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first time travel ball member


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I have an 8 year old who will participating with a travel team for the first time this fall and spring. Athletic kid, easy to teach. Question: He has played infield and outfield regularly and has batted between 2nd and 7th. What size glove and/or bat should he need? He is about 4 ft 2 inches tall and has paced around 3.75 seconds from home to first and about 14 seconds from home to home. Any advice would be great.

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I have an 8 year old who will participating with a travel team for the first time this fall and spring. Athletic kid, easy to teach. Question: He has played infield and outfield regularly and has batted between 2nd and 7th. What size glove and/or bat should he need? He is about 4 ft 2 inches tall and has paced around 3.75 seconds from home to first and about 14 seconds from home to home. Any advice would be great.

What team is he on? Sounds like he would need a 27". My opinion is the best bat is the Omaha CP11 if you can find them. They are very hot but break easy. When does his team start and where are they located I am trying to find some team to play this fall and winter in some double headers.

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#1. At 8 years old an 11" or 11 1/2" glove is pretty basic, really depending on what position he is playing and how comfortable they are with it. My son had a 11" last year in 8-U. We are breaking in a 11 1/2 this fall.

 

#2 Bat size will be determined by strength level. At 8 you are still in coach pitch so bat speed is not as big a factor as it will be at 9. As far as big-barrells go, I saw a whole lot of the Worth Prodigy bat out there when my son was in the 8-u this past summer. It is a -10 so you would probably go 28"/18 oz. or 27/17. If you go with the standard barrell, the Combat seemed to be the most popular model, even in the Little League World Series. The Easton Stealth was also seen a bunch.

 

Not sure what his base-running times have to do with your questions.

 

Good luck. I am sure we will see you out there this summer.

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Thanks for the info. I just keep seeing kids out there with huge gloves and I am not sure the reasoning behind it. Oh, as for the times, I can not find any info on the web as to average sprint times in little league and just wanted to know how he stood compared to some other kids his age. Random thoughts really.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Really, an 11 1/2" glove is about the maximum for any youth player. I think LL limits glove size to 11 1/2". Broken in is much more important than length.

 

Bat size is proportionate to their height. Strength really doesn't have as much to do with it as you might think. You want to teach good habits and muscle memory. Bigger, lighter bats that a kid can swing easily don't necessarily reinforce either of those. Google bat length charts and you should find the appropriate length. At 8U, I'd guess a 27-28" would work.

 

Here's one example.

 

http://www.youthbaseballinfo.com/view_article.php?articleid=8

 

Fundamentals first. Teach mechanics. Line drives are better than pop ups even if the pop ups are in the outfield. You'll have to correct bad mechanics and lack of fundamentals later on if you don't nip them in the bud now.

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