Back to Listen Up! Main Menu

Wood Bats.  Use 'em if you got 'em!                Feedback Welcome!

More and more high school hitters are wondering if they should be practicing with wood or composite wood bats.  While alloy bats are here to stay, the NCAA and National Federation have taken implemented rules that will eventually lead to the use of bats that mimic the properties of a wood bat. In other words an alloy bat will behave like a wood bat.  What bat should you use? How does wood help your hitting?  Don't wood bats break all the time?  Let's find out.

Use a composite wood bat. Regular wood bats break easily so avoid the issue by using a composite wood bat such as the Baum Bat.  At $110 dollars, this bat will last virtually as long as you use it.  The major bat companies such as Louisville Slugger and Adirondack also make composite wood bats.  

Wood bats make you a better hitter.  Provided you are taking BP with it yes!  Wood bats have a much smaller sweet spot then an alloy bat so it forces you to get the head of the bat to the ball quicker and more consistently.  A mistake on an alloy bat can be an HR. With a wood bat it is a flair.   Lazy swings are eliminated as your swing shortens.  

Forces the use of the lower body to generate power.   If you watch any power hitter you see how they use the legs and torso in a swing.  You need all the power you can muster to drive a ball using a wood bat.  Sometimes alloy bats send "excuse me" swings into the bleachers.

Prepares you for play in a wood bat league such as Cape Cod, Alaska or the New England Collegiate League.  If you are good enough to play in one of these leagues while in college, they all use wood bats.  Averages sink when the players go to wood!  If you can produce with wood the scouts will wake up in a hurry to your presence!

Use it in batting practice.  Since composite bats are so durable, many colleges and high schools have taken to using them almost exclusively in practice and then switching over to alloy bats for games.  

Bob Hodeshell, web master of High School Baseball Web, recommends Glomar bats and says that wood bats improve bat speed. He has seen great improvement in his son's hitting over the three years they have used wood bats.

Hitting instructor Bob Boutin of Four Seasons Baseball and Softball has most of his clients use a composite wood bat during their sessions.  "Players learn how to move the hands thru the zone  quickly and efficiently which enables them to put the sweet spot on the ball more often."  There you have it.  Try out a wood bat in your next BP session.