Wood bat tournaments and leagues are gaining in popularity both at the youth as well as the adult level. There are many reasons for the resurgence so let me give you seven of them.
Reasons:
- Develop better hitting mechanics: Wood bats have a smaller "sweet spot" than aluminum bats and composite bats, which require the batter to develops better hitting mechanics. Balls hit on either the handle or end of the barrel with composite or metal bats become cheap hits over the infielder's heads. With wood bats, these hits become weak infield ground out or pop ups and will typically break a wood bat and produce a "buzzing sensation" on the hitter's hands that remind him where they bat-ball collision occurred.
- Dad, I broke a bat just like ...: My son was 13 when he broke his first wood bat and he thought that was the coolest thing. He was beaming from ear-to-ear and felt just like his favorite professional player. It did not matter that he hit the ball of the end of the bat, which caused the break. This is a very common response the first time a young player breaks a wood bat. Most young players do not believe they are strong enough to swing a bat at the speed required to create the violent bat-ball collision required for the bat to break. It is the player's right of passage into manhood baseball.
- Solid hit with wood travels just as far as metal or composite bat hit: Having attended over 50 wood bat tournaments in the last couple of years, I have seen multiple high school players hit 300+ foot home runs with ash, composite wood, bamboo, birch, and maple wood bats. These home run hits are from bats manufactured by Rawlings, Louisville, Worth, Akadema, and Demarini. The material and the manufacture are not the reason for the long hits. The distance the ball travels is based on where the bat-ball collision occurs on the bat, the ability of the player to apply force to the bat handle to generate bat speed, and the pitcher's throwing speed.
- Similar bat weight for both metal and wood: There is a well published myth that a wood bat weights as much as it length. Therefore, a bat that is 33 inches in length will weight 33 ounces (ie., drop 0). This is true of some wood bats, but most wood bats have a -2 to -6 drop just like the big barrel aluminum and composite bats.
- Like the "crack" over the "ping" sound: This is probably the most common reason I hear why parents and players say they like wood bat leagues and tournaments. When I proposed taking a U13 tournament team almost exclusively into wood bat tournaments in the fall, this was the most common reason the parents supported the idea. Every fall since then when I propose entering youth wood tournaments this is usually one of the first comments I hear. You watch professional baseball and the bat cracks when there is a solid hit. When you watch college baseball, the big hit makes a ping. It is just not the same.
- Advances in wood bat technology: Wood bats are available in all shape and sizes, end loaded and handle loaded, thick handles and thin handles, different tapers, ... New types of woods are being used to construct bats from the traditional ash lumber to the more dense and harder birch and now maple bats. Recently, light weight and durable bamboo bats[1] are becoming readily available. Wood bat technology has widened the "sweet spot" and changed the distribution of weight to make the swing feel similar to metal bats the players used in Little League.
- Players just "like it": The NCAA published statistics claim that a high school baseball player has less than one half of one percent (< 0.5%) chance of playing professional baseball at any level. That is a pretty slim chance should a young adult choose to pursue this type of career. Youth wood bat tournaments are likely the closest a teenager will every get to playing professional baseball. They just like the experience and it gives them a chance to dream.
Summary
Whether you are a coach, parent, or player, wood bat tournaments are a special and exciting experience. Most adult leagues have used wood bats for years. It has just been in the past ten years that youth wood bat tournaments started regaining their popularity. I have listed my seven reasons for playing in wood bat tournaments. Write a comment below to add to the list.
Click here for a listing of wood bat tournaments in your area.
[1] If you are considering purchasing or using a bamboo bat, please check your league or tournament rules since many organizations consider bamboo made bats illegal.
Photo Credit: r.i.c.h.
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