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My oldest did his entire youth.  My middle one is 13 and can play.  I’m ok with him pitching and playing a hot corner.  I agree there is no place for those bats in a rec league,  but this is travel.  Most of the tourneys last year, if not all had no restrictions.  (Illegal bats were not allowed - shaved or outlawed)

Last edited by Dadof3

Im not too far removed from youth ball.  I understood what you meant.  You are interested in a USSSA bat.  Not a restricted USA or small barrel little league bat.  In drop 8 or drop 10, get a marucci cat 9 connect or demarini CF.  Super hot and super expensive.  If you want to save money get a used easton mako. The green/black one is a bomb dropper.

To all the dads looking for "the hot bat," my advice is always the same: Don't do it - especially if he's older than 12.

It's like strapping a jet engine on a young horse on all his practice runs and then, when he finally has to run his first race, you take if off and tell him "Now you have to do it on your own."

Big field of 60/90 at the serious levels means BBCOR - and BBCOR means a bat with zero advantage. It's the equivalent of wood. You need to rely on good hitting mechanics at that point to succeed.

That said, why "train" at the younger ages with a "hot bat" that's only going to mask hitting flaws that need to get corrected before you hit with BBCOR?

My kid once had one of those bats. It was 11u on the 50/70 field.

I have a video of him hitting a home run to the opposite field. It's not a pretty swing. He was late, out of sequence and off balance. But the second the ball hit the bat, people in the stands screamed "home run!" And the ball flew well out of the park - - to the opposite field!

It was ridiculous.

I knew then that a swing such as that one was never going to work on the big field and against better pitching. And, starting with 12u, it was time to start worrying less about the bat and more about the swing.

Fast forward to High School. Using a BBCOR, my son led the varsity team in homers as a freshman. Meanwhile, kids who used those hot bats with incorrect swing mechanics back then and who never changed are all out of the game or riding the bench as back ups to the back ups.

This is what you get with a major prospect swinging a -8 in college …

75G .464BA 48HR 143RBI 1.734OPS

A few years later the NCAA implemented a -3 rule when the norm became football scores. One year the championship game score was 21-14. Arizona State averaged twelve runs a game and didn’t win the championship.

@2022NYC posted:

Yes, do both. At the risk of being "that dad" kid started using/training with a drop 3 at 11 yo. He did use his favorite drop 5 missile launcher for his travel team.  Time is short, let them have fun as it becomes a real grind quickly

My son used a -7 wood for BP at eleven. The handles are so thin (the drop has to come from somewhere) we could have started a toothpick store with all the broken bats. They were cheap bats. I knew he would break a few. At twelve he used a -3 wood in BP. -3 woods are much more stable even if cheap. The handles are thicker.

When I was a kid (dinosaurs roamed the planet) all we had were wood bats. If we broke a bat we used screws and duct tape on the bats for pickup games until someone got a new bat. Our LL, BR, Legion and school bats were all supplied by the teams.

I still laugh when posters get concerned about changing bat length and weight. We used whatever size bat was available that day. If it was an older kids bat, choke up a lot.

One of my favorite smells was when the local sporting goods store would let me go upstairs where all the bats were stored. I used to ask if they had any other bats even if I saw what a wanted downstairs.

I'm 13 years removed, but my player began hitting wood 1 year after the big field was in play.

The wood bats were 2oz lighter than the average (so -5). With the smaller sweet spot and faster speed through the zone, he found the hits were more solid and mishits were MISHITS.

This long-term best results strategy comes with angst from Travel Coaches, Parents, and Players. Common quotes from the less informed, " Showoff," "If you didn't use wood; That would have been a homer," "What's wrong with him? Are the other bats too heavy for him," and my favorite " leave them alone, maybe they can't afford the $399 whatever bat (only in a whisper).

Long-term approach had the better results. All 15-16 summer tourneys were wood bat, all showacses were wood bat, nyc public schools use wood bat, etc.

Bottom line: a few broken wood bats at $60-$80 ($45 if you buy a dozen) for better hitting development afforded him a Draft out of HS, 3years SEC, and high round Draft from College.

The grind continues and his 12-14U squad/coaches had a chance to see him live in AA ball.

HIT WOOD, GET CONFIDENT WITH WOOD, UNDERSTAND THE TRANSLATION (TRADEOFFS) BETWEEN WOOD AND ALL OTHER OPTIONS. UNLESS THIS IS JUST FOR FUN, WHICH WILL CHANGE WHEN THEY HIT 15 AND GO IN ANOTHER DIRECTION.

@Dadof3 posted:

So you are saying he should handicap himself now?  Sorry, I disagree, why can’t he have a good swing and a hot bat?  If every other kid is hitting bombs and he isn’t “but he has a nice swing”. He might give up on baseball.  My goal is for him to have a great swing with a hot bat.

USSSA CF Zen at whatever drop that will stay together for game time. I would recommend practicing with a quality wood bat. Not necessarily due to the weight of the bat, but due to the smaller sweet spot. Squaring up a wood bat provides much more feedback. My opinion is that people put too much emphasis on the weight thing. If your kid has a decent swing with a drop whatever he will also have a decent swing with a drop 3. He'll just need a little time to get comfortable with the new swing weight.

Next year move up to the drop3 The Goods 2 piece or the Voodo 1 piece if your kids likes the balanced feel. Honestly, just watch BatBros on YouTube. They cover just about every kind of bat out there.

@Dadof3 posted:

So you are saying he should handicap himself now?  Sorry, I disagree, why can’t he have a good swing and a hot bat?  If every other kid is hitting bombs and he isn’t “but he has a nice swing”. He might give up on baseball.  My goal is for him to have a great swing with a hot bat.

If you have a great swing then you don't need a hot bat. The hits and homers will be there regardless of what you are swinging. All the hot bat does is mask miss-hits as hits.

Ditto Francis 7.

Dad of 3, you mention "if other kids are hitting bombs, and he isn't and therefore won't have fun." I think that's a different lesson. Childrens physical development and growth patternd play a factor (hence weight restrictions in youth contact sports).

You should never dumb-down development with masking gadgets. If fun only comes with "bombs," the players will withdraw faster, as pitching improves and the gadgets cease to work. Getting on base is FUN, stealing Bases is FUN, even bunts are FUN.

I truly appreciate your thoughts, because it draw out the additional development our players need to focus on. IMO if BOMBS are the focus, we may have fewer long term baseball fans.

This game doesn't get easier as they grow.

@Francis7 posted:

If you have a great swing then you don't need a hot bat. The hits and homers will be there regardless of what you are swinging. All the hot bat does is mask miss-hits as hits.

When my son was in LL after games we discussed if the hits were all star hits. In high school, were they travel hits. It’s how we evaluated how he was swinging.

Conversely, a kid on his high school team had the luckiest seeing eye singles season I’ve ever seen. He hit .400+. The dad was miffed the kid didn’t make first team all conference and D1’s weren’t in pursuit. The kid went 3-4 with bleeders against the bottom half of the standings.

Last edited by RJM
@Dadof3 posted:

So you are saying he should handicap himself now?  Sorry, I disagree, why can’t he have a good swing and a hot bat?  If every other kid is hitting bombs and he isn’t “but he has a nice swing”. He might give up on baseball.  My goal is for him to have a great swing with a hot bat.

Is he hitting bombs now and you just want to get him the best bat available or are you hoping the bat will help him hit bombs?

Its the green cap 2017 if I recall correctly.  Talk about stupid looking homeruns, lol.

All the newer ZENS to my knowledge are still legal

Yep. A dad I know found his son's in the garage and sold it for $1000 a couple months before the ban. Said it was dead but no way to tell just by looking at it. The buyer had no way to get his money back and his only recourse was to leave a nasty review.

At 12u mine used the orange easton xl1...all the big tournament teams used them...for a reason....nuke launchers...my son used that in the game...his workout bat, starting that year, was the Baum bat...indestructible...when he needed upgrade in size for workout bat (next year) sold the Baum and got the bigger size..the next year 13u he used bbcor to have used it the full year before high school season started...transition was smooth and would do it that way again

When my son was ten he swung a $60 TPX Laser ($90 NPV 18 years later). All of a sudden I noticed more kids with a TPX Laser. There were parents who thought it was a hot bat. It wasn’t the bat. It was the kid swinging it.

The first time I paid more than $100 for a bat was 14u. My son was 5’2” in 13u when he was 12u eligible. I didn’t want him to have a hot bat to aid his game. I wanted him to swing properly and crush the ball. At 5’2” he didn’t hit bombs. He hit a lot of hard line drive singles and doubles. The bombs came when he had the same swing at 6’2”.

Last edited by RJM

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