Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatSpeed@aol.com) on Mon Aug 2 11:01:56 2004

>>> I have a 13 year old son who will be going into the 8th grade this year. Currently he swings a 30" 22oz aluminum bat, and I have read that he should be training with a wood bat, and I realize that when he plays in high school he will fall under the -3 rule as far as bat weight goes. I have also read that he shouldn't work with too heavy of a bat because it won't allow his fast twitch muscles to develop and they are needed for bat speed. Here is my dilema, I know that he needs to increase his bat speed, and I know that in 9th grade he will be under -3 restriction, so how do I get there from here? He needs to swing a 5oz heavier bat + gain bat speed to be an effective hitter. <<<

Hi Chris

I just replied to an e-mail from a dad addressing his question on the light-vs-heavier bat issue. This information may also answer some of your concerns.

Jack Mankin
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>>> comments: i just looked thru your site and it is fantastic!! i just have 1 question. i have a 12yr, son 5'6" 135lbs. last yr his bat avg was 500this yr 200 and he is moving up to pony leauge and going thru the change in bats (larger and heavier)he finds he now cannot turn abd hit the ball, any ideas. <<<

Hi George

The major reason most hitters perform better with very light bats is because the batter can accelerate the light bat to contact with less efficient swing mechanics than required for bats of more substance. As an example; I could accelerate a 4 ounce plastic bat about as fast by just flipping it with the wrist of one hand as I could using Barry Bonds’ swing mechanics. But, as the weight of the bat increases toward –3 legal weight, the batter must acquire more and more efficient mechanics that use the larger muscles of the body to overcome the increasing inertia offered.

I can say with confidence, that John’s problem stems from the swing mechanics he was taught. All coaches have the best of intentions with their advice on hitting. However, keep in mind these coaches were taught the batting principles they teach long before detailed frame-by-frame analysis of the top producer’s mechanics were conducted. During the last few years, frame-by-frame analysis and similar studies of the baseball swing has really changed our thinking on what constitutes good batting principles and swing mechanics.

The batting principles and drills we provide in our instructional video/DVD “Final Arc II” should help your son compete with the heavier bats. Below is a post from the Discussion Board Archives regarding light vs heavier bats.

Best regards,

Jack Mankin
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Re: Re: bats
Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com on Mon Feb 10 13:17:02 2003

Question/Comment:

« I would suggest working with an average weight wood bat and develop good mechanics for increasing bat speed - not a lighter and lighter bat to cover up poor mechanics.
>
> Jack Mankin
>
>I enjoy this forum. When I saw that you had contradicted Ted Williams' teachings on bat weight (see the subchapter "Light is Right" in The Science of Hitting), I was very curious as to what other Tedisms are contrary or different to yours. Many people who disagree with what Ted Williams said about hitting feel that his views were those of a superior performer, and therefore largely invalid with respect to the average player. In 27 years of coaching AAU, high school, and college players--practicing almost exclusively with "woodies" on my watch--I cannot recall a single instance where a player has chosen a bat that was clearly too LIGHT for him, but many, many times we see kids swinging bats that are too damn heavy. I can't imagine that anyone who coaches kids on a daily basis would disagree; lighten the bat, and the kid is helped immediately because he can actually get the bat's center of percussion to the center of the speeding baseball ON TIME. A too-heavy bat leads to poor mechanics: the kid swinging one can't get his top hand STRAIGHT to the ball!
Watch Barry Bonds in "frame advance" mode on your VCR. He is using a HARD PUSH with his TOP HAND (capitals Ted's) to go STRAIGHT (capitals Tony Gwynn's) to the ball, but he is still finishing high. Pure rotational mechanics' applications are limited in hitting, but not as limited as those of vectoral mechanics. The proper model is not a duality of either/or, but rather is a unity of both/and: HELICAL MECHANICS. <<<

Jack Mankin's reply:

Hi:

I would agree with you that most kids tend to use too heavy of a wood bat. This is especially true for the mechanics taught to 98% of them. Weight shift and extension mechanics (drive the top-hand straight to the ball) requires a good deal of upper-body strength to gain reasonable bat speeds with even the lightest bats. The rotational transfer mechanics used by the better hitters allows them to make more efficient use of the larger muscle groups in the legs and torso to accelerate the bat-head. They can attain good bat speed a bat with enough substance to really drive the ball. --- Babe Ruth would have never hit the large number of home runs using a bat in the 40 ounce class without the efficient use of rotational transfer mechanics.

Therefore, when I stated, "I would suggest working with an average weight wood bat and develop good mechanics for increasing bat speed and not lighter and lighter bats to cover-up less efficient mechanics." I was referring to the kids with mechanics that that rely mainly on the arms. This forced them to use a -5 to -11 aluminum bat just to compete. Remember, there were no -11 aluminum bats around when Ted Williams made his statement regarding the advantage of using lighter wood bats (probably in the -3 to -1 range).

You stated, "Many people who disagree with what Ted Williams said about hitting feel that his views were those of a superior performer, and therefore largely invalid with respect to the average player." --- The fact that some people believe that only the superior performers can take advantage of more efficient mechanics proves to me that they just do not understand the principles of rotational mechanics.

Ted Williams made a significant breakthrough in teaching hitting by showing that the energy for the baseball swing comes from the body's rotation around a stationary axis and not from linear weight-shift. Although Ted's swing exhibited good transfer mechanics, I can find no evidence in his writings that would indicate that he correctly understood the principles of transfer mechanics that converted his body rotation into bat speed.

>>> Watch Barry Bonds in "frame advance" mode on your VCR. He is using a HARD PUSH with his TOP HAND (capitals Ted's) to go STRAIGHT (capitals Tony Gwynn's) to the ball, <<<

I have studied frame-by-frame sequences of Barry Bonds' swing many times since the late 1980's and he defiantly does NOT drive the top-hand “STRAIGHT” to the ball. In fact, an over-head view of his swing clearly shows that he pulls the top-hand back toward the catcher before rotating and taking his hands in a circular path toward the pitcher.

Jack Mankin