At What Age Do Bats Make a Discernable Difference?

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May 3, 2018
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I am new to travel. My 9 year old is playing 10U for the first time this fall. the balls are 11's with a 47 core. The fields we are playing on are the same fields used by the big girls (13U boys at times as well), with 250' fences. The farthest hit balls are 10-20 feet into the grass. What fields are your girls playing on?

Most fields we play on are equivalent to boy's Little League, some smaller, some larger. Most are anywhere from 180-200 ft down the lines and 190-240 to center.
 
May 3, 2018
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Update: Took advantage of the LS One Day Sale yesterday and ordered up a 30/19 LXT. Santa will be bringing it, so won't have an update until sometime in 2019. Thank you all for your advice and feedback.
 
Dec 11, 2010
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Yes!

Yes!

Yes!

I am a BIG fan of reaching out to parents who's DD are older than your own and asking about a hand-me-down bat program. At that age players are outgrowing bats every 9-12 months, so finding a gently used bat for @ $100=150 should not be that difficult. Ebay is another great resource for used bats.

Yes!

Yes!

Yes!

There is so much good equipment floating around the internet. And it’s local- in fact I think the best deals are local because it’s someone that doesn’t want the hassle of shipping and getting paid by someone six states away. Cruise fb swap sites. Go meet up with another parent in the local Walmart lot and save yourself some money.
 
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Oct 3, 2011
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Right Here For Now
This is interesting, DD has clearly outgrown her 30/20 LXT, and we've been tinkering with different bat sizes. She seems to have a bit more trouble with the increased weight rather than the length. Her hitting coach advised to try and stick with a -10, so she went with a 32/22 Ghost. I think she's having trouble adjusting her timing to the end-loaded bat. We took advantage of the LS sale yesterday and ordered the more balanced 32/22 Xeno. .

1) Moving her up 2 inches and 2 ounces affects the swing speed the same as adding 4 oz. at the same length. No wonder her timing is off. You could have saved yourself some money and had her swing a heavier bat 10 swings, her new bat 10 swings and her old-lighter bat 10 swings each day 6 days a week. The swing speed would be back to what it was in 3-4 weeks and thus, the timing. This is also a good drill for anyone whose DD wants to increase their swing speed by as much as 9 MPH after 6 weeks or so depending upon size of the player and swing mechanics.

2) The Ghost is not an end-loaded bat. Until you get into SlowPitch bats, there are no truly end-loaded composites. There are some bats which have their weighting further down the barrel but still are not truly end-loaded. Either way, the Ghost is not one of them.

3) For LS, the LXT is their "balanced bat" where as the Xeno is promoted as the end-load; at least when they first introduced the LXT that's the way they explained it.
 
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Sep 17, 2009
1,637
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Couple of additional thoughts:

If you've ever been a coach and hit outfield with bats you randomly pick up from the player pile, you know bats can vary widely in terms of performance.

I kept my DD away from expensive bats until she went to 12U (now it would be 11U) and still could always find a deal online, never paid $300-plus for any bat.

Back in my old days, there was a Mendoza composite that was a good entry bat. It gave them the feel of no more ping but was under $100. When I coached at 10U we bought a few for the team to save parents money.
 
Sep 17, 2009
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That's what Custer thought also.......

To keep going your best bet is an awesome hitter with a huge sweet spot/hot bat.

As an aside, the boys have a much different journey in terms of how bats impact their path to high level swing, IMO. At some point, the fields get huge, the bats go dead (Bbbcor or wood), the pitching gets wicked (not to say fastpitch pitching isn't a challenge) and you either sink or swim. I think that reality is what leads boy hitters to finding a high-level swing -- they search for it and find it or they simply fall out of the game. In fastpitch a wider variety of swings, including less-than-perfect, can still be very effective though there's a sink-swim element in fastpitch too -- probably high-level club or D1...
 

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