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[Kevtheplumber]

Hi everyone having been out of the game for a long time its a bit of an eye opener finding places like this. First question and I hope its not stupid, can anyone explain the real difference and the meaning of pick up regarding bats? Also how much difference does the weight make? Is it more a personal thing or is the heavier the bat the harder it hits. Thanks in advance.

[LEACHY48]

essentially, pick up is how it feels in your hands, a bat can have for example a light pick up, meaning that the bat weighs 2.10 but feels lighter than that when you pick it up in your batting stance, now obviously weight effects this, for example a very heavy 3lb bat is not going to pick up like a 2.7 bat. Heavy bats will hit the ball far regardless due to the sheer amount of weight behind the ball, however a bat that is pressed well (any maker on this forum) can get a light bat to hit the ball just as far

hope this helped

[Beaup123]

In regards to pick up it is how heavy the bat 'feels' compared to it's real weight e.g. if a 2.9 bat feels like it weighs 2.7 it is a light pick up
Weight is a personal thing but obviously the heavier it is the more wood the bat contains meaning it should hit the ball further
hope this helped

[cleanbowled]

I think the guys above covered the definition of pick up very well. All things being equal a heavier bat will hit the ball further. I think a couple of other points worth adding are that heavier bats will usually have larger sweet spots because of the sheer volume of wood. So you can get away with much more when a bat weighs 3lb or more. They also tend to be more durable and are less likely to snap. For example the bats I have over 3lb have toes over 40mm at their thickest, so they are unlikely to break due to yorkers. In comparison a lighter bat I have at 2.10 has a toe which is only about 20mm, so that is of course more susceptible. 

[trypewriter]

One good tip that was on here recently was to wear batting gloves when trying bats out, in my experience it makes a huge difference to the feel of the bat. Worth remembering though, that no matter how light the bat pick up, a heavy bat is still a heavy bat. You will feel the weight when cutting, pulling or playing very 'wristy' shots.

[PedalsMcgrew]

I'm fairly sure that a heavy bat won't hit a ball further. It might give you a little bit more margin for error and you might find that shots hit off centre travel a bit further but a heavier bat means less bat speed. A lighter bat means more bat speed and this evens out the performance differential of the two.

[cleanbowled]

A little more insight into the heavy vs light bats debate:

http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~cross/cricket.html

I think it boils down to how much bat speed you lose vs. the extra power you gain using a heavy bat  - within reason of course - you could make a bat that weighs 5lb for example, but I doubt anybody will be able to generate any meaningful bat speed with it, which of course would render it useless for any practical match purposes.

[tim2000s]

That is a good summary.  The relative variation of bat speed in response to weight is the critical factor.

[Blazer]

Just another question regarding pick up. Do bats with a high middle always have a light pick up and do you get accustomed to pick up of a certain bat that it doesn't feel different ?.

[Kevtheplumber]

Thanks for everyone's help. Suppose I just need to get a budget and go and have a look around.