My 2018 and i just bought a drop 3 bat for him to use (he paid half) in preparation for the fall and next year. He has always been a consistent line drive power hitter, but has recently been hitting under the ball...a lot. Will 2 ounces affect his swing creating a lift in his swing? Anyone else experience growing pains when moving to the -3? He made a seamless transition to a -5 from a -12 when he was 11/12, so just a little surprised by his recent struggles.
thanks!
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Assuming he's big enough to not generally have trouble with a -5 in the first place, there's no reason for the -5 to -3 transition to cause real issues with the swing itself. If you've got swing mechanics problems (either existing or newly developed), they should be unrelated to and need to be fixed outside of the drop consideration.
That said, the performance of even the best BBCOR bat will pale compared to the typical hot -5. That can lead to trying to do things to improve your outcomes that will mess up a kids swing, which could be what you're really describing here. Flyballs hit with a -5 on a 250-300 foot field have value. The same contact with a BBCOR bat on a HS field won't. Make sure you hit line drives with both, an you'll be fine, even if you might have to wait a year or two for physical maturity to make up the performance difference between them.
Assuming he's big enough to not generally have trouble with a -5 in the first place, there's no reason for the -5 to -3 transition to cause real issues with the swing itself. If you've got swing mechanics problems (either existing or newly developed), they should be unrelated to and need to be fixed outside of the drop consideration.
That said, the performance of even the best BBCOR bat will pale compared to the typical hot -5. That can lead to trying to do things to improve your outcomes that will mess up a kids swing, which could be what you're really describing here. Flyballs hit with a -5 on a 250-300 foot field have value. The same contact with a BBCOR bat on a HS field won't. Make sure you hit line drives with both, an you'll be fine, even if you might have to wait a year or two for physical maturity to make up the performance difference between them.
I see a lot of this - the BBCOR doesn't have the same pop as a -5 so some kids compensate by trying to muscle it and the mechanics fall apart. He needs to be patient and not try to do too much. As he learns to hit the sweet spot and continues to gain strength he should adjust fine.
Sometimes mechanical changes are a good thing. Kids used to routinely hitting bombs with a -5 bat will see most of those turn into routine fly balls. With BBCOR it's all about line drives and hard ground balls. For some kids that's going to require an adjustment.
he's 5ft 9' and about 135 so i didn't think the -3 would make that much of a difference...he doesn't want to switch back to a -5 so i guess that's good...wasn't sure how common this was. we will continue to do t-work with soft toss...hopefully it works out in the end
I decided for my boys to skip the -5 (from a -8 or so at 13U) and just got to a -3.
Your son should be fine. They work it out if they have the ability.
My son skipped the -5 and went from -8 to -3, but he was 5'10" 180lbs and strength training. Can your son hold a -3 bat outstretched for 20 seconds? If so, then he's probably ready for it, if not he needs to strength train.
