Wood bat practice

[Mike]

We are buying all our 14u players wood bats for cage work during the winter.
Reason for are,
reduced sweet spot will hopefully train the girls to select better pitches to hit, any swing flaws will be maginified and therefore hopefully easier to target and fix, they must swing faster and harder to get any kind of decent output.

Reason against,
All of the above working against us. The biggest drop I can find is a -6 to -7 so to counter I will drop everyone down an inch from there normal bat, I am a little worried the few extra ounces could have a negative effect if were not careful, not to mention its a totally different feel.

The kids are looking forward to get them and start using them, there is already talk of using them in a game or two next year, (not sure of the rules yet). Point is they are not against it at all.

Alot of boys teams do this, our local high school team uses wood only except for in games and have produced several D-1 and minor league players.

I get some strange looks when I talk about this for a girls team, what do you think?

 

[softballphreak]

We are buying all our 14u players wood bats for cage work during the winter.
Reason for are,
reduced sweet spot will hopefully train the girls to select better pitches to hit, any swing flaws will be maginified and therefore hopefully easier to target and fix, they must swing faster and harder to get any kind of decent output.

Reason against,
All of the above working against us. The biggest drop I can find is a -6 to -7 so to counter I will drop everyone down an inch from there normal bat, I am a little worried the few extra ounces could have a negative effect if were not careful, not to mention its a totally different feel.

The kids are looking forward to get them and start using them, there is already talk of using them in a game or two next year, (not sure of the rules yet). Point is they are not against it at all.

Alot of boys teams do this, our local high school team uses wood only except for in games and have produced several D-1 and minor league players.

I get some strange looks when I talk about this for a girls team, what do you think?

Don't stop there, use baseballs instead of softballs. I would switch back to their normal bats in plenty of time for regular season. Also, be aware that after using baseball bats some of the players may want or need to get a different style fastpitch bat. The rationale is the baseball bats will all be end-loaded. Personally, I think that's a good thing because a fastpitch batter swinging an end-loaded bat can hit it harder.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

I think that I would rather spend the money on hitting lessons. You have mentioned some rather compelling negative reasons not to do this.

 

[Chris O'Leary]

We are buying all our 14u players wood bats for cage work during the winter.
Reason for are,
reduced sweet spot will hopefully train the girls to select better pitches to hit, any swing flaws will be maginified and therefore hopefully easier to target and fix, they must swing faster and harder to get any kind of decent output.

Reason against,
All of the above working against us. The biggest drop I can find is a -6 to -7 so to counter I will drop everyone down an inch from there normal bat, I am a little worried the few extra ounces could have a negative effect if were not careful, not to mention its a totally different feel.

The kids are looking forward to get them and start using them, there is already talk of using them in a game or two next year, (not sure of the rules yet). Point is they are not against it at all.

Alot of boys teams do this, our local high school team uses wood only except for in games and have produced several D-1 and minor league players.

I get some strange looks when I talk about this for a girls team, what do you think?

While this always makes me a bit nervous, you are aware of the risks and you are dealing with 14Us.

Another option is to have people buy cheap, low performance metal bats (what I used to call a "log" back in the day). That way they will have to really work for their hits and they can't just buy them.

You could also buy -8 baseball bats like the Easton Hammer or something comparable.

 

[Mike]

Spent plenty on lessons Amy, this site is the best value out there at least around here. I do think the compelling reasons for doing this outway the bad. The initial heavieness is what worries me the most. I do believe it will drive home the point of getting started correctly, army swings will not work, keeping the hands close and not casting, using the hips more to power the swing, etc... Basically they cannot have bad habits and hit decent with a wood bat. Alot of kids get decent hits with poor swings because of the quality of bats and its hard to convince them and their parents they need to work on their swing. I am not throwing away good mechanics I am trying to build on them by giving them an inferior device to work with. Maybe I am looking at it like long toss for a pitcher, they only pitch from 40' why practice from 90', we all know the reason for that. Just trying to ignite a fire thats all.

While this always makes me a bit nervous,

Why exactly Chris?

p.s. I am not trying to argue with you guys just trying to get specific

 

[SBFAMILY]

Because you change the swing plane and it is the same reason we don't let them swing with weights on bats. I will give you more specifics when I get a chance.

 

[Chris O'Leary]

Why exactly Chris?

p.s. I am not trying to argue with you guys just trying to get specific

Because it could force them to swing with good mechanics and their bodies or it could encourage bat drag.

It's hard to predict which.

It has its place, but it's no panacea.[1]

Heavy bat stuff is that I only do when I'm around, not when I have someone else running the hitting station, and when I do it I film every few swings with a high speed camera, looking for bat drag.

P.S. I'm sensitive to this because I tried some heavy bat stuff with my son back in 3rd grade (-8.5 bat) and the result was serious bat drag that I'm still working to get completely out of his swing.

[1] The same is true of every drill. People ask me what my favorite drill is and I always come back with, "What does their swing look like? What problem are you trying to solve?" It's like medicine; it's good when used appropriately.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

I would say "No," as far as my DD is concerned. But, you have to understand this comes from coaching for 40 years and at 2 colleges. It is important to me to get my students in the right bat. I can teach a swing with a dowel rod, a thunder stick or a bottle of water - but I don't consistently have them swing a big heavy bat.

Studies show that swinging a heavy bat does not help with bat speed. It messes too many other things up.

But, then, I never use a pitching machine either. TCB balls, the young ladies' game bat and front toss, is all you really need.

I am afraid you will not gain anything from what you describe. And I keep going back to the fact that you are buying them each one. Not that it is just a station that you would be using.

The diameter of a baseball bat is larger than that of a softball bat. I feel that using a smaller bat, would be more beneficial.

 

[Chris O'Leary]

Studies show that swinging a heavy bat does not help with bat speed.

Actually, there are studies (Coop DeRenne) that show that overweight, heavy bat training can help with batspeed. However, I believe most to all of these studies were done with college males, so strength generally isn't going to be an issue. Also, they found that you only have to go 10 or 15% overweight to get the benefit. Going too heavy can cause problems even in college males.

 

[SBFAMILY]

I do not recommend using dough nut weighted bats or heavy bats .

This forces you to swing away from your body and we want to use centripetal force for bat speed and muscle memory especially for hand path and wrist release. We use edge power weighted gloves . The weight is on the back of the hand and there is 12 ounces for each hand...there are two pockets/ sleeves on each hand and there is one 2 ounce weight and one 4 ounce one in each sleeve / pocket.


An old post from Howard Carrier.