Monday, August 8, 2011

New BBCOR Baseball Bat Regulations to Take Effect in 2012

By Derek Etherington


The game of high school baseball is changing. A completely new regulation designed for baseball bats is going to take effect January 1, 2012 for all high schools around the country. The National Federation of High Schools (NFHS) has dictated that all baseball bats made use of in high school play needs to be BBCOR certified starting with the start of the new year. The state of California already made this rule in effect for the 2011 season. The NCAA, along with the other collegiate organizations, also applied the brand new principle for 2011.

The acronym, BBCOR, means "Batted Ball Coefficient of Restitution." The new principle will replace the previous BESR (Ball Exit Speed Ratio) standard that was in position throughout the 2011 season. The last mentioned principle assessed the ratio of the baseball's exit in comparison to the speed of both the pitch along with the swing of the bat. The BBCOR rating basically measures the trampoline effect of the bat's walls. I won't bore you using the genuine formula for the measurement, but think of the wall of the bat as a trampoline. When you bounce upward and after that down to the elastic material of the trampoline, it compresses and then it comes back up, permitting you to bounce higher as compared to what you possibly can off of an ordinary surface. The very same event transpires by using a thin-walled baseball bat. Any time the baseball meets the bat, the wall of the bat compresses like a trampoline, empowering the baseball to essentially maintain even more of its energy and soar for more distance and a lot quicker away from the bat. The BBCOR regulation regulates this trampoline effect, proclaiming that it can't be over a rating of .50. Every one of the bats shall be expected to contain the BBCOR logo printed on them to be authorized in high school games for the 2012 season.

By utilizing this new principle, the NFHS hopes to return the sport more to its beginnings, when wooden baseball bats were the standard. This standard will hopefully bring the performance of the bats closer to their wooden cousins. By lowering the velocity of the ball, the sport will be played in different ways. Homeruns won't be as rampant as they have been in recent times. And, we'll probably see a return to "small-ball." There can certainly be the potential of batters to return to employing wooden bats a little more. With the BBCOR bats performing more like wood, batters will not be gaining as much when using the non-wooden bats, allowing them to possess the pick of working with wooden bats once again.

Safety factors are yet another area the NFHS hopes to see a vast improvement with the advent of the BBCOR ordinance. The decrease in the ball's velocity should really minimize the danger that players encounter on the defensive side of the ball, especially for the pitcher. With the gain in safety, it'll be interesting to discover how many other leagues follow the NCAA and NFHS. Little League Baseball restricted composite bats last season, but removed the moratorium on particular bats. Will they follow suit making BBCOR their guideline too? Leagues, including Babe Ruth, Cal Ripken, Pony, etc., don't have specific restrictions on bats presently. Conceivably they may be waiting around to determine how the BBCOR standard works out in the older age leagues before making a decision on their side. Of course, that is certainly absolute conjecture on the author's part.

Overall, the new regulation ought to help to make the sport a much better experience for everybody associated. No longer will it be simply an offensive highlight as it has been in years past. And, the better safety of the game will likely be much better for players, coaches, umpires, and spectators.




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