15U MO EAGLES: My Site News

As of 12:00 noon Saterday Field #1-5 are fine, but the outfield is wet. The Parks Director and I are going back out at 4:00 pm to look at the outfields to determine if we can play on Sunday. I will make the final decision by 6:00 pm tonight.

On Sunday we will play as many games as possible and after that I will pro-rate the tournament fee.

Field #6 is too wet to play on even on Sunday. If you have a scheduled game for Field #6 (which are the 13U teams) then you will not be playing on Sunday. I will address refunds on Monday, April 21^st.

     What do you think would have happened to this bat if it had been wood? It most likely would have broken, resulting in a weakly hit ball. This picture is from the Women's College World Series of 2006, and get this - the caption accompanying this picture said the hitter hit a home run on this pitch!  This is how metal bats create bad habits - this particular stroke produced a hit on what probably should have been an out.

     Most hitters, because their swing isn't "dialed in," make this mistake all too often - miss hitting the ball - resulting in poor contact, loss of power, and lowered batting average, even when using a metal bat.

     Practicing with wood will train you to refine & improve your swing.  

     How? 

     With wood, when you don't hit the ball on the sweet spot, the bat vibrates, causing PAIN in your hands. This immediate feedback allows you a way to adjust your swing, or else you keep experiencing PAIN! You may have felt this with your metal bat. Trust me, it's worse with wood. That's exactly why practicing with wood is so valuable.

     Come game time, use your metal bat and watch your newly "honed in" swing boost your average and power just from this type of practice alone.

     Why should you not swing a heavy implement while in the on-deck circle?

 FACT:

     Because this technique fatigues the fast-twitch muscle fibers you will momentarily be using to hit with at the plate! At an imperceptible, neuromuscular level, all of this heavy work just before stepping into the box actually tires you out!

  Perhaps you think this isn't that big of deal. Consider these numbers:

• Facing a 90 mph fastball, you have about .4 of a second before the ball crosses the plate

• It takes about .25 of a second to actually swing a bat

• This leaves you .15 seconds to decide if you will swing at the pitch, when, and where to swing your bat

     Needless to say, these raw numbers aren't in your favor as a batter. You need to be as fresh and ready as possible at the plate to deal with these factors!

Training With Wood Builds Bat Speed

After the 1995 fall season, one dozen wooden bats were purchased to conduct an experiment. The premise for this experiment was that if the players on the Kean College baseball team would train by swinging wood all winter long, then their average and power numbers would increase. For the spring season, the results were significant. The team batting average increased 37 points, from .299 to .336, and the home runs increased by 18, from 26 to 44. The team scored 110 additional runs compared to the previous season and were ranked sixth in the nation in Division Ill with 9.6 runs per game average. Our slugging percentage also increased from .443 to .526.

From one season to the next, it is difficult to compare team numbers because there are different players on the team, but all the returning players increased their average and power numbers.

The background for this experiment came about when a player from the 1994 team worked out on his own all winter with a wooden bat. In his junior year, he hit .339 with only two home runs. His senior year average was .384 with 11 home runs, 37 R.B.I.s and a slugging percentage of .783, which was a tremendous improvement in his numbers. If it worked for one player, the entire team could benefit from this training.

While growing up playing baseball, my bat was the thick-handled Jackie Robinson or Nellie Fox bat. This bat was used to get "good wood" even when I was jammed on an inside pitch. It would have been helpful to learn that it was more important to generate bat speed in the swing than to swing this heavy club.

Swinging wood for a period of time will build bat speed in the swing. Using a wood bat requires hitting the ball correctly for the ball to jump off the bat. The only way the ball jumps off the bat is if the bat is swung quickly, and the ball is hit on the "sweet" part of the bat. Most wood bats are top heavy and with repeated swinging, you will build bat speed. You'll notice a considerable difference after training with wood for a concentrated period of time and then swinging an aluminum bat. The bat will feel very light, and most players will have increased their bat speed.

To ensure that the wood bats would last, all the bats were taped with duct tape from the handle to about 12 inches from the end of the barrel. The duct tape was covered with athletic tape to reinforce the bats. With constant use, including preseason indoor practices by 16 position players, most of the bats lasted through the season. The bats still cracked while the hitters were learning the proper way to swing the bat. Additional duct and athletic tape was applied until the bat handle broke off. At the end of the indoor practice, six of the original 12 bats survived the pounding of thousands of swings and are ready for next season. The cost of this experiment was approximately $20 per wood bat for a total of $240.00.

Due to the success of this experiment, at the beginning of the '96 fall season, wood bats were used exclusively. The players will continue to train with wood until ten days prior to the spring Florida trip, and then they will be allowed to swing the aluminum bats. In addition to training with wood, an extensive total body weight lifting program must also be implemented to supplement this program for significant bat speed improvement.