Time For A Heavier Bat?

[CPSBDad]

Yesterday DD was at her hitting practice and decided to pick up one of the HS baseball bats and give it a try. Hitting as she typically does. I check the weight. 29oz! DD was using a 18.5oz Synge. She is currently using a CF5 31/21 for games. Is she ready to go up a couple of ounces? I'd like to buy a bat for her to use longer than one season. Thinking about another CF5, but 33/23. Thoughts?

BTW, her hitting coach agrees she should be using a similar weighted bat at practice and games.

 

[redhotcoach]

If you are like us, 1 more tourney, then done until indoor ball in Febuary, then sure. 2 ounces is a pretty big jump though. My dd can hit with about any size bat, we practiced with a 30 ounce bat in the off season, but her game bats are 21-23 ounces. How old/big is your dd? I know a lot of posters on here have talked about getting slow pitch bats for their daughters (heavy), but looking at college ball I see 1 girl in about every 50 using a slow pitch bat. By far the great majority are using -10 fp bats, so that is 24 ounces max. Sometimes I wonder if we are bringing a bazooka to a gun fight.

 

[JAD]

If she is ready to move up, I would suggest going to a 32/22. She may be able to get a 33/23 bat around on slower pitching, but he needs a bat size/weight that she can use against the top pitching she will face. My DD just moved up a bat size and I bought a 'grip n rip' to allow her to choke up a little until she gets used to the size/weight. This will get me through the Fall and I plan to remove it in January when she starts Winter workouts for the Spring.

GRIP N RIP ORANGE BAT KNOB TAPER SOFTBALL BASEBALL BATS | eBay

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Consider swinging with a 34"/28-oz barrel this winter. A Demarini Ultimate Weapon 34/28 has a decent feel for those first transitioning to heavier barrels ... and a new one can be purchased reasonably cheap. You might even consider bringing it into battle next season.

 

[CPSBDad]

She's 13 as of June. Not a big girl ( I don't know her stats ), but plenty strong. Plays for a 14U A team. She played up on a different 14U A team last season and the pitching was much better than some of the B teams we played. That said, Her hitting coach thinks she could go up to 23oz easily, especially after watching her swing those clubs! She's done it before without knowing the weight of those bats. I'll say this much, the balls were screaming back to me while I feed the machine. I'll have to look into that bat FFS. But I'm wondering, you think it's fine to use a 28oz bat in practice and use a 23oz bat in games?

 

[CPSBDad]

Something else I was thinking about. I heard from a dad that the big hitters on our local HS team used the same bat since MS, or freshman year. His DD used the same bat for three years. She's one of the big hitters. The catcher has an older CF3 and hits to the fence or over. So, I'm wondering if I can get away with one bat from MS into HS ( what fun would that be? Not buying another bat! ).

 

[redhotcoach]

She's 13 as of June. Not a big girl ( I don't know her stats ), but plenty strong. Plays for a 14U A team. She played up on a different 14U A team last season and the pitching was much better than some of the B teams we played. That said, Her hitting coach thinks she could go up to 23oz easily, especially after watching her swing those clubs! She's done it before without knowing the weight of those bats. I'll say this much, the balls were screaming back to me while I feed the machine. I'll have to look into that bat FFS. But I'm wondering, you think it's fine to use a 28oz bat in practice and use a 23oz bat in games?

I think she would adjust pretty quickly. My dd is 12.5 that 30 oz she swings over winter is a scn3 34/30. I always have her swing a 20 oz bat for as many swings in the theory of over load and under load. She stops swinging the 30 about a month before season. Now I do have a 26oz Miken Freak Maxload that she pulls out of my bag quite a bit when we are front tossing. She says "I just have to touch the ball with it to go park!" Game bat though, her Freak 22oz is her go to bat(I am sure it prob weighs 33oz) She likes to be able to see the ball as long as she can, (has struck out 4 times 2012).

 

[LeftiesDad]

She's 13 as of June. Not a big girl ( I don't know her stats ), but plenty strong. Plays for a 14U A team. She played up on a different 14U A team last season and the pitching was much better than some of the B teams we played. That said, Her hitting coach thinks she could go up to 23oz easily, especially after watching her swing those clubs! She's done it before without knowing the weight of those bats. I'll say this much, the balls were screaming back to me while I feed the machine. I'll have to look into that bat FFS. But I'm wondering, you think it's fine to use a 28oz bat in practice and use a 23oz bat in games?

My DD is not what you would call big, 14yrs old and almost 5'4", and did this exact thing last winter. She never went back. Her game bat is a 34/27 Demarini Juggernaut bought off of ebay because they don't make them any more. Most of the coaches around say the bat is too big but she continues to prove them wrong with nearly a .500 BA and more doubles/triples than singles as a 14u playing mostly 16a and 18a level ball.

The key for her was to learn to swing properly. The heavier bat forced her to use her lower half in sequence and didn't allow her to use her arms to power her swing. As a side bonus, I don't think I will need to buy her a new bat anytime soon but still watch for good deals on ebay just to have a spare around.

 

[fastpitch91]

the heavier the bat the further the ball goes... unless you can't swing it. I find most players use too light a bat usually because they don't have proper swing mechanics and are fully extended early in the swing in a "weak position". because they have no power they end up with -12 bats and its a losing battle.

With proper mechanics they are plenty strong to control a heavy (all relative) bat. many 14 yr olds are done growing. my 14u team swings 22 to 25 oz bats - 31/22 for the small slappers, most at 32/23 33/23 or 33/24 and some at 33/25 34/25 all depending on size and strength.

yes few of the college players are hitting with 34 -6 bats but a ton of girls 5-5 - 5-7 tall are hitting with 34/25 and choking up to make it a 33" bat -8 bat