Posted by: Shawn (mariner0324@yahoo.com) on Thu Apr 5 16:24:52 2007

> > Does practicing with a heavier bat help your bat speed when
> > you use your regular bat to swing?
>
> Hitting with a heavier bat over time should eventually help your batspeed to a degree. Doing so, effectively makes your regular bat feel lighter (which should increase your batspeed). Ted Williams also believed in swinging a heavier bat to gain strength (in addition to doing basic excercises (pushups, situps, sqeezing balls).

I don't think it's just strength that a heavy bat can increase. I think there are several things that can happen. One would be increasing the strength and one would be improving mechanics. I often hear players say that they have to use their body more to swing a heavier bat. This might improve your mechanics to some degree as well as strenghten the muscles used.

The fastest way to increase batspeed though is with feedback (a batspeed radar device).