It is very often the case that parents want their children to excel hitting the ball so they go out and buy them a very high quality youth baseball bat, but since they haven’t taken into consideration some important bat selection rules the bat isn’t what their player needs.  Having either the wrong length or the wrong weight can add unnecessary strain on a young players swing, making it hard to hit the ball in the zone and drive it for base hits.

Parents should take many things into consideration when choosing the right bat for their player, including: the material, barrel size, weight, and length of the bat.  It is also important that the bat meets the specific requirements of the league that your player is currently participating in whether it is Tee Ball, Little Leauge, High School, or even College baseball.

It is a generally accepted rule that youth players should have the lightest bat of the length that fits their body best.  Unfortunately, light youth baseball bats are generally the more expensive kind since the advanced alloys that manufacturers use in crafting these sluggers is anything but cheap.  These high-tech alloys also allow bat engineers to craft paper thin walls, providing more pop to your player in addition to the increased bat speed they will see from the lighter barrel.  Inexpensive aluminum bats, though still made from the same element of aluminum (but from a different alloy) will have thicker walls and be heavier.  This can slow down bat speed, increase vibrations on the players hands, and cause the bat the drop as the player pulls the head of the bat through the strike zone.

According to on bat engineer at at a Louisville Slugger, “Performance of the bat goes up as the walls are thinned down in aluminum bats. High-strength alloys allow the walls to be thinned while retaining strength needed for durability.”  We all want our player to have the best chance of success, don’t we?

Players just starting out on their baseball career need to learn what it feels like to make good, solid contact with a baseball.  This type of feeling can be found without the use of a high-end, high-tech aluminum alloy youth baseball bat.  Proper bat mechanics is what your player needs to learn first before they get a super light weight bat, but make sure that your player is at least comfortable with the bat that they are learning to strike the ball with.  Learning the technique the right way at the beginning is the best way to give your player the best shot of having the success that they want.

In order to find that bat to fit your child’s needs you need to look to the bat’s length-to-weight ratio.  This is probably the most important factor to consider when purchasing your bat.  The length-to-weight ratio is a negative number that informers bat purchasers of the differential between the length and weight of a bat when buying a youth baseball bat online or in a store.  By way of example, if I am buying a 30-inch that weights 27 ounces this bat will have a ratio of -3 (-3 is the required length-to-weight ratio for high school, college, and professional baseball).

Finding the right length-to-weight ratio in the formative years of a players baseball career can really help a player get a better handle on the mechanics of batting.

In addition to the negative length-to-weight ratio, youth baseball bats can have a series of numbers and letters associated with the name of the bat. As an example, lets look at the name of the Easton 2009 LCN10 Stealth IMX Power Hitter Youth Baseball Bat (-9 PH).  As you can see at the end of the name is the length-to-weight ratio (in this case -9).  Everything else looks pretty normal except the LCN10 in the name of this bat.  LCN10 represents the name of the aluminum alloy.  This is not the important when choosing your bat unless you are an alloy junkie.  For most people the most they need to know is that a good fit is all that they need.

But just for those alloy junkies, here is some information on the different alloys and which bats you can expect to find them on:

• CU31 is a pretty ubiquitous alloy and was once the top of the line, but now is mainly used in the mid-range bats.
• C405 is found in the next wave of bats alloy bats that replace CU31.  This alloy appears in Easton’s Reflex, Worth’s Copperhead, Louisville Slugger’s Air Attack2, and all of DeMarini’s bats including the DeMarini CF3 Black Youth Baseball Bat.
• Easton also has two even more advanced alloys – C500 and SC500 (which includes Scandium – a light-weight element supposedly used in aerospace technology).  These alloys are used in the more expensive Redline and Z-Core series bats.

Bat barrel diameters are another important thing to consider when purchasing a bat for your player.  Little League (up to age 12) requires that bat barrel diameters cannot exceed 2-1/4 inch – but bat barrels can be as large as 2-5/8 inch or 2-3/4 inch.   Be certain about what the limits are for your league before your decide on a bat because you could not be able to use it during competition.

The youth baseball bat manufacturer Worth recently tried to determine the best bat weight for both youth and adult players.  The information they compiled is found below:

Youth 8-10 Years Old
Player Height / Best Bat Weight:
48 in. 16 oz.
50 in. 16.5 oz.
52 in. 17 oz.
54 in. 17.5 oz.
56 in. 18 oz.
58 in. 18.5 oz.
60 in. 19 oz.
Formula = (Height/4) + 4

Youth 11-12 Years Old
Player Weight / Best Bat Weight:
70 lbs. 18 oz.
80 lbs. 19 oz.
90 lbs. 19.5 oz.
100 lbs. 20 oz.
110 lbs. 20.5 oz.
120 lbs. 21 oz.
130 lbs. 21.5 oz.
140 lbs. 22 oz.
150 lbs. 23 oz.
Formula = (Weight/18) + 14

High School & College
Player Height / Best Bat Weight:
66 in. 27 oz.
68 in. 27.5 oz.
70 in. 28 oz.
72 in. 29 oz.
74 in. 30 oz.
76 in. 30.5 oz.
Formula = Height/3 + 6

The ideal bat weight for maximum ball hitting speed is about one ounce heavier than that recommended in this study. The thinking behind this is that there is a negligible loss of of bat speed when weight is reduced by an ounce. Chipper Jones, a long time Atlanta Brave, has been quoted as recommending: “swing the heaviest bat you can get around on a 90-mph pitch.” This principle can be applied to youth leagues as well as the big leagues – you just need to adjust the velocity that you are talking about.

When shopping for a bat, have your child hold it out to his side with the top hand (right hand for right-handed batter). If he cannot hold it straight out for 20 seconds without his arm starting to shake or the bat head starting to drop, it is too heavy for your player. Your player should be able to swing the bat around without the barrel of the bat dropping. If the barrel drops during the swing the bat is probably too heavy.

Players over the age of 13 generally have enough experience to be able to find the bat that feels best for them just by giving it a few cuts or getting a hold of a ball or two in a batting cage. Younger players do need much more guidance and a good decision by a parent or coach can get your player swinging for the fences.

Post from: Youth Bat Pros