Best bat for pitching machine work

[LEsoftballdad]

Every day including her off day when she hits on her own.

I deleted the rest of my reply.

DD currently has an LXT for practice and a Xeno for games. Not exactly the peak of luxury like everyone assumes.

Top 25 p5.

How many hits does that entail? Is it safe to assume 750+ per week? If she breaks a bat, who replaces it? Do you pay for them, or is it the school?

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm just trying to gauge what happens at the different schools. My daughter's D3 college provides nothing except uniforms, bags, cleats, and helmets.

 

[LEsoftballdad]

I have no data to support my bold, semi-accurate statement, but based on the small sample size of comments here...with the amount of ghosts being replaced under warranty, these bats must not cost much to make.

You would be correct.

 

[Westwind]

How many hits does that entail? Is it safe to assume 750+ per week? If she breaks a bat, who replaces it? Do you pay for them, or is it the school?

I honestly don’t know. The college players practice much more deliberately than daughters with crazy a$$ dads lol. From what she tells me and if I kind of total it up in my head, 75 plus a day? Some days they hit 3-4 stations of machine though.

The school provides bats. There isn’t always one available that is exactly what the player wants. The rumor this fall is that they might have a hard time getting enough Xenos…

They are a Nike/Wilson school so that dictates what they swing more than anything else.

 

[LEsoftballdad]

I honestly don’t know. The college players practice much more deliberately than daughters with crazy a$$ dads lol. From what she tells me and if I kind of total it up in my head, 75 plus a day? Some days they hit 3-4 stations of machine though.

The school provides bats. There isn’t always one available that is exactly what the player wants. The rumor this fall is that they might have a hard time getting enough Xenos…

They are a Nike/Wilson school so that dictates what they swing more than anything else.

A shortage of supplies? No... Say it ain't so. LOL. Seriously though, LS did just release the Xeno back to some stores, ours included, so there is some stock floating around.

My daughter said they did hitting 3 days per week this fall. She figured it was about 100 cuts per day. Most of what they do is front toss and tee work. Her head coach was a former D1 pitcher at Manhattan College, so she can still bring it. She prefers her live to the machine, but they do incorporate it once in a while.

 

[BillyB]

Sheer volume of front toss is not much different.

Here is the thing: if you are a softball player for long, you will have to hit machine. If your game bat has a warranty, you might as well swing the one that has a warranty. I tracked bats carefully. More than once when a bat came out of warranty, that became a bat only used in games I.e. as few swings as possible.

I tried going the route of a cheap bat off of eBay. What ended up happening is it would break, it would have no warranty and I would be out the full amount I paid instead of shipping on a warranty claim.

The Rocketechs always come up in these discussions. Great bats. Very durable. A very *different* bat for a kid to swing than most gamers are going to be. That’s the prob if you want to practice with a similar bat.

I know I seem like I’m arguing but I am guessing there are parents here struggling with this and maybe my approach will work for them.

Less velocity on that front toss though, much better way to early break in bat after some extensions off tee.

 

[Westwind]

You got me there. Never thought about that.

 

[CoreSoftball20]

I have no data to support my bold, semi-accurate statement, but based on the small sample size of comments here...with the amount of ghosts being replaced under warranty, these bats must not cost much to make.

Absolutely...but you also have to figure in all the research and development of the bats...not just
the production line cost. And lets not forget the payroll for some of these people as well...never can forget
the paychecks of folks indirectly related to it all...hahaha. Ghosts dont take any less to produce then other bats...so sit back and think how much other manufacturers make that dont replace as much much...or baseball bat lines that hardly ever get replaced. I have always sat there in our conversations and actually tried to guess and I still have
no clue. I do know stores dont get that big of a break as people think

 

[Westwind]

Dat split grip is making me twitch, seriously...holy shirt

I did not respond to this very well the other day. I regret that.

Trey mostly works with baseball players. Most look pretty high level, he has guys coming in for the weekend from all over the country. Former Mets coach. He also works with some softball players. Two of the players I posted are committed. One to Louisville and one to Washington. I‘m also aware that he works with current players from Tennessee and a couple from Kentucky. One is an all American or is going to be. I am going to guess there are more that I’m not aware of.

I don’t know if you are a players dad or an undercover super coach. It doesn’t seem like you need any advice but maybe keeping an open mind wouldn’t be a bad idea.

Bro, dimples are so heavy/dense. No bueno...unless these your talking about are foam like.

Bro, I wanted to make sure you saw my reply about dimple balls conforming to the official weight of a regulation softball. Hate to see you miss another chance to learn something.

 

[BillyB]

I did not respond to this very well the other day. I regret that.

Trey mostly works with baseball players. Most look pretty high level, he has guys coming in for the weekend from all over the country. Former Mets coach. He also works with some softball players. Two of the players I posted are committed. One to Louisville and one to Washington. I‘m also aware that he works with current players from Tennessee and a couple from Kentucky. One is an all American or is going to be. I am going to guess there are more that I’m not aware of.

I don’t know if you are a players dad or an undercover super coach. It doesn’t seem like you need any advice but maybe keeping an open mind wouldn’t be a bad idea.



Bro, I wanted to make sure you saw my reply about dimple balls conforming to the official weight of a regulation softball. Hate to see you miss another chance to learn something.

I don't like any split grip, sorry just my opinion. It can cause more issues, but I know it can work here and there. "Also, practicing a split grip for feel/drills, is different than actually using it all the time"

Every dimpled ball is more dense and does not compress like a baseball or softball.

 

[Westwind]

I don't like any split grip, sorry just my opinion. It can cause more issues, but I know it can work here and there. "Also, practicing a split grip for feel/drills, is different than actually using it all the time"

Every dimpled ball is more dense and does not compress like a baseball or softball.

Thought it was that they are heavier. (They aren’t.)

Then it was the velocity. (In the videos I posted the machine is close and looks to be 25 mph on the eye radar)

Now they don’t compress the same? With my two thumbs I can indent a dimple ball pretty far (especially the Atec Super Soft) but I can’t do that with a regulation softball. They sound and feel mushy when you hit them. But they do more damage to bats? Despite the fact that anyone who has seen stitch balls misused out of a Hack will tell you NOTHING breaks more bats.

Then, it was because you hit more balls if you use a machine. OK. So what are we doing here? Hitting less balls of front toss to save our bats?

There are a lot of urban legends in softball. Parents, especially parents of young players, repeat what they heard someone else say and have no idea if it’s true or not. That person heard it from someone else. Who heard it from someone else. When you believe in things that you don’t understand you will suffer. It’s a superstition not a fact.

When I think back to when DD’s were very young, the players who are still playing in college are the ones who hit a ton. Including machine. Maybe even ESPECIALLY machine.

Those kids who aren’t playing anymore break 100% less bats on average. That’s not really what we were after.