Louisville Slugger Xeno or Lxt??
- Thread starter koracatcher15
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koracatcher15 - You should hook up with CoreSoftball20 for whichever you end up getting. Fast, reliable service from a member of this board.
My girls have ordered three LXTs from him recently and the service was top-notch.
My girls have ordered three LXTs from him recently and the service was top-notch.
Thanks LAS, much appreciated. I always enjoy ur posts man...nobody puts in more time getting stats and info on the bats than you do.
I will say, its nice to see the LXT props coming around
I will say, its nice to see the LXT props coming around
Arizona Wildcats - most of the girls are using Makos, followed by LXTs, then Xenos, then a couple DeMarinis.
You know you have arrived as a program when your college team is allowed to have multiple sponsors. Everybody wants a piece of the Wildcats, and they deserve it.
I see that on the "coach reviews" website, only 72% recommend the LXT. The sample size is pretty small (25 reviews), but still that's a pretty disappointing number. By way of comparison, the Easton Mako has 41 reviews, and 95% are favorable.
Edit to add that the other night I took my DD to a local D2 hitting clinic and saw a bunch of 13 year old girs using the LXT. I know these girls very well as my DD helped coach them last Winter and Spring, and I just couldn't believe how well (and how hard) they were hitting the ball with the LXT. The improvement over last year was incredible. I'm not saying that that's due to the LXT, but the ball was screaming off their bats.
Edit to add that the other night I took my DD to a local D2 hitting clinic and saw a bunch of 13 year old girs using the LXT. I know these girls very well as my DD helped coach them last Winter and Spring, and I just couldn't believe how well (and how hard) they were hitting the ball with the LXT. The improvement over last year was incredible. I'm not saying that that's due to the LXT, but the ball was screaming off their bats.
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We do put a lot of time into our girls' hitting. All 12 of them have had hundreds of swings/hits with multiple high-end bats and they all know what works best for them. We even measure their exit speeds with the same gun to make sure our numbers are good, and we measure a lot of hits to make sure our averages are as correct as we can get them in the time we have. We even weigh every single bat on the exact same postal scale so we can compare apples to apples.
I think you are going to see more and more good reports on the LXT. The colleges seem to have really taken to it and I think you will see at least some of the more serious travel team players try it out, as well. I know brand loyalty (and even model loyalty) runs very, very deep with softball players, but I think the LXT might break through the clutter as the favorable reports come in.
I know I was skeptical at first but I have been converted. A full nine out of 12 girls on our team do better with the LXT than anything else. When you factor in that two of them swing 31" bats best and we have no 31" LXT for them to try, this statistic is even more impressive. I think the light-feeling, balanced swing weight and a great blend of a stiff handle combined with a flexible barrel that gives a very good trampoline effect allows younger girls to get the most out of their swings. However, it is the Cadillac ride the 11-year-old girls like most, as the LXT almost never stings their hands. This gives them the confidence to swing hard!
At $350, though, I don't see it grabbing a huge chunk of market share. That is just too much dinero for rec ball players and too much for younger travel ball players who outgrow bats quickly. I am not the kind of dad (or coach) who worries about such things (I know I can re-sell it for a good price) but I know other families do. It's a lot to ask.
I saw that, too. Most of the naysayers on the LXT seem to be Xeno users. For whatever reason, I find Xeno users to be the most radically loyal and defensive consumers of softball bats on the planet. They pretty much won't swing anything else and will refuse to admit that anything even might be as good.
Easton fans are just happy there is now an a very good alternative to the FS series, which they all pretty much universally hated.
The bat may be helping. We've had girls getting improvements in exit speed their very first time swinging the LXT.
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We measure what we call our "long tee" drill, which has girls hitting from a tee at the back end of a 50' cage and trying to hit the net at the other end right in the middle. We also measure during front toss, although it is more complicated and we get more "throw away" readings. The gun essentially has to be behind the tosser to not "get confused." We actually see better improvements from front toss than we do the tee ... sometimes a 1-2mph improvement on the tee results in 2-3mph in front toss. We throw out obvious miss-hits and try to take only hits that are "squared up" and get near the top end speed of what the girl does during her session. As an added bonus stat, we often see girls hitting a few more of those top-end speeds with the bats they prefer (say, a girl will square up 14 out of 25 hits with her pet bat vs. 10 or 11 with another).
I surmise (but cannot prove) that the front toss measurements are the ones that most closely mimic what one can expect against live pitching.
