Are the Hype Fire and Icons cheat bats for 11-14U?

14u kids are doing themselves no favors by using those bats. Need to be experiencing the "thud" of BBCOR to prepare for high school.

quote:

---

14u kids are doing themselves no favors by using those bats. Need to be experiencing the "thud" of BBCOR to prepare for high school.

---

Exactly. I made my son use drop 3 a year before he had to because he was big enough to swing it and I figured he could get a leg up. Turns out that was a good decision. A lot of 12-14 year old superstars that are nowhere to be found at 18.

Maveryck needs to be using wood and getting in all his tee work if he’s gonna hit bombs and get that schollie

Thats a big part of it but also mentality that is fostered by idiot parents at that age is a big factor.

quote:

---

Why not use USA instead of USSSA? I've never understood why 'elite' or tournament teams need to have a bat with a 1.15BPF when every other entity uses BBCOR or USA which are 0.5 or lower. This would allow for a much clearer gauge than having kids swing a bat with a 100% greater bpf.

---

because they dont play by little league rules. Example in travel most 12u kids are play 50/75 and allow for base stealing. well majority of travel kids are not getting much bat speed, dont confuse the ~15 or so teams that have major level kids with the majority, and USA bats are not going to allow for a game that is similar to MLB.

USSSA bats are similar to what most of us swing as kids. They are better but not that much better. The issue comes in when you have major level kids that are 80+ exit velo at 12 swinging the bats. IMO the majors division in all ages needs to move back so 12u would go to 54/80 dimensions etc.

but usa bats cause a very very boring game. one that has very little action for those not in the infield. the usssa bats allow for a game similar to one that is played at the college and pro level.

and the other thing is...hitting is fun. in the end even though participation across all levels is up, we still lose way way too many between 12-14u when the field gets bigger. Last thing we want to do is for the lower level travel kids to start dropping because they cant get the ball out the infield with usa bats

you will have guys like on the posters above talking about how most 12u stars dont translate....that isnt true. What he sees is those kids that are good for lower level travel or LL who can only hit because they are bigger not translating. That is rarely the case with the actual good kids. All you have to do is go look at the PBR top 10 for LA in any year and you will see in 99% of the cases, those kids have been known about on the travel circuit since they were young. Most played for the best teams in their area or in the state.

quote:

---

You want to delve deeper into hot bats search composite bat shaving and rolling.

---

well rolling doesnt do anything but break the bat in properly and evenly. not sure why people have gotten then absurd notion that it is some form of cheating, none the less it is outlawed....but again testing shows all it does is break the bat in properly, it does not make it go beyond intended rebound. You cant even tell if a bat has been rolled or not, even if you did forensic investigation on it.

shaving is different. you are literally altering the bat to make it have a greater rebound. you are making the walls thinner and its 100% against the rules and as a parent if your kid hurts someone with a shaved bat, you could get prosecuted.

batbros did a video on this recently comparing a broken in bat, a rolled bat and a shaved bat.

as far as the hottest bats go, depends on what you are looking for. but icon, hype fire, the dub, the supra, tank are going to be the main ones in drop 5. in drop 8 and 10 the icon, the dub and supra are prolly the best

quote:

---

well rolling doesnt do anything but break the bat in properly and evenly. not sure why people have gotten then absurd notion that it is some form of cheating, none the less it is outlawed....but again testing shows all it does is break the bat in properly, it does not make it go beyond intended rebound. You cant even tell if a bat has been rolled or not, even if you did forensic investigation on it.

---

Correct it does break the bat in quicker and properly. The thing is composite bats usually need XX amount of contacts to get it to the proper stage.

quote:

---

My son just played his last game with drop 5. Making him swing bbcor from here on out as he moves to 14u this Fall. Kids need to be lifting their asses off prior to HS and training with heavy bats.

---

agreed. and man for some reason i thought yours was going to 13u next year.

and yea kids should be using a bbcor drop 3 at 14u in games. training should be with a wood drop 3.

13u should swing a drop 5 in games, a drop 3 wood in training.

12u should swing drop 8 in games(only because drop 5 is banned in pg 12 and under) and a drop 5 in training.

etc etc

every baseball kid should be lifting in some form even at 8 years old. cant do a pullup....cant throw a baseball should be the rule, just for arm health.

but agreed they should be doing over and under load training along with lifting/medballs from the start.

quote:

---

12u should swing drop 8 in games(only because drop 5 is banned in pg 12 and under) and a drop 5 in training.

---

90% of kids can't swing a drop 5 when they are 11 years old. Maybe they should be swinging it off of a tee, but even practicing off of live pitching would be pointless as that bat would be too heavy for the vast majority of 11 year olds and would alter there swing mechanics.

I would agree most of them should be swinging a drop 8.