Sounds like a Little League coach. Been there. Started with TBall, my
boy now plays college ball.
First, doing that would void the certification of the bat and create a safety
problem.
If anything, you want a smaller ball, not a smaller bat. You have to watch
it more closely. One company puts out a metal rod about 3/4" and balls the
size of ping-pong balls.
A very slightly heavier bat may help. Changing dimensions of the
practice bat makes hitting with a normal bat harder.
Lots of 'soft toss' drill is a better idea, stretching, exercise to
develop wrist strength, and attention to mechanics.
Try reading http://www.baseball-excellence.com/sbaseballforums/ .
Or I'm way off base - he might be making a flower vase.


Need to cut down a wooden baseball bat to turn it into a practise bat (i.e.
make it thinner, so more difficult to hit accurately with).
Its 28" (710mm) long and 2.2" (56mm) in diameter at the wide end. Would like
to turn it down at the wide end to about 40mm.
Might there be anyway to do this reasonably well without the use of a lathe?
(which we don't have).
Alternatively might there be a woodworking hobbyist in the North London Area
with a lathe who might be able to help out? Grateful for any advice.
Thanks.

Sounds like a Little League coach. Been there. Started with TBall,
my
boy now plays college ball.
First, doing that would void the certification of the bat and create
a safety problem.

Don't think the OP was at all concerned for certification. He's looking for
practice.


If anything, you want a smaller ball, not a smaller bat. You have to
watch it more closely. One company puts out a metal rod about 3/4"
and balls the size of ping-pong balls.

Was thinking along these same lines. It seemed to make sense to me to use a
smaller diameter bat and smaller diameter balls. But - I've never played
more than sand lot ball, so I really don't know what makes good practice
technique and what does not.



--

-Mike-

On 7/27/11 12:43 PM, Mike Marlow wrote:
Sounds like a Little League coach. Been there. Started with TBall,
my
boy now plays college ball.
First, doing that would void the certification of the bat and create
a safety problem.

Don't think the OP was at all concerned for certification. He's looking for
practice.


If anything, you want a smaller ball, not a smaller bat. You have to
watch it more closely. One company puts out a metal rod about 3/4"
and balls the size of ping-pong balls.

Was thinking along these same lines. It seemed to make sense to me to use a
smaller diameter bat and smaller diameter balls. But - I've never played
more than sand lot ball, so I really don't know what makes good practice
technique and what does not.


The smaller ball doesn't help as much as the smaller bat. With the
smaller ball, you still have to hit the center of the bat, which is
bigger and more forgiving on a regular bat than a smaller bat. The
center of a smaller bat is much less forgiving. Think of how much tread
circumference squarely touches the ground on a tricycle tire as opposed
to a 27" road bike tire.

Hitting the ball square instead of popping out or grounding out can be
only a difference of a mm or less, hi or low, where the bat and ball
meet with a full sized bat. On a narrow practice bat, there is pretty
much no room for error at all.

The other important benefit of using regular balls for practice is the
training the batter gets in seeing the spin on the ball to help
determine what kind of pitch is coming. You can never get too much of
that training and its importance can't be overstated.



--

-MIKE-

"Playing is not something I do at night, it's my function in life"
--Elvin Jones (1927-2004)
--
http://mikedrums.com

---remove "DOT" ^^^^ to reply