Posted by: Jon (jonwilliams@fuse.net) on Wed Mar 30 12:04:54 2005

Ok Pete, this is getting a little crazy. I've seen other guys killing their kids trying to get them to hit with bats that are way too heavy for them. There is no way in the world an 85 pound kid can effectively swing a 32/30 bat. Jack, please tell me you're reading this. What league could he be in that allows him to use that bat? If he's in Little League he can't use the 32/30. If he's in an advanced league like AABC he can use a bigger barrel bat but the pitching would be way too fast to use such a big bat.

The average fastball in my 11 yr old's USSSA league is about 60 mph. For your son who's 13, let's say the average fastball is 65mph. The normal pitching distance in 13 yr. old tournaments is 54 feet. Do you know how long it takes for a 65 mph fastball to cross the plate from 54 feet? It's 0.57 seconds. That's about a half a second for your son to get that big freakin piece of lumber around. Jim's right, he better load up really early.

Going back to your original post, you said your son is not a strong hitter but he had a good on base % in Little League. As you move up in age the defense gets much better so those booted balls and grounders that sneaked through won't happen as much, so the OBP will drop. If he couldn't generate a lot of swing speed with a -10 bat last year, how can you expect him to do it with a -5 or as Jim suggested, a -2 wood bat?

You need to accept the fact that your kid's not that big and perhaps he won't play for the Freshman team. Maybe by his Junior year he'll have a big growth spurt and he'll be able to swing a -3 bat, then he can try out for JV or varsity. For now, I would hope you'll just let him play rec ball and have fun. If you make it too hard for him he'll quit the game.

Jon