When to practice with Wood?

Son's old HS coach, had them use wood in the batting cage year round even in season, 

+1

I don’t want to start a big fight here, but does anyone have any proof that practicing with wood produces a superior hitter than if metal was used for practice? In the pre-BBCOR days, even I was pro wood for practice, but being in Ca and having seen BBCOR in HS since it became mandatory in college, I no longer feel that way because I see no significant bump in performance with BBCOR over wood.

He also has a bbcor bat . I guess it would be the same question just replace wood/bbcor. I'm sure his coach would be beside himself if my son used it in a game. Which to a point I don't blame him. It is a big expense going out of town to play tourneys.I just want him to be ready for the switch to bbcor/highschool. 

My son uses wood all season in cage, He started that when he was young and there was no such thing as BBCOR. I guess I disagree about no difference in BBCOR and wood. I think BBCOR is better unless you have a very very good wood bat. You wouldn't use that for hitting practice anyways. So on an average relatively cheap wood bat, sweet spot is really tiny.

I have absolutely no scientific facts on this. Just what I have seen by watching my son. He focuses on the correct way to hit more because if you don't ball won't go anywhere.    

No, in terms of hitting mechanics, using wood bats would not "mess up his swing."  But using a wood bat as much as possible does get a batter to learn how to square up (particularly with various pitch locations) and as you mentioned, "where the sweet spot is."  The "better" college summer leagues all use wood, so maybe that might say something other than prepping for pro-ball???  I would say, have him use wood whenever he can.

My son loved using wood vs. bbcor for what I mentioned and he feels he gets noticeably more pop from a wood bat than bbcor.  I feel sure if you were to ask him if wood bats helped him improve his hitting skills, he was say yes.  And now that he's in his first full season of pro-ball, he's doing well and feeling very comfortable with wood.

My son practiced with wood starting in LL at age ten. The only time he didn't use wood was middle school BP. Some parent complained to the principal. The principal declared wood wasn't safe in practice because it can break. She knows nothing about baseball. This is a person who wanted no cuts and keep 28 on the team and play them all every game. When the entire starting middle school baseball team went out for lacrosse the high school baseball coach intervened.

At times I do see players, usually younger players, swinging wood bats that are too big and heavy that they can't handle.   This could mess up a swing from getting in some bad habits standpoint as they compensate for the heavy bat while they work in a cage.  But if he is using the correct wood bat, he will not mess up his swing.

BBCOR swings lighter than wood.  That's a scientific fact. The MOI limits on BBCOR bats are designed to allow this.  So if you believe in slight overload training, then you believe in training with wood.

More important, BBCOR (because it's an engineered hollow tube) is more forgiving on hits away from the sweetspot.  I don't need a scientist to tell me that training with wood forces a hitter to work harder--and get better--at getting the sweetspot to the ball.

And, there's the mental boost that comes from using a superior bat (metal) in games after having hit the ball consistently and hard with an inferior bat (wood) in practice.

He switched back to his 1.15?  So this is not BBCOR, perhaps a -5?  I think he may have some issues switching between wood (-3) and a metal -5 due to the difference in weight, but you can buy a wood -5 (Marucci) that would mitigate this issue.  Otherwise I'm a big fan of wood in the batting cage.

No it's not BBCOR . He uses a -5 32/27 in games. He's 13 and that is what the tournaments use. I forgot to put in the OP there is a 2oz. difference . I guess I should get him another bat . He had no problem with the extra weight in the cage. But using them at the same time might be a problem with timing .

Yeah, IMHO, I would say it's too early to do much with wood at this age . . . unless he's 6'+ and 160 lbs+ 13 year old.  ;-)  

5'11" 195. He will be 14 next month. 

My daughter uses wood year around.  She hits with wood but then tapes the end to add additional weight.  She hits both softball and baseballs with that composite wood bat.  In doing so, it makes her lean about adjustibility as well as connection.  My daughter had hit with wood since she was 9 or 10 years old.  She is playing in college now. 

I forgot to mention that her game bat is a composite -10 FastPitch Softball Bat.  Someone mentioned size.  My daughter has always been bigger and stronger than the other girls.  She is 5' 11" (really 6 foot but refuses to say she is 6 foot) and very strong.