Infatuation with wood bat tourneys?

P

powerpost

Active member
It seems like more and more summer tournaments are wood bat tourneys. I don't get it. Kids I work with say they are not as fun for obvious reasons. Offense is really hampered. Additional costs for the players and their families of wood bats. After a lot of kids have paid hundreds for bbcor bats. Then a kid breaks a bat and needs a new one.

Once upon a time there were a tournament here and there that was wood bat and it made it fun because is was a novelty. Not so anymore.
 
 
BBCOR bats are just as "dead" as a wood these days. Back in the day it made a difference, also used to be a separator of men from boys.
If you get a good piece of wood it probably has more pop in it then your run of the mill BBCOR.
The biggest problem with the tournament is that its a one time thing so kids/parents do not send money on quality bats so there is less pop in them.
We always practiced with wood and played with metal, you learn what the sweet spot actually is that way!!!
Hitting with a BESR was like hitting with one of those big red whiffleball bats after swinging wood all the time.
 
Baseballfan20 said:
BBCOR bats are just as "dead" as a wood these days. Back in the day it made a difference, also used to be a separator of men from boys.
If you get a good piece of wood it probably has more pop in it then your run of the mill BBCOR.
The biggest problem with the tournament is that its a one time thing so kids/parents do not send money on quality bats so there is less pop in them.
We always practiced with wood and played with metal, you learn what the sweet spot actually is that way!!!
Hitting with a BESR was like hitting with one of those big red whiffleball bats after swinging wood all the time.
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BBCOR bats heat up over time. While not to the extent of the bazookas with the BESR labelt on them, but their performance is measurably greater over time.

I always found it ironic tha people associated with basketball want to play by the upper level rules. Same goes with football....

For some reason, nobody wants to play with a wood bat because "it gets them prepared for the next levels" I wonder why?.......

Hint: It's too hard ;)
 
I realize techniques and opinions change over time, but i recall my ole ball coaches, both were pretty good and former minor league ball players, urged against us from using any bat that was not our gamer.

Of course, back then pretty much the whole team used the same bat.

My thinking is, and I dont know much of anything, is that hitting is such a muscle memory function that I want to take BP with the exact same make, model, weight and length, that I will be using in game action.

I cannot get over that hump of thinking it is a good idea, but that is just my chain of thought. I realize there are many other ways of thinking.
I am probably wrong and others will want to debunk my way of thinking, and that is fine. There are many different paths to success.

Why are we seeing these wood bat tournaments blossoming?

It is simple: Publicity and it is 'unique'. It makes it stand out.
In a seemingly abundant amount of tournaments to choose from, and the incredible amount of money getting tossed around, organizers need to have a niche to get their tournament noticed.

That is why these sort of tournaments get the buzz. What can you do to stand out in the crowd and get teams?
 
Exactly.

It really is just a gimmick.

Not to say those places do not run great tournaments, as I suppose many do, but in the high pressure business that is youth baseball you need to have something that makes you stand out, like a fancy name or gimmick.



GCPRO said:
They won’t even be playing at the collegiate level which also uses the aluminum bat.
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I was never a fan. Playing in it once was an experience. Didn't really enjoy anymore after that.
 
The Free Tournament guy here in Cincinnati is having a Wood Bat League 1 day a week this season from what I hear.
 
When the kids are younger, (like 11,12,13) I think kids think playing is wood bat is unique. We would do one a year. As the boys get older, they like the wood bat because nothing is cheap with them in terms of hits and pitchers like trying to break them. If you hit a homer with a wood bat, you have done something. I think almost all college summer leagues are wood bat.
 
For the highest end player, wood bat events may help them get noted by pro scouts since that helps reduce questions about transition b/n hitting with BBCOR and hitting with wood. Then again that's the vast vast minority of the high school aged playing population.
 
Being that my own playing career has basically been remembered as a "good bunter" I preferred wood bats. It helped hide my strategy if the rest of the team followed along with similar bats.
 
Roughly twenty years ago I took our 13 yr old group to a wood bat tourney over on the outskirts of Indy for our last outing of the season. First ever and only wood bat tourney for these kids. The tourney gives you two wood bats with your entry fee. I tell our kids that whoever gets the most hits over the weekend will get the bats. LOL! Three games and a total of FOUR hits. One hit each by four different kids. UGH! Raffle. Four names in a hat. Even crazier we went 2-1 in the 3 games.
If I'm on the mound, have to love the wood bats. At the dish, nah!
 
My son started using a wood bat anytime we would go to hit when he was 14. He would bring the metal bat, but would mainly use the wood. He was a much better hitter with wood (I was always pitching). He knew he couldn't just wail away at pitches like he could with metal and hope for the best. I could tell a huge difference in his swing/approach when he would use wood vs metal. I really think it made him a much, much better hitter.
 
tcgobucks said:
My son started using a wood bat anytime we would go to hit when he was 14. He would bring the metal bat, but would mainly use the wood. He was a much better hitter with wood (I was always pitching). He knew he couldn't just wail away at pitches like he could with metal and hope for the best. I could tell a huge difference in his swing/approach when he would use wood vs metal. I really think it made him a much, much better hitter.
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I tell every kid I work with they should own a wood bat and it should be a regular part of their training regiment. The more balanced weight distribution and smaller sweet spot forces you to become more exact with your swing. Plus it WILL let you know when you don't hit the ball correctly lol. Another recommendation, if it can be afforded, is to also have a heavier and a lighter bat than your game bat, again for training.

As far as wood bat tournaments go, they are fun for the novelty of it, and there is nothing wrong with that. This is all about kids having fun, correct?
 
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I would advise all baseball players over the age of 12-13 to practice the majority of the time with wood and save the metal bat for game use only.

Hitting with wood made me a better hitter. Smaller sweet spot, chance of breaking, improved mechanics due to the weight distribution. After working with wood, metal bats, even BBCOR feel like toothpicks.
 
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