Wooden Bats?

[zorroschild]

My sons little league team is being required to use wooden bats this year!

My son hasnt gotten the first ball out of the infield?

Can some of you high school people give me some advice on how to handle this situation?

By the way my sons plays in the South Lincoln league?

What if I took an aluminum bat and painted it up to look like wood? Would the coach be able to tell?

[NOLE]

HE WOULD BE ABLE TO TELL INSTANTLY. THE MOMENT YOUR SON MADE CONTACT WITH THE BALL, THE SOUND WOULD GIVE YOU AWAY RIGHT THEN.

 

Better to find a smaller wood bat your boy can swing with more bat speed to help give some distacne to his hits.....

[LCborn]

I think that's pretty cool! Old-time ball!

 

Nole's probably correct about finding a bat that's small enough. But also, a wooden bat has a smaller sweet spot than an aluminum one. Your son will have to learn where it is on his bat and be more precise bringing it into contact with the ball than he would need to be with aluminum. Sure, easy to say, I know, and tough to do.

 

There is an advantage to this, BTW. If your kid can learn to hit with wood, hitting with aluminum will be a lot easier for him.

[bballfan44]

Is the coach requiring wood bats for games or in BP and training? I have seen excellent results using wood for BP then aluminum in games.

 

Train with wood, win with aluminum!!!!

[RidingPine18]

There is a reason why aluminum was put on this earth, to use in baseball bats. If God didn't want us to have it, the element wouldn't be here in the first place.

[LCborn]

Nah, wood for bats, aluminum for airplanes and cheap frying pans.

[ksgovols]

Somebody forgot to tell MLB what aluminum was put here for. Personally, I loved the feel and sound of a wood bat when you make solid contact with the ball. If you've never experienced it, don't knock it. You also can feel the ball alot better when bunting and there's no cheap hits off the handle.

 

I would suggest a high end wooden bat rather than a factory second. You can buy Pro ball quality ash bats for a price. I'm not sure if that's true for the little guys. Some big leaguers are going to Maple. I think there's a company in middle Tennessee that makes them. There's also composite bats that are wood with a resin coating on the outside. They're pretty expensive though.

[NOLE]

composite bats are not game legal if I remember correctly, but they are great for the cage.....

As for going to maple- there are quite a number of pros swinging maple (Bonds for example), and yes they are very expensive. Maple is a tougher, harder wood than ash, and theoretically hits harder, and withstands breaking better than traditional ash bats.

However, for little league I am guessing that none of the pitchers throw hard enough or swing fast enough to break even ash bats- so durability shouldn't be an issue.

Find him a bat he can handle, swing, hit with. He will become a better hitter learning to swing wood, then making the jump to metal.....

[CHudgins]

LoL Paint a wooden bat to look like a metal bat ... Right

[intheslot]

I'm sure it's happening, and surprised we don't hear about it more... kids getting injured by balls off of aluminum bats.

 

I'm associated with a 10U travel team that is allowed to use 2 3/4 inch barrel bats. On this small diamond I've seen some hard shots that these young kids just can't react to.

[ksgovols]

Sounds like justification for not using the big barrel bats on the small diamonds doesn't it? I think some of the youth leagues are going to adopt some stringent standards for bats in the future, or move the pitching mound and bases back. The -12 drops and thin walled bats and 2 3/4" barrels make for some hard hit balls from 46'. Sounds like South Lincoln may be ahead of their time!

[coachnobody]

THE WOODEN BAT IS A TEACHING TOOL.

 

IT WILL HELP THE PLAYER DEVELOP GOOD SWING HABITS.

 

WHEN THE PLAYER STARTS HITTING THE BALL ON THE CENTER MASS OR

SWEET SPOT OF THE WOOD BAT'S BARREL, THE HARD LINE DRIVES AND

THE DEEP FLY BALLS WILL START OCCURING!

 

WHEN THE PLAYER GETS HIS SWING DOWN AND THE BALL MAKES CONTACT

WITH THE "SWEET-SPOT" EVERY TIME, HIS BATTING AVERAGE WILL GO UP.

THEN HE CAN PICK-UP THE METAL BAT WITH HIS SAME IMPROVED SWING

AND POUND THE BALL MUCH MORE FARTHER,

 

IF THE PRO'S USED METAL BATS TODAY? THERE WOULD BE MANY BALLS

HIT COMPLETELY OUT OF THE STADIUMS, NOT JUST OVER THE FENCE.

 

TEACH YOUR KID HOW TO SWING THE BAT CORRECTLY, THAT'S THE KEY!!