When a ball is struck on the sweet spot with wood I do believe it comes off just as hot as a metal bat. But the fact is you may see one or two balls struck like this in an entire wood bat game. With metal bats it is very often because the sweet spot is so much larger on a metal bat. In fact I have seen homeruns hit with metal bats off the handles. So what you get is instead of one or two smoked shots per game with wood you have numerous in a metal bat game. All you have to do is go to a wood bat tourney and see it for yourself. Then go to a HS game and see it for yourself. Metal bat games produce many more runs and many more hard hit balls. That is a fact! Personally I just dont like metal for the most part because they change the game. They allow hits when they should not be hits. They cheat the game. Safety is an issue as well for me.