Nku, if the bbcor didn't help change how some players hit then what would you say played a part in the numbers from year 1 to year 2? I think it made some hitters learn the proper technique rather than just continue what they were doing with the old bats.

 

I know some players that had bad habits at the plate that were ignored because of the older bats tend to mask some bad habits due to the sweet spot being able to cover up mistakes at times.

 

I think the proper techniques are magnified with bbcor which is why the numbers went up last year.

 

One, I believe the manufacturers may have been able to maximize the potential in the bats more after a year of on field data.

 

Two, I do believe that fundamentals were emphasized a bit more. With BBCOR bats if you hit a pitch a little down the handle or more up towards the cap, your chances of driving one anywhere or much less getting a hit are a lot lower than with the BESR bats. You now have to stay on the pitch longer and can't pull that front shoulder out a bit soon to try and jack one. You need to stay on it and square the pitch up. If you don't, you aren't hitting a homerun.

I don't agree with the statement that BBCOR (or wood, or less "live") bats teach you to be a better hitter. You don't change your swing because of the bat. You still have to grip it and swing it in a fundamentally sound way. What the old bats did though, was allow a less technically sound kid make better contact. Bigger sweet spots, higher exit velocities resulted in more cheap hits, and for those who did make good contact, better power numbers. Now, with BBCOR (or wood), if you don't make good solid contact, you don't get rewarded nearly as often, and it takes real strength and pop to drive the ball over the fence. I've never taught, or seen anyone teach different swing concepts based on the bats they were using. Good technique is good technique, whether your swinging a rocket launcher or a broomstick.

 

I think that you are both right. Although you may not necessarily change the actual swing, the BBCOR bats make hitters focus more on fundamentals in their swing to generate power. Kids now have to focus more on getting hands through the zone, pitch selection and hips in the swing to generate the power. With the old -3 bats, you could get one off of the hands on a "pitchers pitch" and sometimes still get enough on the ball to find a gap. Those old bats were like hitting with dynamite.

Before BBCOR a lot of hitting instructors minimized the step, the load, and promoted less hip rotation with a quick swing not a powerful swing. A contact hitter's approach, which was effective with the preious generation bats. BBCOR changed this bringing back proper mechanics and talk about timing the pitcher and picking the ball up sooner because of a bigger swing. Swings can still get to big and need to be shortened but its not an automatic like before when they walked into a hitting academy.

From the research I've done, the boys should practice with wood bats so they understand and learn the "sweet" spot, which is similar to that of the BBCOR bat. Teaches you to swing harder and to find the smaller sweet spot.