Posted by: t olson () on Wed Jul 11 19:49:32 2001

""""We currently run a youth baseball travel team and we have some rumblings regarding bat size vs. bat speed. We beeleive that the hitter if he swings the smallest bat to acheive the highest bat speed will result in a better hitter at age 10-12. Others feel that swinging a larger bat, once contact is made will result in a farther hit ball and thus the larger bat is of choice. As the players move up the ladder, pitchers will throw fast and those who swing a large bat will suffer. What is you opinion of bat size dynamics and are we teaching the right points?
> Thanks in advance""""

In 13U and 14U (even at high levels of play) the additional distance the pitchers have to throw more than reduces the impact of faster pitching.

Most of the kids move to a big barrel bat of 23 to 24 ounces and lengths of 31" and 32" at age of 13.

The additional reaction time (46' to 54' or even 60') outweighs slight speed increases IMO. Strikeouts are much less (outs from grounders and fly balls increase).

So in my experience--let the 12U use lighter bats for contact (and 200 foot fences aren't much to clear) .

The adjustment isn't difficult to 13U. They will have to learn eventually to swing a heavy bat--fast but I don't feel it is necessary to do that at 12.

My son (a good size 12 last year) used a 31-19 and had plenty of power and contact. He's doing fine with a 32-24 this year and even did OK in a wood bat tournament this year with a (32-29?).