Line Drives

Bats, Bat Size and what’s right

Recently I sat in several practices and saw two contrasting approaches to bats. One encouraged a  youth player to move up a size on his bat, 11U player. He is now swinging a 31 inch bat.

The other the player brought a 31 inch drop 8 bat into the tunnel, he was immediately redirected to go back to his previous bat.

Figuring what bat to use can be time consuming, expensive, and frustrating if the player is swing the wrong weight or length. Often times player will blame the bat for bad swing or poor results.

This is partially true. A bat that too heavy or too long will highlight and emphasize the dysfunction in a swing. Difficulty hitting the outside pitch, breaking balls, or off-speed pitchers won’t be fixed by going to a longer or heavier bat.  Players, parents and coaches should pay special attention to swinging the right length and weight.

Most athletes should focus on swinging the lightest weight bat possible. In general most players from 11-13 should swing a 30-31 inch bat. Most players should swing a balanced bat.

Athletes who can get the most out of a Good, Hype Fire, or Louisville Slugger Power Select are few and far between. Most players will benefit from a balanced high pop bat, such as an Atlas, Marucci Cat X, and similar bats.

As they begin to grow and moved to middle school and a full size field, sizing to a 31 or 32 inch bat and moving up weigh needs to be weighed heavily. Upsizing before the start of season should be avoided at all cost!

Whenever I hear conversations about bats I’m reminded of a player I coached. He had sized up to 33inch LS Slugger Power Select. It’s a great bat if you have tremendous swing strength. This player struggled with getting balls in play. We switched him a balanced 32” bat and he immediately began getting balls in play and saw his confidence jump through the roof!

As a closing thought, bat selection, length and weight is not a measure of how good your player is, how productive they are, or their future potential. It’s a measure of what’s the best tool for the job they need to do. The BatBros do a great job reviewing bats and providing unbiased reviews to consider for your player.

Timing and Hitting Offspeed

As coaches and parents we have all heard the classic hitters refrain “if he was throwing harder, I would have been able to hit it.”

Every team, at every level, in every form of baseball has the reliable pitcher who is markedly slower than the rest of the pitchers. They will throw strikes, and possibly have a little extra movement or a weird travel to the ball. These players will eat innings; they are hard to hit, and are often seen controlling games in pool and bracket play. As a coach I have always tried to keep several of these reliable strike throwers on my team and encourage others to keep these guys.

The secret to their reliability and dominance has everything to do with their stuff as a pitcher, but we must consider the player and coaches aren’t doing with as much as they should to prepare for these moments. Players, parents, and coaches reliably want to chase working against higher velocity and movement but forget to train against slower speed and movement.

Training as a hitter requires a focus on timing. A focus on hitting higher velocity and lower velocity pitching. A hitter and a team who can reliably hit the off speed pitcher create a problem in pool and bracket play. These team are the ones who advance deep on Sundays

Hitting the off speed starts in training. Coaches must focus on slowing down the delivery of pitches and consistently intermixing Offspeed pitches in the players training program. Players should make hitting Offspeed pitching as a consistent part of their training and development. Not only does this prepare the hitter to take away the off speed specialist, but this prepares the hitter to hit and take away the changeup.

Training can include a series of 3 on speed front toss flips followed by 3 off speee flips. Once the hitter has control and adjustability to the off speed look. Alternate on tempo and off speed. The last challenge is to randomly intermix and create in game situations.

The last piece of timing is ensuring the player understands how to use the on deck circle. Players should be solely focused on the pitcher and ball. They should engage in a full swing timing the release and travel of the ball to the point of impact. A great rep on deck will mirror the hitter in the box. Every dominant team I’ve seen from youth to high school to college has had superior reps in the on deck circle.