Everyone Swings a 34"

[Long Baller]

Wasn’t sure which “Hitting” forum to post this, so I’ll ask it here in the general forum.

DD is starting her Freshman year on the college team. While at hitting practice, the coach says “The team will only be getting 34” bats.” The rationale is that, if you can get a 34” around on time, then there is no reason to swing anything shorter. I don’t necessarily agree with this. I am a numbers/science nerd, so I am thinking of things like center of gravity, balance point, barrel dip, leverage from the arms through the hands to the ball, yada, yada yada. So it doesn’t really make sense to me that a 5’2”, 120 pound young lady would swing the same length bat as a 6’2”, much heavier young lady based on an absolute, arbitrary, idea. However, my official stance is that “Coach is paying you a lot of money to play. Take an unbiased approach and try your hardest to make it work.” I'm not a college coach, and certainly don't claim to know more than them.

Has anyone else ever had a coach with this theory? What are your thoughts?

 

[Rolling Hard]

I am a heavier and longer bat guy but everybody swings a 34 is over the top. I mean they recruited them with a 32 drop 9 and now expect they should swing a 34 is stupid.

 

[black17]

While I agree that its silly, I know a lot of good coaches that say the exact same thing. Its 34" or nothing.

 

[YOCOACH]

I did a non-scientific study among the hitters that I worked with that went to play at the next level in college. Their teammates and themselves.
By far, 75% or so swing a 33 inch bat. The next highest is the 34 inch at about 15%. Last is a 32 inch at around a 10% range. This across the D1-D3 level. I have no NAIA players. To mandate a 34 inch bat is just plain silly.

 

[radness]

Just for perspective~
At 5'3 and a third 140lb.
Swung a 34" in college.
And considerably heavier than todays bats.

As to everyone using same bat length...
Choke up if you need to and say thankyou for the bat.
Better to long than to short.

That said really dont like other people chosing the equiptment i'm going to use...
Definitely would be difficult if someone were trying to make me use a glove I did not like that could be a deal-breaker.

 

[radness]

Wasn’t sure which “Hitting” forum to post this, so I’ll ask it here in the general forum.

DD is starting her Freshman year on the college team. While at hitting practice, the coach says “The team will only be getting 34” bats.” The rationale is that, if you can get a 34” around on time, then there is no reason to swing anything shorter. I don’t necessarily agree with this. I am a numbers/science nerd, so I am thinking of things like center of gravity, balance point, barrel dip, leverage from the arms through the hands to the ball, yada, yada yada. So it doesn’t really make sense to me that a 5’2”, 120 pound young lady would swing the same length bat as a 6’2”, much heavier young lady based on an absolute, arbitrary, idea. However, my official stance is that “Coach is paying you a lot of money to play. Take an unbiased approach and try your hardest to make it work.” I'm not a college coach, and certainly don't claim to know more than them.

Has anyone else ever had a coach with this theory? What are your thoughts?

It will be interesting to see the resulting affect...or if that changes in season.

 

[Lance Steckler]

that makes the top 10 list of dumbest things I've heard of a coach saying.

 

[Greatdaytobeawildcat]

I did a non-scientific study among the hitters that I worked with that went to play at the next level in college. Their teammates and themselves.
By far, 75% or so swing a 33 inch bat. The next highest is the 34 inch at about 15%. Last is a 32 inch at around a 10% range. This across the D1-D3 level. I have no NAIA players. To mandate a 34 inch bat is just plain silly.

And I know the weights are completely different but this same distribution would probably apply to college baseball as well. I know at 6-1, 180 I used a 33/30, which was by far the most popular size on our team. In MLB 34 is the most popular length but plenty of guys swing 33s.
Again the weights and balance are totally different, just a comparison.

 

[Westwind]

DD swung a 33/24 LXT until she broke it.

They replaced it with a 34/24 but pretty sure she got that because it was the first one the equipment guy grabbed, not because any deep thought went into it.

 

[Long Baller]

I did a non-scientific study among the hitters that I worked with that went to play at the next level in college. Their teammates and themselves.
By far, 75% or so swing a 33 inch bat. The next highest is the 34 inch at about 15%. Last is a 32 inch at around a 10% range. This across the D1-D3 level. I have no NAIA players. To mandate a 34 inch bat is just plain silly.

I read somewhere that the most common length swung in college is 33". I can't remember what the most common weight, I am thinking 33 -9 might have been the most common bat, but I definitely remember 33".