We here at CheapBats.com have had a lot of questions recently like…
“How much should I rotate my bat between hits?”
“How do I properly break-in my composite bat?”
“What is DeMarini’s Rotation Index?”
These are all great questions that I am going to answer for you!
First off, let’s talk about rotating your bat properly. The ideal thing to do is, after each time you swing and make contact with the ball, rotate your bat by doing a “quarter turn”. This allows you to have 4 solid hits on 4 different spots on the face of the barrel before returning to the original hitting spot you started with. So, if you are at batting practice and hit 100 balls, each quarter part of the barrel is only absorbing 25 hits and ensures the bat lasts as long as it should. It can be tough to remember to do that, especially when you’re at batting practice, but just do the best that you can.
Now, let’s go over how to properly break-in a composite bat. Unlike aluminum/alloy bats, composite isn’t always so “hot right out of the wrapper”. Composite bats are hotter 1,000 swings in, so it’s understandable that the new standards force bat manufacturers to leave a little breathing room to be fair. So, in order to get your bat ready for game time, you should go through a break-in process to make sure you maximize your bats potential when it counts. Here is a suggested procedure to follow…
- Hit 100 balls off of a tee
THEN
- Hit 50 balls from a soft toss (get a coach or teammate to help you out)
THEN
- Hit 50 balls at batting practice (live pitcher or batting cage)
Also, remember, while doing this break-in process make sure you still do the “quarter turn” between each hit. Once this process is completed your bat will be GAME READY!
Lastly, what is DeMarini’s Rotation Index? Well, it’s pretty much the same thing as the “quarter turn”, as it serves as an easy guide to follow so that you rotate your bat the amount that you are supposed to after each hit. It’s definitely a nice feature that should be taken advantage of.
If anybody has any further questions please feel free to comment on this blog or give one of our bat pros a call at 1 (800) 589-4487.
I have never thought about rotating the bat before. I never played much baseball before, but my daughter is just getting into softball now. I will have to make sure that, when she really starts to practice, she rotates the bat every hit!