Performance of 33/23 same as 33/21?

RECOIL!!!! The lighter bat when hit by a speeding softball, will recoil. A heavier bat continues on it way.

This is strictly math...there is a point a which you reach optimal performance where the heavier bat slows you down enough to where it is no longer advantageous. There is no way to tell with out crunching the numbers for a particular player what that number might be.

The only girls I know using a -12 after 12U are slappers who want the extra length of the bat to reach outside pitches. They do not hit for power. If a -12 is such a great bat, why are the most popular bats only available in -10 or -9 (Xeno, CF5, Stealth)?

I hate -11s and -12s so bad, that I wish that they weren't even made. Unknowing parents go out and buy them and then they wonder why I hand the girl a different bat to swing. No little girl needs a bat lighter than a -10. I am a believer in swinging the heaviest bat that you can handle.

I suppose those all knowing dads were having the girls scoot back in the box, too.

Buy a year old balanced bat and spend the rest of the money on hitting lessons.

A guy named Einstein had a theory that energy was mass squared times velocity. Granted in his theory velocity was the speed of light but it works for softball.

Chewy_06 said:

There's no one bat that fits all kids - nor will a bat that's a great fit at the beginning of the season be the right one at the end of the season. Going too heavy not only slows the bat speed down - robbing energy from a potential hit, but it will induce bad swing mechanics as the child attempts to copmpensate for not being strong enough to physically swing the bat. In our game, the other factor is ensuring there's enough batspeed through the strike zone to make contact with a fast moving pitch - faster initial swing should allow for a little more leeway in swing timing (provided the child is capable of adjusting once the swing is started).

And yes, there is a point where having too light a bat isnt helping either - a child able to literally swing themselves out of their shoes should probably move up a notch or two in weight.

I'll spare everyone another lengthy lesson in quantum physics; I never really liked it much myself anyway (Einstein's equation for energy actually refers the energy released by matter as it undergoes fission - suffice it to say this equation is not relative (in any way) in our current context). The equation that is relevant here, is for kinetic energy where energy imparted is equal to 1/2MV2 (1/2 the mass times the velocity squared) - velocity is not a constant and is a *much* more significant contributor to energy than the mass.

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chinamigarden said:

A guy named Einstein had a theory that energy was mass squared times velocity. Granted in his theory velocity was the speed of light but it works for softball.

Click to expand...

Retrieved this post from a previous thread; thought it to be pretty applicable

My little brain concludes the following:

At some critical bat mass, and this is peculiar per batter, the increase in bat mass does not equal an increase in BEV (ball exit velocity). This bat critical mass point can only be revealed via measuring the BEV. This critical mass point is where the swing mechanics breaks down.

BUT at some other critical bat mass point there is a "best" balance of BEV AND the ability to control the bat to be able to move it to make contact with breaking pitches. How in the heck do you reveal this critical balance point.....? I think the only way to determine this is through trial & error.

For my DD I think we have found this latter critical mass point for a bat where with her RT I don't think she can be manueverable enough to get to all the breaking pitches. With her Demarini she has better ability to adjust the bat to the break of the pitch.

I think I have a good "system" working here where in spring hs ball she uses the RT. This hs use of the RT allows her to use a metal bat in this friggin cold here in the upper midwest BUT also the hs pitching has less good breaking pitches that demand a manueverable bat. Then towards hs playoffs and the start of tb she starts to use the Demarini. By this time she has wielded around the RT so much that the lighter Demarini feels like a surgeons scalpal in her hands.

Now the relationship between the first bat critical mass point and the second one I bring up here,...... I have no idea how to figure that out. That is way above my pay grade.......

then how about the affect of mass and velocity on kinetic energy? Granted most formulas assume a stationary object, but if you take a ball that is moving in one direction and then that direction is reversed at one tiny point in time the ball must be stationary.

Mass and velocity both are important in the energy that makes the ball fly. Its a balance between the bat speed and the weight of the bat that must be unique to each and every batter, but bat speed by itself is not the only factor. Any coach who tells his players that a lighter bat is always better, is wrong.

You want to swing a bat with the largest MOI that does not degrade your swing speed and mechanics. Here's a link to an article that explains various aspects of bats and the physics behind it.

Swing Weight: Why moment-of-inertia matters more than weight

Lenski said:

You want to swing a bat with the largest MOI that does not degrade your swing speed and mechanics. Here's a link to an article that explains various aspects of bats and the physics behind it.

Swing Weight: Why moment-of-inertia matters more than weight

Click to expand...

I have read this before and find it to be a very interesting. They also look at the ball and bat at contact.