This study looked at the changes in the swing when using different length and weighted bats compared to normal bat in college players. 4 different combinations of long and weighted bats were compared to normal bat while batting off a tee. The authors stated they had difficulty in making conclusions on the weighted bats so I’ll stick to some thoughts on the long bats.
What does training with a long bat do to your swing?
There was more angular displacement between the trunk and the pelvis and also for upper trunk rotation. In hitting coach terms, I take this to mean there was more “separation” between the hips and shoulders in addition to more rotation of the shoulders toward contact when using the long bats. And the longer the bat, the more separation was observed.
The size of the normal bat was .84m/.9kg which equates to 33 inch and nearly 32 ounces. The 2 lb long bat was 1.1m/.9kg (43 inch, 32 ounce) and this was the only long bat with significantly high peak bat head speed than the normal bat.
Article summary:
The aim of this study was to investigate the characteristics of hitting motion when using training bats with altered length and mass. Four different long bats (LB) and four different weight bats (WB) that had the equal moment of inertia (MOI) were manufactured based on a normal bat (NB; 0.84 m, 0.90 kg). The hitting motion of eleven male collegiate baseball players was analyzed using a VICON system to collect nine reflective markers fixed on the body and bat. Results showed that the angular displacement of the trunk twist tended to be larger in LB with increasing MOI. Compared to WB, LB may contribute to a larger angular displacement of trunk twist, particularly in players with smaller angular displacement of trunk twist in NB.
Takahashi, K., Yamada, K., Kariyama, Y., Hayashi, R., Yoshida, T., Zushi, A., & Zushi, K. (2015). The characteristics of hitting motion using bats having different length and mass but equal moment of inertia. In ISBS-Conference Proceedings Archive.
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