I can't believe I let this thread get so long without posting my favorite gif.
Get your boy whatever this kid is using!
Get your boy whatever this kid is using!
OT youth bats
- Thread starter tacodawg
- Start date
It's crazy. I'm roughly a decade out from my last collegiate game and I feel like if I walked onto a HS or college field now to give sound hitting advice, I'd be made fun of for not using big words. The single best bit of hitting info I ever received had nothing to do with the physical side. It was all mental. It was applying the theories Walter Herbison taught in his book: Head Games: The Mental Advantage for Baseball Excellence
Don’t regret travel ball one bit. Still in the middle of it.
My oldest played rec through fall 9u and transitioned to travel ball - playing middle school ball currently and will play with a highly respected travel org this summer using almost exclusively wood (will even play at the Dude)
My youngest transitioned from rec to travel playing 8u as a 7u player - he’s playing both10u and 11u travel this spring
One thing they’ve been told since they were tiny was: “your hard work doesn’t guarantee you anything in life but honesty”
I don’t force it on them - we have fun, and we work hard and they’ve grown tremendously playing with and against better competition
Note on rec:
I absolutely love the idea of playing it as you are representing the community you live in and the school you attend most likely
The roadblocks I found were:
1 commitment to build a successful hybrid where you build a travel team from within the rec to implement the high school program from an early age and allow the more advanced players something other (or in addition) than all stars
2 coaches are unpaid baby sitters for several hours each week
3. No weekend games at the park (reserved for you got it - travel tournaments)
My oldest played rec through fall 9u and transitioned to travel ball - playing middle school ball currently and will play with a highly respected travel org this summer using almost exclusively wood (will even play at the Dude)
My youngest transitioned from rec to travel playing 8u as a 7u player - he’s playing both10u and 11u travel this spring
One thing they’ve been told since they were tiny was: “your hard work doesn’t guarantee you anything in life but honesty”
I don’t force it on them - we have fun, and we work hard and they’ve grown tremendously playing with and against better competition
Note on rec:
I absolutely love the idea of playing it as you are representing the community you live in and the school you attend most likely
The roadblocks I found were:
1 commitment to build a successful hybrid where you build a travel team from within the rec to implement the high school program from an early age and allow the more advanced players something other (or in addition) than all stars
2 coaches are unpaid baby sitters for several hours each week
3. No weekend games at the park (reserved for you got it - travel tournaments)
This is proof positive that every once in a while anybody will drop a pearl of wisdom.
I have been saying that for a long time. Somewhere along the way Ted Williams and Charlie Lau and a host of other's somehow didn't know about hitting a Baseball. All of the terminology changed as if the old terminology was invalid. The real problem is that most people don't understand what the terminology actually means and just like to regurgitate it. I guarantee if Ted Williams was 20 today he would still be a great hitter. In my day the the buzz word was to "swing down". I could never get anyone to actually explain to me what that meant. They would just keep blurting it out. Seemed counter intuitive especially since Ted Williams stated that the bat path was on a slight inclined plane. Today you might know it as "hands inside the ball" or "knob to the ball". Some years back I listened to some hitting instruction breaking down every single movement and position during a swing. I asked him how can you swing a bat and NOT do some of the things he talked about? He didn't have an answer so I then asked why worry about those things?
The sad thing is that by turning your kids over to "experts" you are missing out. My father, my brother and I dug all that knowledge out of the dirt. We read and watched and talked to all sorts of information sources and providers. We would try things and used what worked for us and let go what didn't. We then went to the field for hours and hit and pitched and built great memories. We looked for the best competition we could find and tested ourselves. AND when we weren't doing that, we played stickball and wiffle ball and cork ball and hit ping pong balls in our basement with plunger handles. So please first of all enjoy your time with your son or daughter and be involved. Don't just be a chauffeur and an observer.
To answer the original question I agree about getting a used bat for 4 to 12 year olds. You will have plenty of time to buy expensive stuff later if your player continues. I don't know about today's bats, but I needed 2 or 3 bats during the course of a year when I was in High School and later. They would either dent, crack or just lose something when you hit that much. Even the Green Easton I always had 2.
The sad thing is that by turning your kids over to "experts" you are missing out. My father, my brother and I dug all that knowledge out of the dirt. We read and watched and talked to all sorts of information sources and providers. We would try things and used what worked for us and let go what didn't. We then went to the field for hours and hit and pitched and built great memories. We looked for the best competition we could find and tested ourselves. AND when we weren't doing that, we played stickball and wiffle ball and cork ball and hit ping pong balls in our basement with plunger handles. So please first of all enjoy your time with your son or daughter and be involved. Don't just be a chauffeur and an observer.
To answer the original question I agree about getting a used bat for 4 to 12 year olds. You will have plenty of time to buy expensive stuff later if your player continues. I don't know about today's bats, but I needed 2 or 3 bats during the course of a year when I was in High School and later. They would either dent, crack or just lose something when you hit that much. Even the Green Easton I always had 2.
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Man, these parents will drop $350 for whatever the latest Marucci is, without breaking a sweat. Just let them see the popular kid swinging it and boom, it's all over. Do you even Pinelake?
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250 is cheap for a metal bat (age dependent)
Wait till they get older and they want to play higher level ball
Bats break and dent - we’ve broken 4 in the last month - we have a pile in the garage
My 12yr old - caught 88 on the hands to break one wood bat then caught one on the end the next night to break another; broke his bbcor last week in a scrimmage
Bbcor bat is warranteed so going on through that now so he’ll have one for 14u in the fall
While a 500$ bat won’t fix a 1$ swing - a 500$ bat with a 500$ swing and ability is something to behold
I remember in the late 90s/early 2000s when the baseball gear craze took off. Parents buying their 6 year old all star the same Oakley Sunglasses that big leaguers wore.
I'd go all in and get him Louisville Slugger wooden 26" and 27" and see which one he likes the best. They're about $20 each.
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