How far can an average adult hit a wiffleball?

February 19, 2008

Reader question: How far can the average adult hit a wiffleball? - K

MLW Answer: That depends. What type of ball are you using?

A heavier ball, such as a Junk Ball or a Blitzball will travel farther. A ball without holes will usually travel farther than a ball with holes.

An official ‘Wiffle Ball’ not only curves when thrown, it also curves when it’s hit. It might travel 100 total feet, but that’s 75 feet straight to left field, and 25 feet curving toward right field, thanks to the effect caused by the holes only on one half of the ball.

MLW uses the Easton Training Baseballs, which have 26 holes cut uniformly througout. We tested many different wiffleballs, and unanimously chose these.

We practiced for a few feeks, and based on our hitting results, chose our deepest part of the park to be 81-feet to straightaway center field. Since we were playing in a cul-de-sac, the other dimensions were determined by default. The left field pole was 63-feet, and the right field pole was 78-feet. Most of our home runs traveled around 100 feet. A few balls were crushed, and probably traveled over 200 feet. However, that was probably helped by another factor…

Wind. The best wiffleball playing conditions are if the wind is lightly blowing out, or not at all. At MLW’s home field, “The Sac”, we dealt with constantly swirling light winds, once the ball reached about 25 feet in the air. The Easton balls were still affected by the wind, but not as much as the others.

Wind speed and strength have a huge effect on the distance and direction the ball travels. It doesn’t take much to slow down, speed up, or change the path of a ball of very little weight.

So there’s more than one answer to your question. Here at MLW, the maximum distance with an Easton ball is probably a little over 200 feet, but more regular home runs travel about half that distance.

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