As a youth baseball coach, I've seen a lot of swing and contact training bats come and go. A lot of them are good, but most of them try to fix one or two flaws in a hitter's swing. Things like "staying inside the ball" or "hand-eye coordination" or "contact training." The truth is that most of them neglect the very basics of a proper baseball swing: a batter's swing starts from the feet up, so any type of bat that tries to alter the swing without addressing every aspect of the player's body that comes before it isn't truly helping.

Big Lumber's solid maple Drop -5 Skinny Barrel swing and contact training bat serves every aspect of a player's swing. When a player is young, he or she needs to develop the proper swing mechanics as early as possible. This will avoid many swing-damaging tips the player will try to learn later on. 

A training bat should help build the muscles needed for a proper, strong, smooth swing. Our wooden, skinny-barrel swing trainer does just that. Here are the 7 reasons why it's the best swing trainer for youth baseball players:

1. Perfect bat weight for swing and strength training. A heavy training bat should be heavier than the player's game bat, but not too heavy so that it forces the player to swing incorrectly. Outr skinny-barrel wood bat is about a drop -5 in weight, meaning that if a bat is 30 inches in length, the weight is 25 ounces (29" bat is 24 oz, 28" bat is 23 oz., etc.). Anything heavier than that and the player's body will reflexively swing incorrectly to compensate for too much added weight. Likewise, anything lighter than that probably isn't significant enough to make a big difference.
2. No donut weight needed. Use our skinny barrel swing trainer in the on-deck circle and it's just like having a 5-oz. donut weight on the bat, except it won't feel end-heavy and clumsy. It allows a youth player who typically uses a drop -10 game bat to warm up on-deck while maintaining a swing that's consistent with the game bat.
3. The skinny-barrel swing training bat can be the same length as the player's game bat. A lot of players use a drop -10 as their game bat (e.g.: 30" bat length would be 20 oz. in weight, etc.) which is fine. But a lot of times, players will switch to a longer, heavier bat in practice. The extra weight is frequently only about 2-3 oz. heavier which isn't really significant. Also, the sweet spot of the bat has now moved further away from the hitter when using a longer bat. Even in soft toss, we don't want players getting the feel for the incorrect sweet spot.
4. It's evenly weighted like a real game bat. Some swing trainers might be end-loaded which can alter a player's swing; like we mentioned above, a donut weight gives an odd balance to a bat, too. There are even wooden bats that leave a giant "bulb" of wood just above the handle and just below the barrel. Concentrating that much weight on one part of the bat doesn't lend to a natural-feeling swing. Keeping the weight distributed throughout the bat is optimal to keep consistent and proper swing mechanics.
5. The 2-inch barrel diameter is great for contact training. There are a lot of super-skinny contact trainers out there. In theory, these are fine, but in reality, they're just too skinny (like a broomstick). Some kids use these and concentrate so much on contact that they don't keep their consistent swing mechanics. Kids never want to miss a ball so they end up slapping at it with their hands and arms while totally neglecting their lower body (which is where all the power comes from). Using our 2-inch diameter barrel, it's 1/4-of-an-inch skinnier than the skinniest game bat, but it's not so skinny to where the players feel like they couldn't possibly make contact unless they slowed way down. With our wooden skinny bat, kids can swing away, full-throttle. They're also made of the same one-piece, hand-split, rock-solid maple that our game bats are made of, so while we recommend hitting mostly plastic, practice balls with them, feel free to hit soft toss with real baseballs into the net with them as well.
6. The perfect balance, weight, length and barrel diameter leads to optimal swing mechanics at a younger age. The bat is evenly weighted, it's the correct length, the barrel is just skinny enough, and the bat is just heavy enough, but not too heavy. All this leads to the player being forced to use his or her entire body to swing with control and power all while being able to focus on making solid contact. After using the wooden skinny bat for a while, you'll see your child swing properly from the feet up: step, plant, turn the hips, transfer the weight, maintain balance and watch the ball fly away!

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We get asked a lot, "What wood are your bats made out of?" On that note, full disclosure: we only make bats out of sold, one-piece, top-grade maple. More importantly, why do we only use maple for our bats, and is it the best wood for a baseball bat?

In our opinion, maple is the best all-around wood for baseball bats, but that's not to say you can't get a quality, professional-grade bat made out of other woods, like birch, ash or bamboo. Below is a breakdown of the differences, pros and cons of each wood that baseball bats are typically made out of.