Posted by: Joe C. (jcit31@aol.com) on Mon Jan 1 21:56:29 2001

what are the differences btwn wood and aluminum bats?

Hi Taylor. With wood bats, the ball travels less of a distance, and it does not have as much "pop" as an aluminum bat. Generally, a ball travels about 18% further with an aluminum bat. Also, wood bats have more weight in the barrel making it harder for them to be swung as fast as an aluminum bat, which can be constructed to be much lighter and also have a larger "sweet spot" or hitting surface than a wood bat.

Wood bats are recommended for practice because they require the batter to generate more batspeed with his body (rotation)to get solid hits, and do not allow for the "cheap hits" one can attain easily with an alumnum bat.