One of the new additions in pitchLogic 3.0 is Spin Velocity Ratio (SVR). We’ve added this metric to help make Spin easier to use and to understand. But what exactly is SVR? How do you use it? And what’s wrong with Total Spin? We’ll address all of that and more in this article.

The short version is that, like Total Spin, SVR describes how fast the ball is spinning. Total Spin varies with speed, but SVR stays consistent no matter how hard you are throwing. An average 4 Seam Fastball has an SVR of 24, whether you’re 14 years old or 26, whether you throw 60 or 95 MPH, and whether you’re throwing at 100% effort or 70%. This means we can compare Spin more easily across players and across situations.

The technical definition is SVR = TotalSpin/Speed. So, if you throw an 85 MPH pitch with 2000 RPM of spin, the SVR is 2000/85 or 23.5.

What’s a good Spin Rate?

One of the most common questions we get from our users is, “What’s a good Spin Rate (or Total Spin) for a 17-year-old?” Sometimes we get the opposite, “Is 1600 RPM good for a fastball?” The unfortunate answer is that it depends. The number one factor that determines how fast the ball spins is how hard you throw it. RPM works okay for MLB pitchers, who all throw in the same general range of speeds, but it’s much more difficult to use for the wide range of pitchers who use pitchLogic. Plus, it makes it hard to monitor progress in lower effort situations such as Flat Ground sessions.

Okay then, what’s a good SVR?

That still leads us back to a very similar question. What’s a good SVR? Here we have typical SVRs based on a wide range of real pitchLogic users, typical SVRs from MLB games, and for reference we have typical Spin Rates from MLB games.

For each of these types, some pitchers have SVRs that are above or below average, but we can see that pitchLogic users actually have pretty similar numbers to MLB pitchers! In general MLB pitchers do things a little better than average though – which isn’t much of a surprise. For pitches that generally benefit from more spin (4 Seam, Slider, Curveball), MLB pitchers have a higher average. Data shows that the effectiveness of 2 Seamers doesn’t really depend on Spin Rate. Changeups often benefit from having less spin, which helps create separation from Fastballs, and we can see that MLB pitchers typically have a somewhat lower SVR on their changeups.

Can I still see Total Spin?

With all that said, what if you still want to see Spin in RPM? Don’t worry, it’s included for every throw on the “All Metrics” tab of the app. And if you really want RPM out front, the Legacy session type was designed to look more like older versions of the pitchLogic app and features Total Spin on the “Focus” tab.