The Collision

[Greenmonsters]

My hitting experience is consistent with everything that I've read, which concludes there's no significant difference between baseball/bat and softball/bat collisions i.e., hand force has no bearing on impact. However, I don't know that testing has been done with the large drop bats (i.e., -12s and -13s where there isn't as much mass differential between the bat and softball) and slower bat speeds common to smaller, younger hitters. Still, although the collision equation might differ, I still don't think the hands would have a bearing on impact.

 

[obbay]

The difference in mass between
Baseball bat: ball
and
Softball bat: ball
is the reason I teach bunting by holding the barrell of the bat, not by doing the baseball pinch behind it. DD recently had a "pseudo-coach" tell her to hold the bat differently with the thumb behind the barrel which promptly resulted in a sprained thumb.

 

[Eric F]

My hitting experience is consistent with everything that I've read, which concludes there's no significant difference between baseball/bat and softball/bat collisions i.e., hand force has no bearing on impact. However, I don't know that testing has been done with the large drop bats (i.e., -12s and -13s where there isn't as much mass differential between the bat and softball) and slower bat speeds common to smaller, younger hitters. Still, although the collision equation might differ, I still don't think the hands would have a bearing on impact.

I appreciate your input.

It seems to me that the impact equation would vary SIGNIFICANTLY depending on pitching speeds and bat mass. A 23oz bat swung quickly against a 65mph pitch is going to be a very different equation than a 18oz bat swung slowly against a 35mph pitch.

 

[PEPPERS]

I ran across this article sometime ago, it is a little date, but includes some good information on bat and ball impact.

http://www.sluggermuseum.com/workspace/uploads/hitting-a-baseball.._7_9.pdf