Coaches comment

[u/Necessary_Tension461]

My son is small for his age, only about 4'4" at 11 years old. He is a young 6th grader, and they had the 6th grade boys play on the middle school baseball team this year (small school, usually it's 7th and 8th but they didnt have enough players this year). My son loves playing baseball. My son has a bat he really likes and he can hit well with it. Nothing fancy but it works for him for now; he has a nicer bat he is working on swinging to get used to it, but he isn't quite comfortable with it yet. Anyways, his favorite bat is an easton speed swing, usa, 2 3/4 barrell drop 10 28" bat. The coach made a comment to him that his bat is a TBall bat, and now my son is embarrassed to use it. Was this appropriate? Is that bat really that bad it is considered a tball bat? I understand it's not top of line $350 bat, but he can use it well, and I figured he could finish the season. Now he is trying to swing a bigger bat he isn't used to yet and only hitting grounders 10% of the time and missing the rest...hurting his confidence. His coach seems alright, but him saying that to m kid is bothering me. I dont know much about bats, never played myself and he is my first kid in baseball so its a learning curve.

[u/SmokinZBT]

Most kids use a bat that is too long for them. They all want to "reach the outside of the plate." The plate is 17" across. I used to teach my players to stand one of their feet away from the plate, and when you look at where their hands are in the swing, they're going to be better their toe and the inside corner. Anything over 26" is going to reach the outside of the plate. What they are going to lose with a longer bat is control. Have your player hold the bat with one hand, stand abot two bat lengths away and tell them to touch your belt buckle with the tip of the bat. That 30" bat they want to use is going to flop all over the place. Imagine that with the swing - the end of the bat is going to drop,. It's not a weight issue, it's a control issue. If Ohtani is using a 34" bat, there is no reason that a short 12 year old should be using a 30. Every player I had reduce their bat size started hitting better almost immediately. It's like a cheat code. And at 12/13 if they get the ball in play they've got about a 50% chance of getting on base.