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SUBURBAN LITTLE LEAGUE

SUBURBAN LITTLE LEAGUE

How to Buy a Bat

The below content are general guidelines for determining proper length for your child's bat.  We encourage you to speak with either your child's coach or a sporting goods professional to ensure a proper fit.

How to measure children for a bat

If your young player is between 3’ and 3’4”, start with a 26-inch bat and increase the bat size 1 inch for every 4-to-5 inches that they grow. The following steps are the ideal process for determining the correct bat size for children:

  1. Measure his/her height - be sure you measure with his/her baseball cleats on
  2. Compare him/her to the bat - stand a bat up next to your child. The bat should reach, but not exceed, your child’s hip. If it reaches past his/her hip area, it’s going to be too long to swing
  3. Weigh them - weight is a contributing factor to which bat he/she should swing because the little league bat size chart uses a combination of weight and height to determine the best bat choice
    • In general, children under 60 pounds should swing a bat between 26 and 29 inches long
    • If your child weighs more than 70 pounds, his/her bat should range from 28 to 32 inches in length



How to Choose the Correct Baseball or Softball Bat Weight

Before looking at weights, it’s important to first understand a little bit more:

  • Bat weight is measured by the minus or drop weight
  • Drop weight is the difference between the length and weight of the bat, so a bat that is 30 inches long and has a drop weight of -10 will weigh 20 ounces
  • The bigger the drop weight is, the lighter the bat will weigh

If you are a strong player, you may assume you want a heavier bat. This is not necessarily the case. You’ll want to swing a bat that still allows you to generate the ideal amount of bat speed through the zone. Finding this balance could be difficult at first, but once you do, you’ll be hitting the ball farther and harder than you could have imagined.

After finding a baseline for the length of the bat, it’s important to incorporate the length of the bat into deciding on the weight. For youth baseball and softball, the taller the child, the longer the bat should be. They may not be strong enough to use a heavier bat, so they would have a bat with a larger weight drop.

Little League 2 1/4" Baseball Bats

Age Under 7 8-9 10-11 12-13
Length 24"-26" 26"-29" 28"-30" 29"-32"
Drop (-13.5)-(-12) (-13.5)-(-10) (-13)-(-10) (-10)-(-9)


USA Baseball Bats

USA Bats Logo
Beginning January 1, 2018, Little League Baseball has adopted a new USA Baseball Bat Standard (for baseball only, does not apply to softball). The objective of this rule change is to make the game more uniform and ensure the long-term integrity of the game. Tee Ball bats are also affected under this new rule change. The new USA bats can range in barrel size from 2 1/4” to 2 5/8”. The weight drops can vary from -13.5 all the way to -5.

For more information on the new USA Baseball Bat Standard, click here.



**Information provided courtesy of https://www.baseballmonkey.com/baseball-bat-buying-guide


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Suburban Little League
401 Baylor Blvd. 
New Castle, Delaware 19720

Phone: 302-299-3861
Email: [email protected]

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