OT youth bats
- Thread starter tacodawg
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Go light. Don't use the dumb bat charts, they always result in a bat that's too big. Bat speed is everything.
Assuming he's an average size 6 year old (that's when we start coach pitch here, spring of kindergarten basically), go get a 26-14. I would not spend big money for that age even though there will be plenty of parents that will. That will last you another year, then you might jump up to a 26-16 in 8U if he's big enough.
Assuming he's an average size 6 year old (that's when we start coach pitch here, spring of kindergarten basically), go get a 26-14. I would not spend big money for that age even though there will be plenty of parents that will. That will last you another year, then you might jump up to a 26-16 in 8U if he's big enough.
Pretty big, so might grab a 16 if he can swing it. Just draw the line at whenever he begins to struggle with it. Lighter is better.
I'd probably also go 2 3/4. I doubt it matters much but you want any advantage you can get with a thick barrel, especially his size. I do think smaller kids can benefit from a thinner barrel for bat speed.
I've seen many a kid cured of hitting ails simply by grabbing a lighter bat. Of course, parents don't want to hear that because they bought an expensive bat based off the youth charts.
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Yeah. He’s going to outgrow anything really quickly. Get on eBay and buy someone’s who’s kid outgrew theirs. Do this until about 11/12 years old and he starts being able to use the same size for a few years in a row. I bought some (softball not baseball) that looked like hell but were hot as a firecracker off eBay. Composite was already broken in.
I've coached for 3 years now. Tball in 2020, Coach Pitch in 2021, and now I have both a TBall and Machine Pitch team this year.
Find a -11 that's 24" for TBall. It can be reused again in Coach Pitch the next year.
Find a -11 that's 26" or 27" for Machine Pitch.
I had a Machine Pitch kid (one of the smaller kids on the team) try to swing a 29" bat the first practice. It look like he was swinging a tree log. I asked them to get a 26".
My sons use:
1) 5 year old in TBall - 24/13 Easton ADL (yellow)
2) 7 Year old in TBall - 26/15 Easton Quantum (orange/white)
Both get the job done.
Pay attention to the bat spec. USSSA bats are not allowed in Little Leagues. They make a very popular Easton green/white bat that like 3 or 4 of my kids this spring had to put on the shelf because the leagues don't allow it.
Find a -11 that's 24" for TBall. It can be reused again in Coach Pitch the next year.
Find a -11 that's 26" or 27" for Machine Pitch.
I had a Machine Pitch kid (one of the smaller kids on the team) try to swing a 29" bat the first practice. It look like he was swinging a tree log. I asked them to get a 26".
My sons use:
1) 5 year old in TBall - 24/13 Easton ADL (yellow)
2) 7 Year old in TBall - 26/15 Easton Quantum (orange/white)
Both get the job done.
Pay attention to the bat spec. USSSA bats are not allowed in Little Leagues. They make a very popular Easton green/white bat that like 3 or 4 of my kids this spring had to put on the shelf because the leagues don't allow it.
Yeah I coached 4 yo tee ball, 5 yo tee ball, then this past fall ball. I never got any type of help from any of my assistants, so I didn’t volunteer my time again this year.
We can only use USA in our league as well.
I’ve had teams with bad assistants too and it sucks at this young age. This year, both of my teams have really good help which makes it a lot funner to do.
I got mine a 26" -12 Rawlins Remix last year on Amazon. It was his first year of coach pitch. $25. USA baseball approved. You want the lightest bat possible, half the kids will show up with a tree trunk and can't hit anything.
By the end of the year last season I made the entire team use it. They can hardly miss the ball with a light bat. Don't worry about performance. It's about contact at this point. Nothing is more frustrating in coach pitch then watching a kid having a bad day with a bat that's too big...
By the end of the year last season I made the entire team use it. They can hardly miss the ball with a light bat. Don't worry about performance. It's about contact at this point. Nothing is more frustrating in coach pitch then watching a kid having a bad day with a bat that's too big...
Dude is playing 6U coach pitch, ain't nobody worried about travel ball yet
Read my lips (lol): Go get a cheap bat for tee ball. It's pointless to waste money at that level. Let him test out a few at Play it Again or some other place that does it and see what he handled best.
Coach pitch doesn't need much more than a cheap one either. Save your money for down the road when it matters.
Coach pitch doesn't need much more than a cheap one either. Save your money for down the road when it matters.
As long as you have him throwing after school on days that he doesn't have practice he may have a chance to be OK.
That's cute. Consider yourself blessed that you apparently got kids through it before it reached peak insanity. The rest of us just have to hope this is peak insanity.
Our league here in Texas did something this year that kind of pissed me off on the travel ball theme. We have 22 teams in the 7-8 Machine Pitch League. And they divided the league into two divisions (one for the better kids and one for everyone else). They split these teams into 6 team with good players (they got to draft their teams first) and 16 teams with everyone else. I felt like it would be better for all the kids to play with good players so they could see someone their age/size getting it done. Now, instead of 1 or 2 kids on my team with no shot of getting a hit this season, I have 4. We are 4 practices in and I have one kid who has yet to open his eyes during a swing and I have another kid who has yet to start a swing at a pitched ball before the ball has hit the backstop. Both of these kids will be lucky to put 1 ball in play this entire year. I have 2 others who will be lucky to get an actual base hit.
But the league is splitting them like this so those better players play with better players and get more ready for travel ball and future opportunities to try and win their way to Williamsport.
When I grew up with had a "city league" and an all-star team. Everyone played city league together. And the best players played all-stars. We had 4 games a week, if you were on the all-star team. I kinda wish this was more of the norm rather than dividing everyone up from the get-go like this league has done.
I wish you had a bigger megaphone.
We have a lot of friends playing travel ball with kids who likely aren't even going to get to play in high school. I honestly have no clue whether they know that, and they are ok with travel ball sucking up so much time now because they think they'll have time for other stuff come high school, or if they are doing all of this travel ball in hopes that it will somehow overcome genetics enough for them to play high school ball. I suspect it's mostly the latter and about 2/3's of the parents doing travel ball are going to regret it. Really feel bad for the ones that don't really have the disposable income to do it. The ones driving 2.5 hours back on Saturday night and then 2.5 hours back to the games on Sunday because they don't want to spend $200 for a hotel kill me. I understand it's not just $150 (in savings after gas) because they are doing it many weekends a year, and I understand not wanting to "deprive" your kids of anything, but it still sort of makes me sad. I know for some of them they and their kids truly love it and it is money and time well spent for them, but I really feel like those families are in the minority.
Nope, I'm right in the middle of the madness. I'd love to say that we would go back to the way it was when we were kids, but it isn't. Travel ball is here to stay for the immediate future.
Even saying that, travel ball doesn't really start here until 8U. SOME 7Us. The key is just to accept rec ball for what it is, or to vet the travel teams and get on a good one (or coach/start your own). There are ways to do it cheaper (but not rec-cheap) and less crazy.
Most parents are just doing it for the friend group anyway. So if you're serious about baseball and accept these things, it makes it much easier to figure out the path.
That is extremely stupid, but in the league's defense, they may feel like they need to do this in order to keep people from abandoning rec league for travel ball. Our local league is essentially trying the old approach. Having a limited travel team for each age (starting at 6 years old smh) that is scheduled around rec league. I understand what they're trying to do, but I think it's going to end up pushing kids to travel ball sooner because parents will get tired of doing rec and travel. The 6 year old travel team still probably has half the team that can't reliably throw and catch to each other and they are now playing fall ball, then rec, then summer ball through June. They do have a "light" schedule for fall ball and the early summer, but I think that's just going to make the parents involved move to more "serious" travel teams that are playing a more full schedule and are better, and then will drop the rec league.
I can definitely see the argument for both sides.
But the one thing I will disagree with you on, is this - our league is NOT hurting for kids. In fact, Little League stipulates that if you have over X amount of players for 2 years in a row at a certain age level, you must divide your league into two divisions (National and American, for us). Once you, as a player, are designated as National or American, you are in that division for the rest of your career with this league and you CANNOT play across that division ever. Not in the regular league, nor any post-season team. Little League does this to prevent large metro areas from stacking all the talent in one league.
The most important aspect of making your boy a travel ball all-star is his name. If his name is Paxon, Braxxton, Jaxson, etc., he's already on 3rd base before the season starts.
My boys are grown so I don't know what bats are popular these days. But my advice is to not spend a lot of money and don't get mad when your son doesn't use the bat that you bought. My experience is that everyone on the team will use the one bat of whoever is hitting the best because everyone knows its the bat and not the batter.
Have fun it will be gone before you know it. NTjr played through high school. Could have played JC or at a small school but he was more interested in going to State and becoming an engineer. He made the right decision for him. But having said that it was a lot of fun for me to watch him play.
Have fun it will be gone before you know it. NTjr played through high school. Could have played JC or at a small school but he was more interested in going to State and becoming an engineer. He made the right decision for him. But having said that it was a lot of fun for me to watch him play.
Well, if you in an area where travel doesn't really start until 8U, you are pretty fortunate both in area and also having a son of the age that you are going to miss out on the 6U travel when it probably inevitably makes it to your area. And you're right that it definitely isn't going back to the way it used to be.
And I'd be perfectly fine accepting rec league for what it is, except I am not sure if we're going to have more than a two team rec league by the time mine get to kid pitch. They don't even have rec league anymore for 5th grade and up. I don't know if that is abnormal or par for the course. Our rec soccer league makes it until Jr high and there are rec league players that make the school team and travel team players that don't. It's going to be interesting to see how often good athletes make the school baseball team that didn't even get to play organized baseball for the year or two leading into it. I suspect it will be in the coaches interest to go make sure those players tryout and get developed as far as making sure his high school team has plenty of athleticism, but politically it might be tough to make an effort to develop better athletes while passing over players that are better players in Jr High but not really athletic enough to be good in high school.
Growing up we all played city league and had a draft at the beginning of every season. There were always those coaches that tried to stockpile known talent as best they could. Our team was typically a mix of several really good players, really horrific players, and the unknowns. Many of the unknowns ended up becoming very good players and we typically finished at the top of the league most years. It was fun to watch and play. I'm still buddies with some of those unknowns. I'd say they fit the mold of "couldn't financially afford to do anything else". There were always 2 or 3 that we'd pick up for practices and games.
The best players from the regular season were selected for All-Stars. You go play your District or State tourney, and World Series--if you were good enough, and then baseball was over until the next summer. Many of those unknown players ended up playing college ball (in one of the 3 big sports). I miss those days and teams for sure!
The best players from the regular season were selected for All-Stars. You go play your District or State tourney, and World Series--if you were good enough, and then baseball was over until the next summer. Many of those unknown players ended up playing college ball (in one of the 3 big sports). I miss those days and teams for sure!
One of my buddies coached travel ball for years, during the first meeting he informed the parents that likely none of the kids would play major college baseball (and most wouldn't play 6A High School) including his. He informed them that who they chose to mate with had more impact on a kid being an elite athlete than coaching or effort. After cutting a kid, the kid's dad asked if the boy had a chance to play at LSU. He also had a regular player whose parents always struggled with money, and the kid clearly wasn't even going to make a competitive high school team.
Can't go wrong with one like this. Unless you're worried that little Johnny might not fit in ***
At what ages though? If you're in a place like Houston, it may not matter. But our rec league went from being extremely healthy to unhealthy in probably 6 or 7 years. Went from having too few fields to losing an entire age group. I think travel ball moved back a year basically every year, and then the number of players (or parents) leaving a particular age group grew each year. I would have thought there would be limited interest in travel ball for coach pitch. What's the purpose of driving several hours to pitch to your own kid? But I was clearly wrong on that, although I do think the coach pitch age rec league will continue to survive. But I don't think there is going to be anything past that unless there is a backlash against travel ball, which I don't see on the horizon.
I think if the travel coaches in our area admitted reality like that they would quickly be out of jobs. I think the ethical ones just don't address the issue and let the parents not think about why they are spending thousands of dollars each year on travel ball with a paid coach. I think the unethical ones pretend that they are basically a finishing school for college baseball players and milk parents for more money to be part of an elite travel ball program.
The key is to develop a kid as a hitter, not make the kid a six year old star and then have him adjust to a heavier bat next year. If a kid has upside as a player, he needs to swing a bigger bat. Otherwise, he'll always be chasing the right size and will be overmatched when he gets older.
I love the baseball takes from Rec Coach Goat.
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Hot mom who is either overly friendly or (like Forest Gump's mom) very concerned about her son's travel ball career.
Not enough advanced metric data to fully support the use of these in today's data driven swing era. More testing must be done......
Haha I know you're joking but it's crazy how many ex-players there are out there that are hyping up private lessons, strength and conditioning, etc., based on all this new research/data/(insert any big syllable word here to appear intelligent). I mean it's a whole new sector of the economy. How freaking complicated can a sport really be?
It's almost as if we did this to ourselves, by prioritizing athletics and athletic scholarships and then steering all the athletes into kinesiology degrees! You reap what you sow.
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First picture is what he has now. Second is what I decided on.
First picture is what he has now. Second is what I decided on.
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