Hitting 11” vs. 12” Ball

[quincy]

DD moved to the 12” ball this fall. We have a bunch of 11” balls so we use these for batting practice.

During practice she will hit the ball to the fence, she has not hit any to the fence yet during a game.

Couldn’t quite figure out what she was doing, the ball did not have the same explosion off her bat during the games. Then I remembered we use the 11’ ball in practice.

I am surprised what a difference the 1” change in ball size makes.

 

[InsidePitch]

DD got a new Rocketech that she wanted to try at a field to see how far the ball would travel after hitting well in a cage. She parked two 11" balls over the fence but was about 20ft short with the best hit 12"s. She closed that to about 8ft this past weekend.

 

[redhotcoach]

Half the girls on our team just moved from 10u to 12u and went from an average of mid outfield on goods hits to just barely in the grass on good contact with the larger ball. I was throwing baseballs to dd one day, 8 out of 13 went over the fence. One huge benefit though is the 5 extra feet distance from the pitcher. They strike out a lot less.

 

[quincy]

DD is finally old enough to work with her grandfather’s baseball team, it will be interesting to see how she hits a baseball.

My guess is the pitchers and fielders are going to forget about her being a tiny girl pretty quickly and be on their toes.

 

[redhotcoach]

Ever since that day with the baseballs I think about where the idea of girls playing with a larger heavier ball then the boys ever came from.

 

[chinamigarden]

Ever since that day with the baseballs I think about where the idea of girls playing with a larger heavier ball then the boys ever came from.

Same place the idea of not having them on 90 foot base paths and 350 foot home run fences.

 

[redhotcoach]

Same place the idea of not having them on 90 foot base paths and 350 foot home run fences.

Under 13 boys have 60 foot base paths and 200 foot home run recommendations per little league baseball recommendations. Same as the girls. Not comparing our 12 year olds with MLB.

 

[Sweet Lou]

I am surprised what a difference the 1” change in ball size makes.

Nearly 30% more volume in the 12" ball if I remember my old math formulas correctly. Though I'm note sure if that translates perfectly 1:1 with the weight increase.

 

[chinamigarden]

Under 13 boys have 60 foot base paths and 200 foot home run recommendations per little league baseball recommendations. Same as the girls. Not comparing our 12 year olds with MLB.

Neither am I. I am comparing 14 year olds to 14 year olds. Having coached both, purely from my observation 11 year old softball players are on average stronger then 11 yo boy LL players. There were 4 girls on my dds 12u team who threw as hard as the hardest throwing boy on my ds's 12u team.