Hitting Better With Wooden Bats

Hitting Better With Wooden Bats  

Many baseball players practice their hitting daily without considering one of the single best hitting options available to them.  This secret that is known by some is incorporating using wooden bats for their batting practice and hitting drills.  The use of wooden bats can have a tremendous ability on improving the batting swing of young baseball players by teaching them better hand and eye coordination.  This improved ability to hit the ball in the sweet spot translates well into their games when they get to swing a lighter and big sweet spot aluminum bat.  Since, this can be such a valuable tool, we have put together a few tips you should consider when reviewing wooden bats to purchase: 

1.  Plan ahead because wooden bats can break very easily. 

Yes, wooden bats can break very easily.  The average major leaguer will go through dozens of wooden bats in a season and they are experienced pros.  The average high school player that is new to using wooden bats should reasonably expect that he will break a few as well.  Therefore, we suggest you set aside some money for a few wooden bats or at least recognize that you will likely go through 3 or 4 in a season.  Since, the cost of these bats can quickly add up, we suggest you avoid spending good money on the first couple of wooden bats you have because of the higher risk it will be broken quickly.  Instead, we suggest saving that money for getting a nicer wooden bat after you have gone through a few.  This will help you keep your costs low. 

2.  Recognize that not all bats are created equal. 

Give some thought to what type of bat you should get.  In the past, the most popular baseball bats have been made out of hickory or ash.  Ash took over as the preferred bat because it was lighter than hickory allowing for players to get faster bat speed.  However, in 1997 maple bats were allowed which is now the preferred bat in the major leagues.  This bat has been made popular by players like Barry Bonds.  They like this bat because it is a stronger bat that is less susceptible to breaking.  Many young player who would read this would naturally think that the type of bat they should get should be a maple.  However, we suggest you put off getting a maple until you have used a few ash bats.  The reason is that we think this will increase the longevity of that bat more and teach you the importance of hand and eye coordination from the very beginning with your wooden bats. 

Also, maple bats are slightly heavier than ash which means they are less like your metal bat you will be swinging in the games.  Therefore, we suggest starting with ash wooden bats and then making the transition to maple after you have broken a few ash bats. 

3.  What Can You Do To Protect Your Wooden Bats 

We suggest you give some thought to protect your wooden bats in batting practice.  It is better to use the wooden bats in live batting practice or in batting cages that do not use the heavier dimple baseballs.  These balls can be brutal to even metal bats so it is a good idea to limit the amount of time you use them with your wooden bats.  By doing so, you can increase the longevity of your wooden bats.  However, if you have few other options for batting practice, we do suggest you wrap some batting tape around the sweet spot of the bat.  This can help give it some support and also gives you a visual marker of where the dimple balls are actually hitting your bat.  This can sometimes be helpful to adjust your hitting.   

By keeping tips like these in mind, you should be able to find some high quality wooden bats at your local sporting goods store or online.  We think that after you begin to use them, you will agree they can definitely improve your baseball hitting or batting.