Any reason for youth to train with wood?

I really don't see a problem myself.
So he practices with a heavy bat.
Mean's his bat should be that much quiker thru the zone.
Muscle memory is a good thing.
Learn's to hit the ball on the sweet spot.
Which is much bigger on the aluminum bat.
As your player move's up.
He will need the extra bat speed.
EH

I have worked with many kids for the past 3 years at my college's hitting camps, from ages 5-18. My experience is that many kids get away with bad mechanics because of the nature of metal bats, which only leads to bad habits which are hard to correct. I would stick with the wood bat on your own time.

Welcome to the board! First of all my son did not start swinging wood until he was in the 7th grade. The reason I didnt want him to swing wood at the earlier ages was I was afraid that they were just too heavy for him. My fear was he would develop bad habits by trying to compensate for the weight. As he got older and much stronger I believed that swinging wood would do some very good things for him.

#1- Provide instant feedback on success or failure in the swing. The wood has a much smaller sweet spot and the only way to really sting it is to put a good swing on it.
#2- Learning to barrell the ball consistently with the wood will allow you to have much greater success with the metal bats.
#3- A long swing with metal will still allow you to have a certain amount of success. With wood you will not have any measure of success with a long swing.

During the summer and fall my son has swung wood almost exclusively since his freshman year. Most of his games have been wood bat games as well. Almost all of our hs bp , cage work and on field bp is wood. We let them do all of their bunting with metal and we let them finish off rounds with around 5 to 10 swings with metal.

If he can handle the wood bat without his solid swing mechanics breaking down due to the weight of the bat I would have him swing wood and swing it often. Im sure they make some wood youth bats he could possibly use. One thing I did do was when my son was in the 7th grade I got him a -3 metal bat. A 30-27. He swung that bat in the 7th grade and the in the 8th I got him a 32-29 metal bat. Once he entered HS I got him a 33-30 and now he swings a 34-31. I think it is very important to not overload them with a bat that is too heavy to swing properly.

Im a big believer that swinging wood makes you a better metal bat hitter. Find a wood bat he can handle that will not break him down. Good Luck.

Agree with everything that has already said.
Through the winter our kids use wood exclusively.
A little heavier, smaller sweet spot, less forgiving. Most of our kids continue to practice with wood during season just not gameday BP.

Welcome aboard, Brian!

I agree that migrating to a -3 at about age 13-14 might be the way to go. They still use metal in college, so insisting on wood when everyone else is using metal may put your son at a competitive disadvantage. I sure wish they'd use wood in college, though.

You can still hit with wood at a younger age.
They make youth wood bats.

I had never really thought about when a player should start using wood to practice with but it is a good idea. I agree with those above who said it's good as long as the mechanics don't break down.

My team uses wood bats during practice and we even play in several wood bat tourneys. I like using them, especially on the whole field, because the players can now concentrate more on line drives instead of homerun derby with metal bats - it's cheaper on us too since we have a lake behind our RF fence. Wood bats we don't lose as many balls as metal bats.

We use the composite bats and I think they are the greatest invention ever. They never break. We still have some we bought two years ago. When we play in wood bat tourneys my guys just use our composite bats and pass around the wood bats the tourney gives us as souvenirs.

With technology as it is today I am fairly confident you can find wood bats that will get bigger and heavier as your son gets older and stronger.

I never looked at wood as a great "training aid" for metal while some hitting coaches do. I agree the the reduced sweetspot would make a hitter more aware of putting the heart of the bat on the ball but that could also equate to having a hitter in a mindset to ignore a pitch that could be a solid double with metal waiting for a homerun pitch that may never come. If a player is anticipating being drafted out of high school then that player needs to be comfortable with wood during the HS years. If they are that caliber of player then I suggest they take all BP with wood and try to play in wood bat tourneys.

I always have my own boys train with wood and only use aluminum in games. They have always been their teams top hitters. Whetehr or not they would have been anyway, I don't know.

However, I've been training my high school players with wood all winter, and when we went to the cages for the first time last week, with aluminum, they were pounding the ball much better than ever before.

I'm a believer in wood.

You guys said it much better than I but include me as a train with wood proponent. First started it when son turned 13. I think it makes a difference. He's gotten away from it the past couple season's......hmmmmm......think it's about time for a friendly suggestion.

I started my son on wood bats in BP and tee work when he was ten. He had a -2 29 inch bat. At the same time he was using a 30/18 in Ripken and 10U travel. At twelve he was practicing with a 30 inch wood and using a 31/21 in LL and 12U. At 13U travel he had no trouble transitioning to a 32/29 metal bat even though he was 5'2", 110. Last fall we played mostly wood bat tournaments (and played up a year) so the kids could see where their swings really were heading into high school.

Neighbors of your practice facility/area will appreciate the use of wood bats!!

My son's high school is adjactent to a hospital. They use metal for games and scrimages, but the cages are closer to the hospital, and they respect the hospitals request to use wood in the cages.

The kids I coach are a bit older than what you're asking about, mostly 16-19 year olds, and I often see a big disparity between the kids who've swung wood before coming to us, and those who've only swung metal. The kids with wood bat experience have more compact swings and generally are better at putting the barrel on the ball.

During our summer season, we use wood for the vast majority of our games, even when our opponents are swinging metal. People often scratch their heads at why we do that, but they don't understand that #1 Summer is for developing the kid's game and putting them in front of people who can help them move on to the next level, and #2 that the composition of the bat doesn't determine the outcome of the game. I've never heard a college coach say, "well, the kid swings wood pretty good, but how's he do with metal?" On the other hand, I've heard pro scouts say "Well, the kid can hit with metal, but I dont' think his swing translates well to wood."

I think that once kids get to the regulation size diamond, they should become familiar with wood bats. For that matter, plenty of kids still playing on the small diamond would do well to swing wood too. Back when I played little league, they'd graduated past using dinosaur bones for bats, but metal hadn't yet been invented. Every kid swung wood, and nobody worried about how much the weight was under the length.

Way too early to use the wood bat. For now, I only expect my son to play college baseball in the future, so he may never have a chance to touch wood bat in his life time. Why bother to buy a wood bat at age 11?
If you want a heavier bat, you can always buy a heavier and cheaper matal bat for practice reasons.
No wood bat needed.

Well, here's a reason for wood dawned on me today while practicing:
How about bat exit speed for the old timer throwing batting practice to the youth player. Wood just might give me a little more time to get the heck out the way of a liner hit right at me.

quote:

Originally posted by Brian Shanberg:
Well, here's a reason for wood dawned on me today while practicing:
How about bat exit speed for the old timer throwing batting practice to the youth player. Wood just might give me a little more time to get the heck out the way of a liner hit right at me.

You don't use a L screen in BP? You must be a brave man.

Anyway, what's the big difference between Wood and Metal? Other than the sound and the pop of the ball, I don't see a whole lot differences between -3 wood and -3 metal in the caged BP. If you got the quick hands, you can hit the ball hard no matter what you use.

Yes you can hit it hard no matter what you use. But its alot harder to hit it hard consistently with wood that metal. A -3 wood bat and a -3 metal bat are alot different. The weight it distributed much differently and the wood has a much smaller sweet spot. Hit an inside fastball off the handle of a metal bat and you can still have success sometimes even a hr. Do this with wood and you have a hand full of splinters. Hook around an outside fb with metal and you can drive a ball into the gap and again sometimes hit a home run. Do this with wood and be ready to feel like someone cut your fingers off with a chain saw. And then get ready to buy a new bat.

quote:

Originally posted by Coach May:
Yes you can hit it hard no matter what you use. But its alot harder to hit it hard consistently with wood that metal. A -3 wood bat and a -3 metal bat are alot different. The weight it distributed much differently and the wood has a much smaller sweet spot. Hit an inside fastball off the handle of a metal bat and you can still have success sometimes even a hr. Do this with wood and you have a hand full of splinters. Hook around an outside fb with metal and you can drive a ball into the gap and again sometimes hit a home run. Do this with wood and be ready to feel like someone cut your fingers off with a chain saw. And then get ready to buy a new bat.

Good Info. This confirms my view that is not using wood bat at young age for practice reasons. We don't want kids' fingers or the money costing bats to be sawed in half, right? BTW, you can't hit homeruns during a "caged BP", why bother to buy a wood bat?

Imo when kids get in the 7th or 8th grade its time to start using wood as a training device. The problem with metal is you can have alot of success especially in bp with a poor approach. Wood will give the player instant feedback on a poor swing. Hooking around a pitch will sting and it will show you instantly that you will not be successfull hooking around the ball. A long swing with wood on an inside pitch will not allow for any type of success. With a metal bat you can still have success. The sweet spot on a wood bat is much smaller and if you can learn to stay short and inside the ball at the same time finding that sweet spot on the wood you will be a much better hitter with a metal bat.

When our guys take bp on the field the first several swings are with wood. They hit ok most of them. But the last 5-10 swings are with metal. Those last 5-10 swings are almost always lazers. If you can hit pretty good with wood you will usually mash with metal. Hey everyone has their own opinion. We do what we feel works for our players.

wood is the great equalizer.

"show me a kid who can consistantly hit home runs with a metal bat in college and I'll show you that same kid flying-out in the minors".

Pros of using wood bats to practice with

- get used to hitting a smaller sweet spot so when go back to metal they can be more consistent in the spot of the bat they hit on the barrel

- the weight positioning allows for developing a quicker swing with a metal bat

- learn to concentrate more on linedrives instead of developing into homerun derby using metal bats

- learn to take a more compact swing than what you do with metal

- it's just cool to really nail a ball hard with wood

Cons of using wood to practice with

- ......................

Coach2709

Your assessment is perfect. The real question is when will a person really see the benefit?

In HS my son used wood in the cage and playing fall ball. I suspect it helped but it really didn't translate when he went back to wood.

This last summer he played in a collegiate wood bat league with a good degree of success. He said that his HS training was a big factor.

This season he is seeing a real benefit. He says that the adjustments that he had to make to be successful in summer league are carrying over to this years collegiate season. He feels that he is getting to the sweet spot quicker which is resulting in greater power and the ball exploding off the bat.

However, it wasn't until this year with the added size and physical conditioning that he really benefited from the wood bat training work done in HS.

quote:

The real question is when will a person really see the benefit?

Very good point. I will sort of go out on a limb and say that when you go from wood to metal you will see an almost immediate benefit if you have had practice and experience using both. If you pick up a wood bat for the first time and then go to metal I doubt you will see a huge difference - maybe some will though.

Using wood bats on a consistent basis requires a physical maturity. One of the best ways of getting that maturity is to - use wood bats. Then when you switch to metal it's like Coach May says - you are hitting lasers.

The key thing to remember, and this just isn't wood bats but all bats - metal, wood or plastic - you have to make sure your mechanics are still good. If you get into bad habits using wood because you are not used to it then you are wasting your time.

I'm a big proponent of hitting with wood, as I tried to make clear in my first post. I firmly believe that it is a key contributor to helping hitters learn to become better hitters, period. You have to have good instruction and hitters who're willing to work at it, as you'll break a few bats early on and won't be hitting the ball well. BUT, after you work at it for a while, you start consistently making hard contact and see that it's worthwhile.

We had a team meeting for our summer teams yesterday. I made it clear to all of our Connie Mack team players that we'll be swinging wood almost the entire summer, regardless of what our competition swings. Of course, most of our competition will be swinging metal. The composition of the bat doesn't determine the outcome of the game, there's also that thing called pitching and defense, in addition to timely hitting. We'll win plenty even when the other guys are swinging metal. My hitters come away from summer and head back into HS ball or college ball ready to really rip with metal. We've found it to work very well for us, and have no plans to change anytime soon. Other than the Connie Mack playoffs, we probably won't swing metal at all during the summer in 2008.

Here's another question for the pitchers.
How would you pitch to a batter swinging wood?
EH

08Catchersdad and EH:

In 1987 during our 1st year of the Area Code games, I also coached a summer team [Cubs].
We played 30 games with the SSK wood bats
against the Carson City Capitols and other very strong teams, including Marc Cuesta Bay Side Yankees.

We won the majority of the games, probably because of Bo Dobson, Andy Fox, James Mouton, Fernando Vina, Chris Pitchett and pitchers Jim Converse, Steve Witaker. Each of you are familiar with these players from Northern California.

During the games when a fly ball was hit by our wood bats to the left fielder, often it was missed because the "sound" was different.

When your players play, please notice if this is true. Good luck!

Bob Williams

When you're younger, train with wood and play with metal. Just remember to get in enough reps before the games to get the timing down as the difference in weight and balance point can cause a variation in timing.