Baseball people

[TheVisorGuy]

What are your thoughts on bat weights with youth ball players. Seems to me like every kid on both teams I coach want to use the absolute heaviest bat they can swing. I've always been a bat speed person who leaned towards a lighter bat. I think I swing a 34-31 in high school. What are your thoughts for young players? Let them swing the heaviest bat they can or lighter weight bat

[Palmetto Pride]

Lightest as possible until 12u

[scmoose]

-10 up through 11U, -8 12U working towards a -5.

[SwampDecoy]

VG- with the construction of bats and the reflex you get from todays metal, Bat Speed means exponentially more to hitting solid than any weight. So the lighter the bat the more energy transferred to the ball. I think you want a Metal with the most reflex/return as light as you can get it, without it shattering.

[huntinghagen#12]

Bat speed.

[darealdeal]

Heavy bat teaches bad form and slows their swing down.

[wbrown609]

Light bat until he has to drop down to bbcor for school ball. Once he has to swing bbcor in school, make him swing it for travel too even if he can still swing -5. He will be mad because he is not hitting the long ball, but he will be much improved his second season of school ball after swinging that bat for a year.

[TheVisorGuy]

10/4. Both my boys are big for their age. Tall also. My 7 year old dwarfs everyone on our 7-8 coach pitch team, yet he has one of the lightest bats on the team.

[PBiz]

Force = Mass X Acceleration

[PBiz]

My thought is to get something inside the parameters that they are most comfortable with..

My brother has twins going to play college softball. Their swings are almost identical, they are within a 1/4” of each other in height, and are 5 lbs different.. One Swings the heaviest bat she can, the other swings the lightest..

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[TheVisorGuy]

I'm with you Phillip. My thoughts right now is to let them swing something they can manage for 75-100 balls a day. We have an indoor batting cage at the shop and on days we don't have games that's what we do. My 7 year old still hits that many off a tee even though he is playing coach pitch. I had him swinging a heavier bat than what he is using now and after a bucket his form really suffered. That's why I chose lighter. My 5 year old who plays tball still swings the same size bat. He is 35 lbs lighter but mean as shit. He has even had to play on my coach pitch team every game this year because none of my coach pitch kids seem to want to show up. He has progressed very well and says he ain't playing tball next year, and I'm fine with that.

I did buy one of those cam wood training bats and they each hit a bucket with it before switching to their regular bats and it has done wonders for their bat speed. I love to see the coaches reactions on the other team when he steps up there at 5 years old and rakes one into the outfield. Playing on the same team and practicing together has created some heated arguments between the 2 and has raised the bar for each of them.

[TheVisorGuy]

And both those swings look nasty. I would hate to be in the hot corner when they come up

[Black Bart]

Looks like #1 is generating more bat speed; full extension.

[PBiz]

Looks like #1 is generating more bat speed; full extension.

1 is swinging at fastball..

2 is swinging at a screwball..

2 hits bombs, 1 hits the pitcher..

[2thDoc]

at the end of the day, its still baseball.

hey pbiz. my 10th grader played in the N/S all start softball game this year.

[PBiz]

I'm with you Phillip. My thoughts right now is to let them swing something they can manage for 75-100 balls a day. We have an indoor batting cage at the shop and on days we don't have games that's what we do. My 7 year old still hits that many off a tee even though he is playing coach pitch. I had him swinging a heavier bat than what he is using now and after a bucket his form really suffered. That's why I chose lighter. My 5 year old who plays tball still swings the same size bat. He is 35 lbs lighter but mean as shit. He has even had to play on my coach pitch team every game this year because none of my coach pitch kids seem to want to show up. He has progressed very well and says he ain't playing tball next year, and I'm fine with that.

I did buy one of those cam wood training bats and they each hit a bucket with it before switching to their regular bats and it has done wonders for their bat speed. I love to see the coaches reactions on the other team when he steps up there at 5 years old and rakes one into the outfield. Playing on the same team and practicing together has created some heated arguments between the 2 and has raised the bar for each of them.

That camwood is the best thing out there right now..

[BuckyTownsend]

Force = Mass X Acceleration

more importantly in that equation is that the velocity for acceleration is squared. Physics don’t lie. Speed matters more than mass. I’ve also always heard that if you’re right handed learn to bat lefty early and vice versa. Let the dominant side be the side pulling through the swing.

[PBiz]

at the end of the day, its still baseball.

hey pbiz. my 10th grader played in the N/S all start softball game this year.

All that whiffle ball paid off..

[PBiz]

more importantly in that equation is that the velocity for acceleration is squared. Physics don’t lie. Speed matters more than mass. I’ve always heard that if you’re right handed learn to bat lefty early and vice versa. Let the dominant side be the side pulling through the swing.

Makes sense..

I turned my oldest girl around lefty when she just turned 3, and the baby swings left handed as well..

They probably aren’t gonna be slappers, because their momma is a not little woman, but they might slap and swing out of their shoes.. Who knows.

[HT]

Pbiz, Swing on the right is the one. Text book. She's tighter and more inside the ball. Keeping that tighter triangle through out the swing. Thats the swing you want for more line drives in gaps. Swing on the left, even though extended, is falling back off the ball and has more separation. Even though both swings are good, Video of swings will tell more about the swing w.r.t body position during time of contact and release. These pictures may also not be the exact same point, as swing on the right could already be passed P.O.C and going through release. Hard to tell. also, left swing looks to be a lower pitch while swing on right is up in the zone and could also be inside.

For bats, use the weight of the bat that is suitable for the size / weight of the player at their age. Rule of thumb. 7-8 - drop 12 or 13, 9-10 - drop 10, 11-12 - can use drop 10 to drop 8 to drop 5 for bigger 12 years old. 13 - 14 needs to be -5 and working to -3. as some 13 and 14 year old could be playing JV baseball which is -3 bbcor. Again this is good rule of thumbs for age of kids and size makes. biggest jump is it to that drop 3 bat. especially for kids that has been swinging -10 bats and hard to make that jump and adjustment. Best to slowly bring them up in weight every year or two and their body gets bigger and stronger. My son was swinging a 31-28 bat at 13 during B team but we went up in weight every year or every other year. He's now a sophomore and swings a 33-30 and only 5'11 - 155 lbs.

Second thing. get them swinging wood bats early and often during BP. If they can hit a wood bat consistently they can hit any aluminum or composite bat. Wood bats are also usually a little heavier and will increase their bat speed for when they use regular bats during game or live BP.