Does Varying Bat Weight in Warm-up Change Swing Pattern in Baseball Players?
Researchers from the Department of Kinesiology at Texas Christian University created a study to examine the effects of the common practice of warming-up with bats of modified weights prior to entering into the hitter’s box. Ten baseball players were recruited as subjects and performed three different warm-up protocols which required five swings: condition I utilized a standard bat, condition II utilized a standard bat plus 0.6 kg lead donut, and condition III utilized a hollow plastic bat. After the 5 warm-up swings the subjects then performed 5 additional swings with a standard bat. Analysis of the data revealed that adding weight to a standard bat during warm-up reduces the movement velocity of subsequent standard bat swings. Interestingly, the researchers also determined that the weighted warm-up protocol resulted in a change in the contribution of the lead arm to the bat swing, this may partially explain why bat velocity was decreased. The analysis of condition III revealed similar
