Practice Bats?

[wild man]

I have thought about trying something that I was told works very well, I would like some thoughts on it.
I had a very sucessfull hitting coach tell me that all of his practice is done with wood bats. Sounds crazy but he claims it promotes much better and proper swinging.

All games are played with the same bats as every one else. His teams Knock the snot out of the ball I will be facing him next season posibly due to a possible change in the league.

Now I am not so foolish as to think that just swiching to wood bats in the cage could make your players great hitters ,Cause everyone would be doing it. But I believe that wood swings better and it could make SOME difference. Any Thoughts?

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Say you had a hitter swinging a 34" 24-oz composite bat during games. What would the recommendation be for a wood bat during practices?

 

[justwannaplay]

I have tried using wood bats with my kids and it seems to work . If you are interested take a look at metalwoodbats.com

 

[Chris O'Leary]

Now I am not so foolish as to think that just swiching to wood bats in the cage could make your players great hitters ,Cause everyone would be doing it. But I believe that wood swings better and it could make SOME difference. Any Thoughts?

This could function as overload training, and the research shows overload/underload training can improve bat speed.

However, you have to do this right and not overload too much (or underload too much).

The problem with doughnuts and most heavy bats is that they are too heavy (and many practice bats like the Swift Stik are too light).

 

[wild man]

Acually I dont think weight was the main focus but I could be wrong.
This is where asking coaches questions gets you into trouble, sometimes you get just enough info to screw things up.
I know too heavy is bad as well as too light. but BALANCE seems a big factor.
I take all my infield with my own personal wood bat And I have to say That I cant stand the feel of any aluminum or composit bat. BUT I am not facing pitchers That are trying to strike me out either.
I may play with this idea during the off season.
Thanks for the input. Ill let everyone know how it goes.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Here's the thing Wildman ... I've used wood bats on occasion for girls, but only for a few drills, and sometimes in the cages for a round or two ... but I've never gone cold turkey and converted entire practices completely over to wood. If people are converting their practices completely over to 'wood', then I'd like to learn what weight & length bats they are using relative to normal game bats.

 

[Cannonball]

My daughter hits with wood just about every day. In fact, she carries it everywhere in her bat bag so she has it on hand to swing it. She does numerous drills with it and really likes to hit with it before games. Naturally, she wraps up their pre game hitting with her composite. We do a lot of work trying to develop a relationship of the knob of the bat to the shoulder. If she gets too long or pushes, she knows right away. In fact, today, she got really mad at herself for taking three back to back poor swings. I had to have her realize that hitting work is NEVER perfect. BTW, our "wood bat" is a 33 inch composite that we tape the end to add additional weight. Some of you have seen her posted swings from a couple of years ago and I posted 2 or 3 wooden bat swings then. Those posted swings were off of machine but she does as much front toss as machine work with wood. Also, as an FYI, in the recruiting process, one college coach (NAIA) who was talking to us noticed her wooden bat and told her that she'd fit right in because he does a lot of wooden bat work.

 

[Chris O'Leary]

Acually I dont think weight was the main focus but I could be wrong.

It may not have been the focus, but it could have been what was producing the results.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

My daughter hits with wood just about every day. In fact, she carries it everywhere in her bat bag so she has it on hand to swing it. She does numerous drills with it and really likes to hit with it before games. Naturally, she wraps up their pre game hitting with her composite. We do a lot of work trying to develop a relationship of the knob of the bat to the shoulder. If she gets too long or pushes, she knows right away. In fact, today, she got really mad at herself for taking three back to back poor swings. I had to have her realize that hitting work is NEVER perfect. BTW, our "wood bat" is a 33 inch composite that we tape the end to add additional weight. Some of you have seen her posted swings from a couple of years ago and I posted 2 or 3 wooden bat swings then. Those posted swings were off of machine but she does as much front toss as machine work with wood. Also, as an FYI, in the recruiting process, one college coach (NAIA) who was talking to us noticed her wooden bat and told her that she'd fit right in because he does a lot of wooden bat work.

Help me out ... what is the length and weight of your DD's normal bat? Is her wood bat a 33" 30-oz?

In addition to a "tight HPP", or knob to rear shoulder relationship, what else are you looking to benefit from wood? Anything related to the sweet spot difference?

 

[SBFAMILY]

Not a fan of anything you do that adds weight to a bat because you change the swing plane. The one thing we do use and Bustos suggests are Edge weighted gloves. This puts the weight in the back side of the hands and your bat doesn't drop during the swing. They are adjustable. Warming up is one thing, but to practice with a heavy object will cause you issues with your swing.