Bat Sizing Guide

[Chris O'Leary]

I'm working on a softball bat sizing guide for my rec organization and want to come up with a quick and dirty sizing guide for softball bats for rec players. I know there are sophisticated formulae for this, but that won't work with my audience. Parents are unlikely to know their kids' weight and heights off-hand, for instance.

What length and drop would you recommend for the average kid?

At a first approximation, and based on experience with my kids, I'm thinking about...

AGE GRADE LENGTH DROP
8U 2nd 27 -11
10U 4th 29 -11
12U 6th 31 -11
14U 8th 32 -10

Some assumptions.

1. People will want to spend less than $50.

2. People will be buying bats at big box stores and won't be able to try them out.

3. I am talking about batters who will primarily be swinging away, not primarily slapping and/or bunting.

P.S. This is also for use by our equipment manager. He tends to outfit teams with inappropriately big bats and I want to give him something simple to use as a reference.

 

[druer]

For equipment bags those are probably all perfect. For those purchasing, a simple recommendation for girls of varying heights is to have their DD stand straight up and put arms at side. Stand but up on ground and the knob of the bat should come to at least the height of their wrist bone and be no more than 1" above the wrist bone.

 

[FPMark]

The lengths seem pretty reasonable if you are trying to fit the most girls in an age group with common sizes. Don't know if I agree with the weights though. By 12U I would go to -10, and by 14U maybe even -9. For an equipment manager (I assume you mean for a rec league?) your chart would certainly get you close. Maybe have a little overlap in length and weight for bigger or smaller girls if they supply more than 1 for each team.

 

[Chris O'Leary]

The lengths seem pretty reasonable if you are trying to fit the most girls in an age group with common sizes. Don't know if I agree with the weights though. By 12U I would go to -10, and by 14U maybe even -9. For an equipment manager (I assume you mean for a rec league?) your chart would certainly get you close. Maybe have a little overlap in length and weight for bigger or smaller girls if they supply more than 1 for each team.

We usually put 3 team bats in a bag, so this is going to be the middle of the range.

 

[tomzpc]

I've been coaching 8U and 10U rec for the past few years and the most common size would probably be 27 -11 for 8U and 29 -11 for 10U. Of course stronger girls and tiny girls break the molds, but I think that those are good for your midling sized bat of the three.

Just re-read what you posted Chris and noticed you had the exact same numbers down. =)

My 11DD just moved up to 12U and she is using a 30 -12. She's a small,skinny kid though.
I refer all of my parents to justbats.com once they have decided on a size. Free and fast shipping, unbeatable prices, and a great selection. They also have a bat wizard Bat Coach that you can put height and weight in and get a size recommendation. Not sure how good it is as I haven't played around with it much.

 

[KevinC]

At a first approximation, and based on experience with my kids, I'm thinking about...

AGE GRADE LENGTH DROP
8U 2nd 27 -11
10U 4th 29 -11
12U 6th 31 -11
14U 8th 32 -10

I handle equipment for a rec league. These numbers are good but I would make them into a range 1" up and down from your sizes. For example for 10U use 28" - 30".

For the less expensive bats you won't have much choice on drop. -10 to -12 are most common.

 

[absdad]

I'd include some drop 12's in there. They will be easier to come by than 11's. Seems to be more common I think.

 

[Greenmonsters]

Minor changes - but think you need to have a 26 -12 for the tiniest of the 8Us. Anyone who's wont to complain about not having available their preferred right length or drop can purchase their own!

AGE GRADE LENGTH DROP
8U 2nd 26 -12
10U 4th 28 -11
12U 6th 30 -10
14U 8th 32 -10

 

[chinamigarden]

Small hijack. If this is for an organization building team equipment bags, you might want to look into some of the online bat websites, they sell team bat packs of either a few different bats, or several bats of one make in a few sizes, the deals seem to be pretty good when bought that way,

Check out this website, I have bought bats from them before with no problems.

http://www.justbats.com/products/deals~bat pack/softball bats~fastpitch/

 

[Chris O'Leary]

Small hijack. If this is for an organization building team equipment bags, you might want to look into some of the online bat websites, they sell team bat packs of either a few different bats, or several bats of one make in a few sizes, the deals seem to be pretty good when bought that way,

Check out this website, I have bought bats from them before with no problems.

Fastpitch Bat Pack Bats

Most of our team bats are ridiculously out of date, so much so that I had to buy team bats for my baseball team out of my own pocket, so that's a good suggestion.