Posted by: John E. Rickel (rickj@dakotacom.net) on Wed Mar 31 09:27:10 2004

Iam sure that having the right size and weight of batt for each indiviual batter is very important.I cant seem to find anyone who can tell me if there is any rule or guide lines for this please help... 11 years and 2 yrs in majors thank you
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> Hey Cristina,
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> The bat that you want to swing should be the longest and the heaviest that you can generate the most batspeed.
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> The only sure way to find this out is to have your swing timed with a radar gun. start light and work up. i'd get to the point where an added ounce only slows you up a little. the added ounce will help your power and you will gain the strength needed to get your speed back up just by the act of swinging a heavier bat.
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> If you don't have access to a gun then you'll have to use your subjective opinion or feel.
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> Good luck, Rich

Just to elaborate on the above post, here's something I would recommend. Measure the bat speed of swings with different weight bats, then multiply the speed times the weight of the bat. This will give you the momentum of the bat. That bat with the highest momentum will hit the ball the farthest. For example I have a 10 yr old who swings a 16.5 oz. 62 mph and a 19.5 oz. bat 60 mph. The momentum of the first bat is 1023 oz. mph. and the momentum of the second bat is 1170 oz. mph. Therefore the second bat will hit the ball further.

However the first bat might give better bat control since its lighter. So if the momentum values are quite close, it might be better to go will the lighter bat for bat control. In the above example I would recommend the second bat since the momentum values are significantly different.