How 12yo Keenan Oldani went from 74.7mph exit velocity to 90mph exit velocity in 5 months
By this point it’s no secret that power plays. The higher the potential exit velocity the better chance mishits have to be productive.
It’s also not a secret that “mass moves objects” so when Keenan was hitting baseballs almost 75mph it was impressive but for his size was not necessarily shocking.
Homeruns were also being tracked between 64 and 74.7mph as well which gave him a big range to “miss” and still have the ball leave the yard.
He very easily could have thought that he was “good enough” but he knew that he had more in the tank and so did we. We constantly challenged his intent pushing him to swing harder and harder.
We used weighted bats, short bats, long bats, lighter bats, along with different weighted plyo-balls, and this all happened during his time with us in groups.
When Keenan hit 80 it was another milestone, and we were starting to become more and more impressed, but he wasn’t done yet, then he hit 83, then 85 and his accidental casual pop-ups were estimated to travel over 230ft. well over most 12u fences.
By this point we all wanted way more, even the other players in our facility wanted to see how good this guy would get, Keenan wanted to keep climbing the leaderboards, and us coaches were just along for the ride providing resources and opportunities.
We began to really dissect the Blast Motion data we had gotten on Keenan in our facility, and then he signed up for a Blast Connect account with us where all of his metrics would save and we could review the data side by side the HitTrax data in the comfort of our offices or anywhere we had a computer or laptop.
We know that there is a drop off in bat speed when going from training zones to performances zones, and our goal is to eliminate that gap as much as possible. We wrote another article specifically about this!
Once we started tracking bat speed more regularly, and comparing not only how he swung his 32” 24oz, but how he also swung his 32” 27oz, and also his metrics when doing flips or casual BP against his metrics in simulated live situations with live pitching or the hack attack machine, we were able to infer his potential that made joining the 90mph club a close reality. “You are a 90 guy TODAY, you just don’t know it yet, you have it in you.”
We knew Keenan was able to swing his drop five bat and hit the baseball up to 85mph during front toss getting his bat speed as high as 68.8mph. Although, in simulated live situations we were seeing bat speeds consistently between 57mph-60mph. In that range, he crushed homers, mostly made solid contact, and often times in the sweet spot. But it still wasn’t good enough, there was more.
We knew that he had more in the tank and we knew that he could re-create a 68.8mph bat speed, or close to, during the simulated live sessions.
By targeting bat speed and getting immediate feedback on a 55” screen about how he swung, while also being able to see what the ball metrics were immediately on a 75” screen, Keenan was able to adjust his swing and challenge his intent accordingly, where he swung 66.9mph, was on plane for 67% of the pitch (very good), and hit a baseball 90.06mph.
As of 5/28/18 he currently sits 7th on the National HitTrax Leaderboard in Exit Velocity for his age group, and is ranked 11th in Maximum Distance at 330.98 feet.
When you ask yourself, “How good can I be?” instead of “How good do I need to get?” the sky becomes the limit. If you’re not swinging weighted bats, tracking bat speed, or any other metrics with specific improvement goals you’re going to end up spinning your wheels. There is plateau waiting for you unless you TRACK METRICS and know how to use the numbers to your advantage.
Congrats Keenan on being the current record holder for youngest player to join the 90mph club at JB! Now who’s going to break it?