My 7 year old (8 in May) son who has been playing soccer for a few years now will be playing baseball this spring for the first time. It will be on a coach pitch team and they have to use USA bats.

I have a couple of bats from his older brother that I plan on using for him, but I’m confused by the sizing charts for his height and weight: (4 foot 2 in and 70 lbs) One seems to indicate a 27” -10 bat is good but another says it should be a 28” -10 bat.

I had him do some practice swings with both and it seemed like the smaller one does suit him a little better but I am a little confused here, should I just have him try both in April and see what works for him I guess?

Find the bat he can swing. At his age it's about bat control and learning to swing. Don't be in a hurry to get him to a bigger bat.

Swinging both is good but it's about getting the bat around and making contact. Believe it or not an inch longer bat and an ounce heavier bat can make a big difference.

Practice in the cage with the 28, and use the 27 in live ball. You'll be able to see when he's ready to move up.

Yep, they are suggestions and everyone is different. Have all the kids try each others bats in practice if you’re unsure. Have fun, you’re about to have more bats than you ever thought.

Thanks everyone

I do try to get the right size bats as I’ve seen way too many times where these kids are showing up with these gigantic bats that they can barely swing. It’s clear the parents just grabbed something for them that looked good and did not do any research.

I did a lot of coaching of rec kids like we are talking here. 1000% do not buy a bat until he gets to start. for now use whatever you have. see what other kids have and try theirs then find what works best and buy that. They are going to run around $50 for usa bat. I had excellent success with rawlings bats for usa they were a good bang for the buck. for now use what you have and soft toss him those plastic golf balls to hit. best thing you can do by far. sit on a bucket in front of him and just flick pitch them in and let him blast away.

quote:

Originally posted by Timdogg6:
I did a lot of coaching of rec kids like we are talking here. 1000% do not buy a bat until he gets to start. for now use whatever you have. see what other kids have and try theirs then find what works best and buy that. They are going to run around $50 for usa bat. I had excellent success with rawlings bats for usa they were a good bang for the buck. for now use what you have and soft toss him those plastic golf balls to hit. best thing you can do by far. sit on a bucket in front of him and just flick pitch them in and let him blast away.

And keep in mind, he’s going to want to use someone else’s bat after the first few times. There always seems to be a “hot” bat on our teams that everyone wants to use each game. Kills me after spending hundreds and looking at a cage full of expensive bats, but there it is. Hold your money as long as you can, and save it for what you decide after a few practices/discussions with other parents.
Good luck, hang on, and have fun!

No, not planning on buying any new bats for the 7 year old at this point.

We have the 27” Marucci and 28” Easton that his brother used and will be his now. I think I spent $100 on the Marucci (and caught shit from my frugal wife LOL) and $50 on the Easton.

Before I left Reddit I was on a Little League sub there and was always amazed at these parents on there thinking a $350-$400 bat is going to make little Johnny suddenly better when he just needs to learn with a basic bat.

Yeah, so true. But the kids get SO much hype from their teammates and any propaganda online. It’s wild how invested they become in having the latest/greatest. And the folks making money off of them, well, they aren’t going to stop that ball rolling.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
I think I spent $100 on the Marucci (and caught shit from my frugal wife LOL) and $50 on the Easton.

OH jeez you went there already.....
Makes no difference if the kid can't even make contact with the ball so, just work on fundamentals...grip, stance, head/eyes steady, which direction to run, etc.
Keep the expenses to teh juice boxes and pizza. Maybe a new wrist-band, batting glove or, eye-black...big league chew.
I went to a nephew's game, the number of kids going up there with all manor of protective gear (drip) , then getting into their batters box antics as if they were pros. Now I'm going to start barking at the pros for what they did to all the kids

There might be rules on what type of bats he can use. Spent 200$ for a bat that my nephew couldn’t use in his league.

quote:

Originally posted by valkyrie1:
There might be rules on what type of bats he can use. Spent 200$ for a bat that my nephew couldn’t use in his league.

Has to be a USA bat in our league, they are supposed to be purposefully a little dead for safety. Made the mistake of getting a USSSA bat which are fatter and hotter and my kid is ripping balls out into the outfield and the coach comes over with the bat and says "yeah...you can't use this here" OOPS.

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:

I went to a nephew's game, the number of kids going up there with all manor of protective gear (drip) , then getting into their batters box antics as if they were pros.

Yep, been there, seen that.

At the end of the season last year they formed an All Star team to play a couple games against other leagues and we show up and I knew we were in trouble when all the kids had hot $300+ composite USSSA bats and runner's mits and custom backpacks with their team name and logo.

It was like a small high school team playing the Yankees or Philles. OUCH.