Posted by: Patrick (pmgeoeiiee@yahoo.com) on Thu Dec 9 14:45:55 2010

> What are some thoughts on when to graduate to heavier bats? I'm talking 12-16 year old boys. Last year in little league -10s were the thing. This year in Pony it seems to be -6. I hear talk of high school players struggling to adjust to -3 because they didn't start using them early enough. Is it as simple as swinging the heaviest bat you can be successful with? As I understand it a heavier bat can't be swung fast enough to get around on faster pitching.

Ima have to go with what old TSW always preferred; lighter bats= greater bat speed. However, for me this means that he/she uses a bat that's light enough but not TOO heavy- enough to be able to discern differences in the weight however subtle those differences may be. Ted said he swung a heaver bat in the winter time, and as he got older used a lighter bat during the summer when it was hotter. Here are advantages and disadvantages for both choices; swinging a lighter bat means the user will have faster swing speed, but this may cause them to feel TOO fast which is a disadvantage because you don't want to be too far out in front of the ball. Swinging a heaver bat means that the user is forced to remove all unneccessary movement from their swing processes, this allows the hitter to gain more time and may help the hitter to hit the ball the other way- especailly useful for shifts a la Boudreau's shift against williams. On the flip side of that, of course, is the fact that the user will not be as quick with the bat. So 95+ mph are trouble with hitters using a bat that's really heavy unless they can conpensate for it by being brutally strong a la babe ruth. Also, by choking up on the bat (williams) the user gains quickness and shortens the swiing but loses plate coverage, so this is not really the same as using a lighter bat neither is holding the bat at the end a la joe dimaggio.