2011 RocketTech vs 2011 CF4 Insane

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.

Greenmonsters

Wannabe Duck Boat Owner
Feb 21, 2009
6,168
38
New England
had my daughter hit balls off the tee using a rocketech and a CF4 insane. then i measured the exit speeds using my radar gun. the insane had slightly greater exit speed. the insane is also much easier to swing and causes fewer mishits. the insane is unique in that it swings like an end-loaded bat, but it's a -10 drop weight.

bottom line. the cf4 insane is a winner.

Bats will perform differently at different swing speeds. As mentioned frequently here, there is no one bat that is perfect for everyone. Best bet is to do what you did and try them out side by side to decide what works best for your DD.
 
Feb 17, 2011
201
16
My DD uses an 09 RT, the black -9 drop stealth speed 33/24 and the CF4 insane 33/23. She is a hs freshman who is 5'7" and 150 pounds. She loves the easton stealth speed and peppered the fence about 17 times last year with it with no homeruns.... all that cleared the fence were foul. She will use the CF4 on only the fastest of pitchers but complains that it feels like it bends, or gives to much when she makes contact. As for the RT she has only used it as far as i know in the batting cage with the dimple balls just doesnt seem to like it as much as the others. She had a RT when she was ten, a 30" and hit real well with it and someone later gave us real good money to buy it when she outgrew it.
 
Dec 11, 2009
6
0
dbias, my dd has similar bats as your daughter, including the RT, CF4 insane and the stealth speed -9.

i have had my DD swing the sticks and i have swung them (presumably with greater bat speed). and the pop results are consistent (at least with the way we swing)... CF4 and RT are similar with slight edge to CF4. Stealth has the least pop.

on the other hand, the upside to stealth is that it has the best sweetspot and is super efficient.
 
Last edited:
Feb 17, 2011
201
16
dbias, my dd has similar bats as your daughter, including the RT, CF4 insane and the stealth speed -9.

i have had my DD swing the sticks and i have swung them (presumably with greater bat speed). and the pop results are consistent (at least with the way we swing)... CF4 and RT are similar with slight edge to CF4. Stealth has the least pop.

on the other hand, the upside to stealth is that it has the best sweetspot and is super efficient.

She had the white and purple easton for two years 32/22 and loved it.. in fact most of the 12u team used it. When she got the black -9 stealth she liked the feel of it. It has taken a while to break in as apposed to the CF4 and the Insane. She has complained lately that the DeMarinis seem to give too much and almost always uses the Stealth now and yes the sweet spot on the stealth is huge.
 

Greenmonsters

Wannabe Duck Boat Owner
Feb 21, 2009
6,168
38
New England
If DD is swinging -10s, she might want to borrow an Anderson Nanotek and give it a few swings. It's barrel weighted (not quite endloaded and not quite balanced) but swings lighter than most balanced -10s and has some serious pop. Bonus is that it requires no break in period. There's an endloaded Nanotek on the drawing board called the Omega that might be the holy grail!
 
Aug 4, 2008
2,364
0
Lexington,Ohio
We get to test many bats. No Easton bats, since most of Team USA will touch any of his products now. The CF4 Insane seems to be the most popular of the bats we have tested with the kids.
 
Feb 26, 2011
3
0
Another thing Is durability.Alot of the weather we play in ,would be less than ideal ball weather as we are in Canada.So I wonder about composite bats in cooler temps.And do they perform as they good as the alloys.Just dont want a bat that is gonna crack and wear out before its even broken in and in its prime.
 
Feb 24, 2010
154
0
I agree with dbias about the bending. I borrowed a players' composite bat last fall to hit fly balls to them, and that was the first thing I noticed - that the bat felt like it was bending. I had to swing harder to hit it as far as I wanted. I then got a non-composite bat and it seemed normal to me. But then again, I never played baseball with anything other than a wood or 100% aluminum bat, so what do I know.

I did have DD try someone's composite at practice once, and asked her what she thought. Although she liked the better "pop" off the bat, she too noticed the bending issue. She now has the current RT model.
 
Sep 3, 2009
675
0
I agree with dbias about the bending. I borrowed a players' composite bat last fall to hit fly balls to them, and that was the first thing I noticed - that the bat felt like it was bending. I had to swing harder to hit it as far as I wanted. I then got a non-composite bat and it seemed normal to me. But then again, I never played baseball with anything other than a wood or 100% aluminum bat, so what do I know.

I did have DD try someone's composite at practice once, and asked her what she thought. Although she liked the better "pop" off the bat, she too noticed the bending issue. She now has the current RT model.

They do flex in the handle area, just like golf clubs. Some manufacturers will even put flex specs on the handle. There are two posters on this board who have captured photos of bats in mid-swing where the bat is obviously flexing. I know that in golf, you WANT the shaft to flex, as it help with the swing. I can't imagine that it would be any different for ball.
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
42,830
Messages
679,478
Members
21,445
Latest member
Bmac81802
Top