Posted by: The Hitting Guru () on Fri Jan 12 12:11:48 2007

> Studies have shown that swinging a heavier bat is actually counterproductive to increasing bat speed unless it's combined in a overload/underload approach.

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I have found that in some instances it is not that difficult to move up an ounce or two once good mechanics are formed using a lighter bat. As such it is not uncommon for a good hitter to be able to use a heavier bat. Also such hitters find that they are able to hit the ball further with a heavier bat. Bat speed is important, but we should remember that top hitters of the past were able to hit well with heavier bats initially (Musial, Williams, Stargell). Over their later years they likely went down in weight. But for fastballs many old school hitters prefered heavier bats. And the ability to hit a good fastball is still at a premium. Soriano uses a 35 ounce bat today.