How to Pick a Youth Baseball Bat

Video Transcript

"A question's asked, "How to pick a youth baseball bat?" This happens to be a wooden bat , most youth players in this day and age use a metal bat because they're, tend to be lighter, and more manageable. The bat is measured both in inches and in ounces. So if a bat is a thirty two, thirty one, or a minus three, that's, means that the length of the bat is a thirty two inch bat and it's a twenty nine ounce bat, so that would be a minus three bat. Most players, especially young in age, from six or eight on up until ten or twelve, would tend to use bats that have a larger drop in the ounces. A minus eleven bat for instance would be if it were a thirty inch bat, would be a nineteen ounce bat. So when you hear minus three, minus ten, minus eleven that means it's the differential between the length of the bat and the ounces of the bat. Usually the smaller the player the more minus there is, the lighter the bat is and usually the larger the player the heavier the bat would be. Most players in the high school level on up until they start using wood, and get into professional baseball, use minus three exclusively because it is a rule for high school and college. So a minus three bat would a thirty two twenty nine, or a thirty three thirty, because it's three ounces lighter than the length. When choosing a bat, there's two things that you can do to help to make sure that you're choosing the right bat. Number one is go get a demo or borrow a bat and let the player swing the bat to make sure that it feels right for him. But another test you might do, is to grip the bat at the top of the handle and if you can, with one hand cast the bat this way and not let the bat drop below parallel, then that would be a good test to make sure that he can handle the bat with two hands. I might suggest that you get the heaviest and largest bat possible that he can still control because the extra density in the bat will make the ball go further. Do the heaviest and the longest bat he can swing comfortably, or do this test with, would be an appropriate bat for that player, and that's a good tip on how to choose the right bat for your player."