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Bat Rolling – Don’t just send your $300 bat to anyone – The REAL FACTS! As you may or may not know Composite bats are made of multiple layers of fiber, resin, and glue. The combination of these materials gives modern day bats their strength and durability. If you haven?t seen how modern composite bats are made BatRollingBlog.com has a great video link showing the process. After watching the video you?ll understand what we are saying in this article. Due to the natural makeup of these bats they typically come from the factory performing at a low level. This is because the walls are stiff and are not able to flex as much. As soon as you start using your bat the glues and resins begin to break down. In the Baseball and Softball world this in known as “breaking in”. As the ?break in? occurs, the barrel of the bat the barrel will begin the flex more. This creates greater trampoline effect and increases in performance will be seen. Balls will travel further and your sweet spot will increase. Around 2003 it was determined you could achieve the same ?break in? of composite bats via other methods other than normal usage. One of those methods is Bat Rolling and it is accomplished by compressing your bat through nylon or hard rubbers rollers. Your bat is compressed at increasingly more pressure by a Bat Rolling Machine and rotated around the circumference of the bat 8-12 times to completely break the bat in. A typical bat roll will put the equivalent of 300-500 hits on your bat. These increased hits equates to an increase in batted ball speed and farther distance of hit baseballs or softballs. Multiple independent studies have been done and the performance increases are astounding.

There are 2 primary ways to roll your bat. Perpendicular and Parallel. The most widely used method is Perpendicular Rolling. As you can imagine, composite bats are designed to accept impacts in small areas (similar to that of a softball or baseball). Perpendicular most closely mimics this impact area on your bat. All of the independent studies I mentioned above where done with a perpendicular style roller. The top 2 bat rolling companies use a perpendicular roller as their primary recommended way of rolling. Within the last year or so a Parallel roller was designed and put on the market. The MAIN reason this unit was put on the market was to speed up the bat rolling process. With a Parallel bat roller you are making contact over a 6-7 inch area on the bat. Bats where never designed to accept pressure in this manner and by doing this you are applying much more pressure on the barrel. This WILL potentially cause your bat to break faster and will not give you optimal results. From ALL the information I?ve received from various bat rolling companies is that they ALL roll bats via the perpendicular way. Look at it this way, ?If it isn?t broke then don?t try to fix it?. Anyone trying to sell you that you must roll Parallel or some combination of Perpendicular or Parallel is simply giving you a sales pitch. You need to look past that and look at it logically.

You would think that by using a Bat Roller to advance the break in of your bat you would shortening the life of that bat. For the most part this is correct but if you?ve ever taken the time to read the warranty cards that come with your bat they give you instructions on the proper use and break in. As you hit the bat you are suppose to rotate the bat a 1/4 turn after each hit. I think it?s safe to say most people won?t do this. This creates dead spots and weak spots along the barrel of the bat. As you use the bat more and more these spots increase in size and number. You?re bat will never be fully broken in evenly. By rolling your bat you?ll get even performance and you will not have any weak spots. In the end I?d say Bat Rolling will shorten your bat life by about 5%. This is only my best educated guess since no one has ever done a comparison. The performance increase will out weight the durability loss so it becomes a non issue.

Summary: Composite bats will have performance increases as they become broken in, Perpendicular rolling is the preferred method of bat rolling, choose a company the offer Perpendicular rolling as their primary rolling method.

One of the top Bat Rolling service companies is BatRolling4u.com. They have 5+ years experience.

To keep up to date on ALL the current Bat Rolling news please visit: The BatRollingBlog