why it matters

• Showcase data comes from players who attend showcases, a group that skews toward the best players at each age. Perfect Game's "average" is the average pitcher at its 2024 showcases, not the average 15 year old.
• Device data from Rapsodo comes from more than 35 million tracked hits and pitches, all from players training with a pitch-tracking unit.
• The very top looks different again. Pitchers taken in the first five rounds of the MLB draft from 2011 to 2020 peaked at about 91 mph at high school showcases, on average (DeFroda 2023).
• Lab data runs lower: sensors, a few pitches, sometimes a net or flat ground. The Quebec numbers are the average of 10 pitches, not the best one.
• Self-reported numbers run high. The US high school pitchers reported a peak 7 mph faster than the radar measured, 80 against 73 (Erickson 2023). Keep that in mind the next time someone in the bleachers says their kid "throws 70."

What to do with this at practice

A radar number is not the goal for a kid. The pitcher who throws strikes at 45 mph helps your team more than the one who walks the bases loaded at 55.

Arm health is the other reason to keep the gun in the bag. The American Sports Medicine Institute compared 95 adolescent pitchers who had shoulder or elbow surgery with 45 who never had a significant arm injury (Olsen 2006). The strongest links to injury were overuse and fatigue. Pitching at higher velocity and pitching in showcases were also linked. Among drafted pitchers, each extra mph of high school showcase velocity came with 19% higher odds of a later elbow ligament reconstruction (DeFroda 2023). In the Japan study, 85 of 173 kids ages 10 to 12 showed an abnormality on ultrasound at the bony bump on the inside of the elbow, more often in the high elbow stress group.

None of that says velocity is bad. It says velocity costs something, and a growing arm pays for it with rest. Follow your league's pitch count and rest rules (our chart by league has them), and treat arm care as rest after throwing. Bullpens and showcase throwing are throwing too.

Run this at your next practice. Chart a 20-pitch bullpen for each pitcher and count strikes only. Post the strike count, praise it the way kids praise a radar reading, and try to beat it next week. If you do clock speed, keep it fair: the same distance, the same spot directly behind the plate, the same gun, after a full warm-up, a few times a season. Write down the average of several pitches rather than the single best one, and compare the kid to his or her own last reading, not to a chart.

Tools for the numbers

• Pitch speed calculator. Enter a speed and the level it was thrown at, pick another level, and get the equivalent speed and the time to the plate at both distances. Little League, Cal Ripken, Pony, Babe Ruth, 50/70, high school, college and MLB distances are built in.
• Softball pitch speed calculator. The same conversion for 35, 40 and 43 feet, so a 12U pitcher moving back to 43 feet knows what her speed will look like to hitters.
• Velocity projection calculator. Puts a ballpark range on where a pitcher could be in a few years from a simple yearly growth rate, for ages 10 and up. Use it to start a conversation, not as a prediction.
• The Velocity Blueprint. A free 150+ page guide for ages 13 to 18 on mechanics, arm care, throwing programs and a 12-week off-season plan, for the player who is old enough to train for speed.

Count strikes before you count miles per hour.