Using wood bats in the off-season

I’ve written a couple posts about the use of wood bats.  I few of them appear under this post in the “Related Posts” area.  All of them have been pretty supportive of the idea in order to improve a hitter’s ability to hit the ball more effectively.  However, there are some drawbacks.  For

young kids especially – my 6 year old son is an example – wooden bats can be significantly heavier than their metal counterparts.  A bat that is too heavy can do some serious damage to the mechanics of a young swing.  

I bought my son a couple small wooden bats when he learned that Major League hitters don’t use metal bats.  After explaining the reasons, my son exhibited that trait that all young kids have preinstalled in their hard-drives.  Persistence.  After asking about 3000 times during a single week, I buckled and made a trip to the sporting goods store.  I didn’t mind though because the thought of my son demanding to use a wooden bat actually made me beam a little with pride.

Anyway, when we returned, naturally we started an immediate batting practice session in the driveway.  He was hooked but I was a little worried.  His swing changed dramatically for the worse.  He’s only six so I didn’t correct him at all.  I just wanted him to feel and experience the difference between wood and metal.  But it did inspire this post and here’s why.

Wooden bats are a great tool for helping some hitters improve there mechanics and path to the ball.  Because of the extra weight and the fact that wood can break, it forces hitters to make their bat path more efficient so as to get the proper part of the bat on the ball at the right time.  I put the word “some” in italics because this wood-bat-concept is not a one size fits all method to improve a swing.  Like any other hitting drill, it will work great for some hitters and work poorly for others.  

Basically, if using a wooden bat helps a batter improve his swing then by all means use a wooden bat.  If it doesn’t or at least doesn’t yet, stick with metal bats for now.  

Tomorrow’s post: Double whammy of incompetence