As a parent or coach, sometimes it can be hard to tell when is the right time to move your hitter up in bat weight, espeically going from a -5 to a -3. Coach Lisle talks about when the right time to move up in weight is, and the negative effects that can happen if it happens to soon or too late in their career.
As baseball hitters progress from the youth level to the high school level to the college level, they begin progressing
in their bat weights. As young hitters in the 10 to 11-year-old range and younger, they might have bats that
are drop 10, drop 11 weights.
Then as they get to the 12, 13, and 14-year-old level, they get to a drop five weight, whereas in high school and college, the bats have to be a drop three weight in their bat. For example, this bat is a 34/31. It has to be drop three from the length to the weight in the bat.
A lot of times, we have youth players in that 13 to 14-year-old range that start trying to figure out, at what age should I start transitioning to that drop three? How do I get ready for high school?
My best advice is as you have players in that 13 to 14-year-old range, if they’re athletic enough to swing this drop three without a huge drop in results, I would highly encourage going to that as quickly as possible and at least practicing with it and training with it as much as possible.
I think a lot of hitters who are swinging drop fives all the way until their first day of high school are at somewhat of a disadvantage because they grabbed a drop three bat at the first day of high school practice, and they feel overwhelmed
by the weight. It just feels entirely different, and they have just a real struggle with having success at that weight.
So if you have a junior high kid, they can start progressing into the drop three bats. That’s kind of a sweet spot time
of, can they handle this bat?
And I think when they do that, as they progress into high school in their freshman year, you’re going to see a lot more success in the transition period of that.
So I recommend getting to the drop three as soon as possible so that it doesn’t affect their swing too much.
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