For your child to excel at any sport, you first want to provide them with the right tools. Gear selection is essential for softball players due to the various bat layout factors that affect a participant’s style and performance.
Choosing the perfect bat for young players may be tough, whether starting their first softball season or just selecting a new bat to support their developing bodies each year. If you’re looking for the best softball bats for youths, sorted by age, you’re in the right place.
The short answer is this. Your child’s weight, height, and speed aren’t precisely the same as their friends. So, the high-quality softball bat for them is probably different.
However, before the start of the season, there are three factors to consider when selecting a softball bat: length, weight, and drop. These factors may impact the swing, so be sure you understand how and what to look for in each design.
Also, it’s essential to appreciate a bat’s composition earlier before buying _ to optimize your child’s specific needs. We researched for you and narrowed it down to the best bat you can buy for a young player based on their age. So read on to learn more!
Qualities To Look For In Good Softball Bats
Below are some helpful tips to enable you to choose the best softball bat for your child.
Size Of The Bat
You want to visit a sporting goods store to get a selection of tools geared to assist you in making the best gear choices.
Softball size charts, for example, are ubiquitous at these establishments. Take a look at your child’s current height and weight. Then, take a look at the chart’s advice. It will recommend a suitable bat length and weight depending on your child’s measurements.
You may also perform your calculations to determine the ideal bat length. This is sometimes advantageous for children who are taller or heavier than the average for their age group. For example, your child may be unusually tall for their age.
A 61 to 66cm long bat is required for a youngster aged 5-7 years to play fastball proficiently. Children aged 8 to 9 years should use a bat that is 66 to 74cm in length. After that, add roughly 2.54cm (or one inch) to the ideal bat length each year.
How To Shop For Drops
When discussing youth softball, the term “drop” refers to the differential between the weight and length. Again, the perfect softball bat for your child is one with a drop that is appropriate for their age range or closely matched to their unique proportions. Children under ten often perform better with a lower drop number (between -13.5 and -10).
It may seem apparent, but you’d be shocked how many people buy softball bats without first carefully touching them. To acquire the best match, allow your youngster to handle, carry, and manipulate the bat. Allow them to swing it a bit (as long as it’s safe) to feel how it rests in their hands.
Handle Dimensions
While handle diameter is an easy element to ignore, it is a highly significant feature. It may undoubtedly have a significant influence on how your youngster plays. The handle end of all softball bats is tapered, although the thickness varies. A thinner handle may be more comfortable for a youngster with small, slender wrists.
Thickness, on the other hand, decreases impact vibrations and increases speed. Consider striking a balance between comfort and performance.
Material
Finally, we get to the most crucial aspect – the softball bat’s material makeup. Traditional wooden bats, lightweight metal bats, and bats made of composite materials such as cork, felt, and polyurethane is available. The best option for your child will be determined by the sort of game they play and the regulations established by their team, club, league, or organization.
Best Softball Bats For Youths (By Age)
Purchasing a child softball bat is one of your first experiences with the sport. So you want to ensure that you have the proper-sized bat. Our easy-to-read manual below will help you choose a bat for your upcoming season, so you don’t want to stop reading.
What Is The Best Softball Bat For 6-Year-Olds?
The Mizuno Finch is an incredibly lightweight bat with a traditional one-piece built, forged from Mizuno’s MZ 1700 Alloy, and a cushioned grip to put off vibration.
Mizuno is used by several top softball gamers globally and team U.S.A. legend Jennie Finch. This company understands how crucial it is to have the proper equipment all through the early levels of a young player’s profession.
What Is The Best Softball Bat For 7-Year-Olds?
The Easton MAKO eleven holds an ultra-skinny 29/32″ attacked to an all-sports grip, making it smooth to address and control for younger gamers with small arms and a light hold.
Easton is made from aluminum alloy and is long-lasting enough to face brutal hits and lightweight sufficient for learning rapid swing speeds.
What Is The Best Softball Bat For 8-Year-Olds?
The DeMarini Bustos allows young players to attain their total capacity with high-quality bat technology. The bat comprises a 2-piece hybrid consolation grip and fiber bolstered composite handles to save hand sting and vibrations.
This bat’s handle and barrel are also performance-matched, which means that the bat responds to the energy of a fast-shifting ball with premiere flex and cringe. It is built with DX1 Alloy and a rotation index to remind gamers to constantly rotate their bat at some point of the play.
What Is The Best Softball Bat For 9-Year-Olds?
The average 9-year-old should be swinging a bat weighing 18 ounces. The only way to know for sure is to test it out. But, we believe that a 29-inch bat is appropriate for the average 9-year-old.
If you’re searching for the best deal on a 9-year-old fastpitch bat, we recommend DeMarini’s Bustos in a drop 13. Look for a 30 or 29-inch model with a 17 or 16-ounce weight.
The DeMarini Bustos holds a composite barrel and an internal Rails Hybrid which help cast off vibration and hand sting while making hard hits while maintaining power.
DeMarini also knows the importance of a nicely established quit-cap for a bat’s swing weight, sense, and even sound. With seize cease-Cap era developed entirely for DeMarini, this bat is optimized for all 3 of those overall performance factors.
What Is The Best Softball Bat For 10-Year-Olds?
Regardless of the brand, the appropriate size increases the chances of success. That said, we recommend DeMarini’s CF Zen Fastpitch Bat. It takes advantage of a 3-Fusion generation machine, which means that each bat phase changes into designed paintings together, symbiotically, and for top-quality performance.
For example, this bat’s three-Fusion end-cap and handle images collectively redirect electricity back off the barrel while making contact with the ball for effective hits.
The bat’s Paraflex Composite substances supply the bat with a standard gold flex. These technologies continuously put DeMarini’s at the top of the game, with a number of the lightest swinging and maximum appearing bats on the market.
What Is The Best Softball Bat For 11-Year-Olds?
According to actual use, the best bat size for an 11-year-old is a 30-inch bat weighing 19 and 21 ounces. 30-inch bats weighing 19 to 21 ounces account for 40% of 11U bat usage. In addition, another 40% of players in those weight classes use a 29-inch or 31-inch.
On this basis, we recommend Louisville Slugger. It is one of the maxima trusted names in the game. Their 2022 validated collection is a 100% composite layout with a 1-piece creation. The bat feels solid and easy to control. This layout makes the bat incredible for younger players learning to control their bat at better swing speeds.
What Is The Best Softball Bat For 12-Year-Olds?
Most drop 8 bats range in length from 30 to 32 inches. 31-inch drop 8 bats are our recommendation for the average 12-year-old (which would make it 23-ounces). Easton’s Ghost teens bat is just what it feels like.
With Easton’s CXN zero two-piece Conation technology, gamers could make massive hits without experiencing vibration or hand stings.
This bat’s extremely-thin 29/32″ composite handle and 1.2mm Hyperskin grip allow players to hold and comfortably preserve the bat for gameplay.
Easton’s Ghost teens bat equally has a smooth, frivolously-balanced swing weight so that youngsters are already acquainted with the bat on first use.
What Is The Best Softball Bat For 13-Year-Olds?
Most 13-14-year-old players will perform well with a 29-31 inch bat. However, smaller players will benefit from a shorter, lighter bat to enhance bat speed and control. While a larger, stronger player will prefer a longer, heavier bat.
In this manual, we recommend the Louisville Slugger Quest collection. It uses S1iD technology to create a more prominent “sweet spot” on the barrel where the ball will capture its maximum pop.
What Is The Best Softball Bat For 14-Year-Olds?
We recommend the Louisville Slugger Xeno series, which features the S1iD inner disc era, maximizing barrel flex without increasing resistance.
This bat’s LS-2X composite thin-walled, lightweight barrel allows players to strike at incredibly rapid exit speeds that reach the legal limit, possibly without exceeding it. Another way, this bat enables players to hit hard and fast.
This model is available in three distinct weight drops: (-10), (-9), and (-1). (-8). It is indeed a bat for the serious softball player with lofty goals.
Conclusion
We chose/compiled these bats because they had been built with specific technology and features intended to help your child’s studying curve, including more prominent candy spots and reduced hand sting upon ball impact. They can feel assured in themselves while enjoying the sphere with these.
Thanks for reading to the end. We hope you learned!