Discover whether the baseball or softball batting weight donut (not to be confused with a doughnut!) is or IS NOT a benefit to the Little League swing? Weighted donut Amazon reviews: Easton, Power Wrap, and Varo.
This post may blow the minds of those that didn’t get the memo…
Chris Dozer, who’s father to one of my 10yo online lesson students, sent the following Wall Street Journal article titled: “Watching Your Weight Before Hitting Plate”.
You can read the article in full by clicking the previous link, but I wanted to include important bullet points from the article and Sports Science video above:
SCIENCE-BASED TRAINING:
Improve your hitting strategy dramatically by applying human movement principles.
Learn not only how and what to train but also the science behind the methods.
Now, a 0.7-mph drop in average bat speed doesn’t seem like a lot, but as you saw, it makes a BIG difference in barreling the ball. As retired Physicist Dr. Alan Nathan says:
So, not only are hitters losing bat speed using a batting weight on the on-deck circle, but by barreling up the ball LESS OFTEN, they’re losing batted ball distance as well. Aside from swinging the hitter’s own bat, I’d say swinging a lighter bat – faster – would help the body recruit more of those white fast twitch muscle fibers before stepping in the box.
Your thoughts?
Great article Joey once again….If I may…..
You swing a weighted or heavy bat prior to the season starting…. Everybody wants an advantage but with mechanics it’s deep study and with the body it’s taking good cuts before the season…etc…
Not a few swings prior to hitting… If your going to bench some weight… would you go all for it with some one rep max reps prior to doing a good set of lessor weight… The fact is, if your swing is not sound, it’s possible that using heavy weight can get the right muscles engaged but also weakening you… Said another way, you can fine tune your swing for a moment… but with a variety of effects…
If you don’t use your body, than swinging a weighted bat will destroy you…
No matter if you use your body or not… you don’t cram in all that studying right before the test… Your suppose to be ready for the test… BTW, the test is the swing… and all you should do on deck is try to pick up on anything on the pitcher for timing…And have a good idea of how your approaching your particular at bat…
At the end it becomes a tradition which when taken away plays with the batters mind… facts provides evidence…
Tradition becomes culture… Culture doesn’t have to be fact driven…and as such is in fact more difficult to change…
Although…Swinging a bat that weights a little more would be an interesting study…And a little less too… Although my assumption would be that the particular swing dictate the results more that the weight itself…
By the way Alaska is bad ass this time of year… I know my family enjoyed going there… Hope all is well…
~DM
I like to over/under load train, but for pre at bats in games, being on time with your bat is the best method in my opinion…
I use the junior Hitting jacket (5 oz) or the end loaded ammo bat for overload and I use a slow pitch softball bat for underload (about 25 oz)
Doing this, My hitters have had continuous climbs in bat Speed and Ball Exit Speed along with better barrel awareness
Ryan
Hey Joey. I remember reading a study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research way back in the mid-90’s that concluded much the same. Just shows yet again how old outdated methods hang on tight in the game of baseball.