Wood VS Alluminum

Metropop: IMO, very few kids under the college age are good enough to use wood in real games. Kids would have to buy atleast 1-2 new wood bats per week because of broken bats.

Also, there would be no excitement in the games because there would be no offense. There are a lot of fall leagues that use strictly wood bats, and hits are few and far between.

When aluminum bats first came out they were the best thing since sliced pizza.

After the Yeager incident, Little League and other governing boards of amatuer baseball and softball dictated that all bats would be aluminum. The reasoning was that aluminum bats won't shatter similarly and injure a child.

Being the Land of Planned Obsolescence, aluminum bat makers started making thinner, less durable products. With some razzle dazzle gimmicks and minus X factors the price of the bats skyrocketed over the years.

I hope the return to wood at all levels comes soon.

If you like a wood bat, don't lend it to anyone.

I have watched roughly 10 wood bat only games at the high school level this year and the biggest difference I see is the near absence of the long ball. I have only seen 3 homers with with wood. Other than the noise the bat made, I saw very little difference and that comes from a guy that expected to see a broken bat every inning and little offense. I was suprised.

I think hitting with wood creates a better hitter, but hey, I work in a bank.

Hitting with a wood bat definitely creates a better hitter, IMO. That is why so many people use them during BP and whenever else possible.

My middle school team (youngest of the four in our program) have been using wood since March and they love it. It's made our players better hitters because it provides immediate feedback (you have to square it up) and we have to really take productive AB's in order to be competitive against good teams using metal. Their incentive is that they have the option to use metal in a championship game if they get there.

The longer they have used it, the better they have gotten with it. We had a kid who is a league age 13 this summer hit one off the wall in the right-center gap at the home of the Stockton Ports minor league team.

ncball: That is a pretty impressive shot for a 13 year old with wood. Does your team use composites or regular wood?

I actually like that idea...do you do that at all levels or just your 13?

Composites (Baum bats) for BP and ash or maple for games. We are sponsored by a company so we get a good deal for the kids. All of our teams swing alot of wood. In the fall it's almost exclusively wood.

I have a few kids on my 9-U team that hit with little 28-29 inch wood in the cage. These kids have seen the big HS school kids swinging with wood at the indoor facility and its pretty funny, the little guys have them taped up just like the big kids do. I don't know that it's because of the wood bats, but these few are far and away the best hitters on the team. Suprisingly, none of them have broken a bat yet. Probably don't swing hard enough yet break one.

Wood bats can last for years as long as you don't hit the ball on the label (trade mark).

As a kid, I had a 32" bat for five years. Just had to keep the nub from chipping off after contact.

ncball - I have watched your team play several times with wood. Your middle school team is really good and really big.

The only thing I can add is your kids are the best and biggest players at their level. I don't think too many of the other teams you play (on a regular basis)would have a chance with a wood bat. With that said I do think it's a good idea to use wood - if you can swing it use it!

warningtrack- I guess the key is that you can't worry about the results (lack of power with wood) in the game and go through the process. I understand, easier said than done. When the kids go back to metal they really can see the difference. No question it's easier if you are bigger and stronger but I think it's a great tool to learn how to hit properly.

My son loves the wood bats. He has definitely noticed a difference since using them (on ncball's team). Part of the deal is that he knows he has to hit it correctly and there is little room for error. He is more focused and therefore becoming better. He has even convinced his younger brother to practice with wood and he got to use wood in an at-bat last tourney and got a hit.

But-if you don't hit correctly you will go through the wood bats. Just got a brand new one and it broke with just a few at-bats. Not sure why as he hit it on the sweet spot. Could be just as costly if you don't hit the ball properly.

NCBall and BB fam;

My son sells the SSK wood bats to the A's, Giants, Dodgers, Red Sox, Yankees and others.

We will offer a SSK "wood bat" hitting clinic at SSU and Orange County in the near future.

Please open our web site <www.goodwillseries.org> and complete the player profile. We will send information.

Bob

At both our showcases we hold a instructional time regarding how to hit with wood bats---it truly helps those kids who have never hit with wood previously

Our BP sessions are wood

ncball - I agree with your above post. My son is a 7th grader (for another week anyway) and 13 - he uses wood in the cage most of the time. At this point I am not sure what kind of success he would have in a game situation with wood. The bats he has are 32/29 which is a little heavy for him. Your kids are a year older and stronger - and no doubt are improving by using wood.

After watching a wood bat game last night, I realized that many players are not aware of the obvious first difference between swinging wood as compared to aluminum. They don't seem to know that a wood bat is 'head heavy' while an aluminum bat is rather balanced.

Many are trying to 'carry' the bat through the zone rather than 'swinging' the bat through the zone. Carrying the bat eliminates arm extension and makes the swing long to the zone and short through it.

Get that bat head in motion, away from the body and to the ball.

TR,

What are some of the things explained in the instructional time?

catch43


The main thing is how to handle the bat in a correct way---we find this key because many of the players have never hit with wood before


Coach explains the "sweet spot"

How to tape it properly

How to care for the bat so it has longevity

Hoep this helps you

I bought my 9 year old a CHEAP wood bat at Dick's today.It was only 15 bucks.I was thinking practice bat.


He took it to all star practice and was absolutely crushing the ball and fell in love with it right away.


BUT,he got jammed and hit a ball off the handle and cracked it the first day out,good thing it was only 15 bucks.


I weighed the bat and it seems it was about a -9 which is the same as his aluminum and I really doubt he could handle anything more.Atleast not yet.

Anyone know of a quality wood or bamboo bat that would be close to that weight wise.I have found -6 but nothing close to the -9.I am thinking -7 or -8.

Buy at least four more of the same bat.

No matter what you pay for a wood bat, contact on the handle or trade mark will cause the bat to crack

Better to have a $15 cracked bat than a $115 cracked bat.

Looks to me like you purchased a good quality bat for $15.

If I were you, I would buy as many as I thought I needed until he moves on to a heavier or longer bat.

A more expensive bat will also crack with the same contact. Handles and trade marks are the two weakest points on a bat.

I gave that some thought,just buying up the wal mart stock but if there is something better I would like to try it.


I was really thinking bamboo but not finding anything.


I am finding bats fairly cheap(around 50 bucks)but not sure they are any better than the 15 dollar one.

I was just surprised that a he was able to crack it.

MLB is going to have a meeting this week on the types of wood to be used in bats. It seems as if the Ash bats are being replaced more and more with Maple. Numerous big league players including Pujos use Maple. The problem is then that the studies have shown that Ash bats split while Maple bats bust off. Maple bats are becoming very dangerous to spectators in the first rows of MLB games. We'll have to wait to see how this meeting goes.

BTW, we trained with composite wood. I told several bat companies that they didnt' make a composite that could last a season of my team hitting with it. I was never proven wrong. We constantly wore out the composits.

The bigger the drop weight the more likely the bat is to break. When we use -2 drops in 16U we might break one bat a game. I think my son has broken one bat in three years from 13U to 16U. He broke two or three of those cheap -7 drops each year when he used them for BP at age nine and ten.