Half bat
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thanks! So what is the purpose is these bats?
- Dec 11, 2010
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Half bats/flat bats
Have been seeing the half bats and drills all over the hitting twitters. Looks like a lot of college sb teams are using them. I like the idea of this and would like to hear some thoughts from DFP’ers.
I have one. Have had it a month or two. I like it more all the time.
Main started purpose is squaring up balls but I think an additional benefit is suddenness. This is an underweight training bat.
Trey Hannam is on Twitter. Follow him. Great dude. He is a Mets system hitting coach but has coached a lot of softball players and last time I looked the home page of his site had a fastpitch player on it not a baseball player.
I have been using Jugs foam balls with it as well as jugs wiffles.
I like the foam balls because they really BOOM when they crack it hard. DD has been really ripping the ball in practice/training and I think this is partly why.
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Thanks for the feedback! I follow Trey. That’s how I found out about these bats. Sounds like they’re beneficial. Does underweight training increase bat speed?Half bats/flat bats
Have been seeing the half bats and drills all over the hitting twitters. Looks like a lot of college sb teams are using them. I like the idea of this and would like to hear some thoughts from DFP’ers.www.discussfastpitch.com
I have one. Have had it a month or two. I like it more all the time.
Main started purpose is squaring up balls but I think an additional benefit is suddenness. This is an underweight training bat.
Trey Hannam is on Twitter. Follow him. Great dude. He is a Mets system hitting coach but has coached a lot of softball players and last time I looked the home page of his site had a fastpitch player on it not a baseball player.
I have been using Jugs foam balls with it as well as jugs wiffles.
I like the foam balls because they really BOOM when they crack it hard. DD has been really ripping the ball in practice/training and I think this is partly why.
- Dec 11, 2010
- 4,723
- 113
I’ll be honest here: I don’t know. Here is one of my typically long and convoluted posts, lol
Over the years of working with two dd’s that are four years apart in age, I have accumulated several overload training bats- SwingMechanic, wood bats, a Camwood and I have accumulated three different sizes of weights that attach directly to the knob of the bat that I really like. (Pro-Cut. They show up on Ebay every once in awhile.). I think there are many benefits related to path and enlisting lower half. The big one in my uneducated opinion is hand speed. On the eyeball scale people always notice ”quick hands” of the players who have used this stuff a lot. Kids that hit with me a lot are typically at the top end of scale of hand speed of blast motion. The drawback of knob weights and heavy bats is you have to use them very sparingly especially during season or you will notice the player committing to all pitches too early and slow their bat to square up the ball. (Same as when you overdo high speed machine work.). Pretty much opposite of what you want to accomplish and a great example of an unintended consequence.
We have never had an underload solution I was truly happy with except some pvc bats I made that really aren’t underload.
The half bats looked like a good solution. Normal weight at hands, light in the barrel. So I ordered one. As always, dd is my tester. I added it in for a few swings per session, mostly sitting on a bucket and flipping whiffle/foam balls to her. Keep in mind she likes heavy bats and has swung a 33/25 since she was a sophomore (senior now). So it didn’t happen over night, and I have added a couple new things to the constant rotation so it’s hard to say about bat speed.
Out of curiosity, I put the Blast Motion on the half bat. The numbers and 3D swing were pretty much indistinguishable from the swings with her 33/25. But here’s what you see with the naked eye: the hitter waits longer to “go”, sees the pitch longer and the swings look to be more violent and sudden. This seems to be translating over to her regular bat swings. I am also seeing improvement in the quality of the contact which always helps create consistent line drive trajectory and distance.
I think there are proven benefits to over/under training for bat speed and many say underload training is more important. This bat can satisfy that and have other benefits too.
Hope this helps.
Over the years of working with two dd’s that are four years apart in age, I have accumulated several overload training bats- SwingMechanic, wood bats, a Camwood and I have accumulated three different sizes of weights that attach directly to the knob of the bat that I really like. (Pro-Cut. They show up on Ebay every once in awhile.). I think there are many benefits related to path and enlisting lower half. The big one in my uneducated opinion is hand speed. On the eyeball scale people always notice ”quick hands” of the players who have used this stuff a lot. Kids that hit with me a lot are typically at the top end of scale of hand speed of blast motion. The drawback of knob weights and heavy bats is you have to use them very sparingly especially during season or you will notice the player committing to all pitches too early and slow their bat to square up the ball. (Same as when you overdo high speed machine work.). Pretty much opposite of what you want to accomplish and a great example of an unintended consequence.
We have never had an underload solution I was truly happy with except some pvc bats I made that really aren’t underload.
The half bats looked like a good solution. Normal weight at hands, light in the barrel. So I ordered one. As always, dd is my tester. I added it in for a few swings per session, mostly sitting on a bucket and flipping whiffle/foam balls to her. Keep in mind she likes heavy bats and has swung a 33/25 since she was a sophomore (senior now). So it didn’t happen over night, and I have added a couple new things to the constant rotation so it’s hard to say about bat speed.
Out of curiosity, I put the Blast Motion on the half bat. The numbers and 3D swing were pretty much indistinguishable from the swings with her 33/25. But here’s what you see with the naked eye: the hitter waits longer to “go”, sees the pitch longer and the swings look to be more violent and sudden. This seems to be translating over to her regular bat swings. I am also seeing improvement in the quality of the contact which always helps create consistent line drive trajectory and distance.
I think there are proven benefits to over/under training for bat speed and many say underload training is more important. This bat can satisfy that and have other benefits too.
Hope this helps.
Hmmm . . . Are there any studies that looked at the efficacy of underload/overload bats?
Pretty sure there have been some studies looking at underload/overload for throwing/pitching.
Like a lot of training protocols, the value is somewhat guesswork; something working for athlete "A" may or may not work for athlete "B".
For myself, the theory of using underload/overload training makes sense.
I'm ok using them in small doses.
Athletes are experiments of one.
Pretty sure there have been some studies looking at underload/overload for throwing/pitching.
Like a lot of training protocols, the value is somewhat guesswork; something working for athlete "A" may or may not work for athlete "B".
For myself, the theory of using underload/overload training makes sense.
I'm ok using them in small doses.
Athletes are experiments of one.
- Dec 11, 2010
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- 113
@BlaineAB , yep, the studies and training plans are all over the place!
I agree with everything you said. It’s guesswork to some extent and you don’t know what’s working until you get out of the cage and onto the field. And to some extent, you can either hit or you can’t.
My “other non-biological softball daughter” (buddies dd that hits with me couple times per week minimum) is what I would describe as a classic lefty rotational hitter. She swings straight up -10 LXT’s and she has shown less improvement of the kind I described with the half bat but has had less training with it. She responded more noticeably to my other new purchase- a ”Whipstick” trainer. Over length, over weight. It has shot in the barrel that starts at the hands and goes to the barrel just before contact. She has also swung it all winter.
Since I know someone will ask what are Whipstick benefits? Correct timing of barrel release, tighter hand path.
I like training bats. They are not necessary. They can easily be misused. Most players need more time with their regular bat doing regular hitting than they need training bat swings. Training bats are a money pit. They benefit players who hit A LOT more than other players. They also help players feel different things and help create adjustability. Not necessary though.
I agree with everything you said. It’s guesswork to some extent and you don’t know what’s working until you get out of the cage and onto the field. And to some extent, you can either hit or you can’t.
My “other non-biological softball daughter” (buddies dd that hits with me couple times per week minimum) is what I would describe as a classic lefty rotational hitter. She swings straight up -10 LXT’s and she has shown less improvement of the kind I described with the half bat but has had less training with it. She responded more noticeably to my other new purchase- a ”Whipstick” trainer. Over length, over weight. It has shot in the barrel that starts at the hands and goes to the barrel just before contact. She has also swung it all winter.
Since I know someone will ask what are Whipstick benefits? Correct timing of barrel release, tighter hand path.
I like training bats. They are not necessary. They can easily be misused. Most players need more time with their regular bat doing regular hitting than they need training bat swings. Training bats are a money pit. They benefit players who hit A LOT more than other players. They also help players feel different things and help create adjustability. Not necessary though.
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I like the Whip Stick, too. Patrick Perry, the owner, is a good guy.
My daughter is only 14, just starting her big growth/strength increase, so she’s done more underload work. Uses the WS for feels, warm up, but you can hit real softballs with it.
- Dec 11, 2010
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- 113
I wondered about hitting softballs. We have been hitting baseballs with it, I sent Patrick an email asking if it was ok for regular softballs but my email must have got lost in the flood of stuff he gets daily.
