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Softball is highly competitive, and there are so many athletes trying to find a way to get ahead. Naturally, fielding, base running, and throwing are vital to any team and are requirements for any athlete to pursue, but hitting is what really separates a special player from his teammates. One of the most effective tools for improving your hitting is having the right bat for your swing and for your hitting style. Unlike youth baseball bat purchases which are purchased by a parent, slow pitch softball bats are most often purchased directly by the player. While there are many excellent bats available on the market, it is crucial to find one that can be designed specifically to take advantage of your strengths and to minimize your weaknesses as a hitter. 

Before formal MLB regulations were introduced, baseball bat styles were almost as diverse as the players' personalities and hitting styles. It seemed every player became an experimenter in an attempt to create the perfect bat, the bat that might make them legends.

Whether players wanted power-hitting sluggers or high-accuracy hitters, the goal of any bat type was to, as Wee Willie Keeler would have said, “hit ‘em where they ain't”.

What are one's chances of landing a college baseball scholarship?

Well, let's look at a few inconvenient truths that many people don't examine... Very few players actually make it to the big leagues (NCAA Division I). You can study a sport your whole life, even in college, but it's not easy to get recruited, much less noticed, by the right people. It's not impossible, but the odds are certainly against you.

Baseball and softball combined is the most popular participation sport in the US, with nearly 25 million enthusiasts who played in 2016, according to an annual report published by the Sports and Fitness Industry Association (SFIA). That's almost three times the participation numbers seen in football!

SFIA's findings also reveal an 8.1 percent increase in overall and a 12.4 percent rise in casual slow-pitch softball participation. It's no surprise that slow-pitch softball is one of the most popular recreational sports, as it is easily accessible to people of all ages, genders, and skill levels.

Have you ever had a teacher that was overbearing, skittish, or tended to focus too much on the negative? People like that bring us down as children, and cause hurdles in our learning patterns and self-esteem.

The same goes for coaches. Children that play baseball are likely to learn strength, endurance, critical thinking, teamwork, and above all, confidence granted they have the right people on their side, but if their coaches spend too much time on the sidelines screaming at them when they make a mistake, that's a bad sign. A fanatical coach is likely to destroy your child's love of baseball, learning, and even themselves.

Why should children play baseball?

Perhaps more than most sports, baseball requires an intense level of concentration that will teachyour little ones to focus and visualize their objectives beforehand. Henry Kissinger once remarked that baseball was “the most intellectual game because most of the action goes on in your head,” and boy… Was he right.

Let's start by saying there's nothing wrong with aluminum bats. They are very light and help players who would not otherwise be able to compete play youth recreational baseball.

But a wood baseball bat prepares your young player for so much more. If they're serious about the sport and they've got what it takes to be the next Babe Ruth, wood bats offer incomparable advantages for your little slugger.

In order to hit like a pro, you need to get tips from a pro.

20-year Major League Baseball veteran and famed batting instructor Reggie Smith has written out some hitting tips for us to share with you:

Staying “On-Plane” Key to Making Solid Contact

Baseball is a great sport for children to get involved in. Not only is it a good source of exercise, but it is fun too!

If your child is new to baseball, it can be difficult to know which bat to buy. There are so many different types of bats to choose from. Each child has different needs when it comes to bat size. That is why it is so important to make sure that those needs are met when shopping for a bat.

If your child starts out with a bat that does not fit their needs, they will most likely begin to create bad habits that will be hard to correct in the future. Taking the time to make sure that you find the right bat for your child will help your child develop good technique, which they will need for their future baseball career.

Have you had a hard time in translating the power you feel in your swing to the long floating fly balls that either scrape the wall or carry out of the park entirely scoring runs for your team? Don't worry – everyone who has ever stepped into the box or a cage has been baffled by both how to add power to his swing and how to make the ball carry. Luckily, X Bats has designed hitting tools alongside legendary major leaguer Reggie Smith that support exactly the kinds of training necessary to teach you how to improve the power in your swing, the specificity of your grip and the sought-after backspin that wafts fly balls over the heads of back-peddling outfielders.

Among the many different types of bats that have seen renewed popularity in training for baseball play, the fungo bat has been resurrected from the dusty annals of baseball practice to once again help develop solid players. Regular practicing with a fungo bat can do a lot to improve play, and it's a technique that has fall to the wayside in many amateur leagues. Fungo practice can really give a team an extra edge during actual game play

Back in the 1840s, long before companies began to mass-manufacture Wood bats, players actually had to make their own bats. Working with whatever wood was laying around, whether it was an ax handle or a wagon wheel spoke, these makeshift bats were known as “striker's sticks.” Over time, the wagon tongue wood became the material of choice for these bats. Using the spokes of freight wagon wheels that were used during the 1800s, the spoke would be shaped into a flat, hitting stick that was tapered at one end to create a grip. Because wagon wheels were mostly made from hickory wood, which is very hard, the bats were long-lasting and didn't often need to be replaced in the underhanded pitching games that were popular at that time.

While the traditional method of teaching baseball involves the use of metal bats, the fact is that wood bats are the holy grail of baseball, and the use of a wood bat is where every serious ball player wants to end up.

Baseball is considered by many to be the all-American pastime, and baseball fans are ardent in their devotion to the game and their teams. By the same token, youth across the country are enthralled with playing the game themselves as family and friends cheer them on. Even far into adulthood, players continue to participate in and love the sport as a way to stay fit and active, while pursuing a passion that was likely love at first strike.

All softball coaches are the same in certain respects, no matter what their level of experience. You have a deep love of the game, and you love your softball team, too. But lately, they've been dragging. Low scores, obvious errors, sluggish play. You want to motivate your kids to play better softball, without breaking their spirit. Whether you are coaching boys or girls, kids or teens, little league or high school teams, here are the top five ways to improve their game, without lowering morale: