Hitting and Hitters Discussion Wood Bat as a Practice Bat

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I have had the recommendation that I have my DD use a wood bat as her practice bat during the off-season. Here was the reasoning:

A wood bat of the same length she currently uses will be heavier. This will force her to learn to swing harder to get the bat in the zone. (A youth bat, which is somewhat lighter, was recommended. DD is a U-12.)

A wood bat has a much smaller sweet spot. Learning to make contact in that sweet spot will increase the discipline of hitting. We are even planning to paint the "sweet spot" a different color on the bat to emphasize the contact zone.

She would use the bat for both tee work and cage work. When the next season rolls around, she would then pick up her aluminum bat again.

The theory is that the heavier bat would increase her bat speed and improve her contact skills when she went back to a normal bat.

It makes sense to me. What are your thoughts?

 

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sideliner I will give you my opinion for what it's worth, in my opinion it won't help one bit,sure after using the heavy bat her regular bat will fill much lighter but will her bat speed be any faster, I doubt it.
Put weights on your legs and run for sometime then take them off, it sure feels like you are running faster but are you, no
In my opinion when having batting practice stress that you want her to try to swing as fast as she can, just remember muscles can be taught to Remember by doing things over and over.

 

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There is a target bat made by TUFF Bats that you may be interested in. This bat has a smaller area to hit. You can look on their web site. The smaller target area helps train the player to hit in the sweet spot of the bat. Look at your players bat. If there are marks all over the bat and they are not hitting the "target" area - then they would benefit from a training bat like that. If you don't want to pay the money for that type of bat, you can put some tape around the target area and let them hit with it - discussing that the goal is to hit in that taped off area only. The player has to make the adjustment and this will take time and practice to get right.

 

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Just my opinion....I would NOT work exclusively with a heavy bat all winter. ?I think you will do great damage to your DD's swing. ?

The thinking you state is that by swinging a heavier bat all winter, she will the generate great bat speed when she goes back to her aluminum bat. ?The implication is that the heavier bat will build arm and upper body muscles to allow her to accomplish this goal.

However....bat speed is not generated with the arms and upper body! ?It is generated by the rapid and smooth coordination of all parts of the body, most importantly the legs and hips, with arms being the last part of the swing. ?

Why build muscle memory all winter doing something slow, when what you really want is something fast? ?

If you want to generate more bat speed, then do some work with a really light bat or one of the hitting "sticks" that are available on the market, and include a lot of work on hip snaps while keeping the arms back. ?You can finds info on this on the web.

I do also think that *occasional* work with a heavy bat can help some hitters, particularly if they have a casting problem, ie, "throwing the arms" out too early. ?It's harder to throw the arms out early with a heavy bat. ?It's why some girls hit instantly better with end loaded bats -- their hands have to stay closer to the body to be able to handle the bat.

 

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If the heavier wood bat enforces sound mechanics to swing it properly, then you should see an increase in bat speed due to the proper mechanics being used.

If the wood bat forces the hitter to make contact on a much smaller sweet spot to get good results, and this carries over to the aluminum bat, the hitter should get the full advantage of the trampoline effect inherent to the non-wood bats.

As a training tool I can't see much downside to the wood bat. Perhaps instead of using it exclusively this winter, you could incorporate it as another tool to be used along with your other hitting work.

One tip I've heard about doing this: instead of painting the sweet spot, just wrap the desired contact point with athletic tape. The tape can be removed and repositioned if desired, will save some wear-and-tear on the bat and can easily be replaced when needed. Also, the ball will leave a definite mark on the tape which can provide the hitter with additional feedback on the contact point.

If you do try the wood bat, I'd be curious to know what results you see. Maybe you could post back again and let us knopw how it goes.

PS: Almost forgot...keep the label facing up! I bet most kids today have never heard that age-old piece of advice that ensures the grain of the wood is facing the right way and prevents the bat from breaking.

 

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Doing one thing exclusively is likely to teach you daugther to compensate in some way that may or may not be good. Used as part of a practice regimen, I personally think it will help. First of all even with today's lightweight bats, I see players that do not have great control of their bats, and often see players that are unable to follow through after contact. I will gladly concede that a major part of this is mechanics, but greater strength will also help them improve mechanics. If this is incorrect, then there are a lot of physical trainers talking needlessly about the need to strengthen one's "core". Secondly resistance training is used in nearly all sports as PART of a program to increase speed. Parachutes, rubber bands, uphill running are a few examples. There are pitfalls to using a heavy bat, but isn't that the case with most single ideas?