I am 5'6'' (and 5'7'' on a good day). I used size-6 bats custom bat in configuration designed by Laver and also made by MG2. I can tell you from experience that these are the most comfortable bats I had used up to the that point in my batting career - the bottom of the bat never hit or scraped the ground and drives were smooth. Whenever I see tall batsmen like Cook, Hales, KP et-al using standard SH bats, I always thought that these bats are proportionally much shorter (for these tall guys) then what short guys (like myself) normally use (SH for example). Again, proportionally, a short batsman should be using a size-5, size-6, or even a Harrow bat.
Here is where things become tricky:
- Weight. If you want to use a heavier bat, it's hard to get these bats in heavier weights. When I tried to get a non-Laver custom maker (who shall remain anonymous but boy did they sour my experience ) to make a size-6 bat, they messed it up royally! I had to go back to Laver to get a 3 pounder made in size-6 config (there are other criteria as well).
- Balance. The bats made by Laver and MG-2 use a shorter blade (from a size-3)bat which assists with the balance and bat speed. One can make a case that conventional bat sizes (overall length), bat handle lengths, and bat blade lengths should be subject to further investigation and experimentation to revise the optimum combination (bat length, handle length, and blade size) by batsman's height and batting style. I suspect, Laver & MG-2 did experiment with smaller bats and handles and arrived at a size-6-size-3 combination.[Note: It was Marty first who suggested and made these bats for me. Later Laver team suggested the same config and seemed familiar with the idea]. I wouldn't call it the golden ration (yet
) but the bats are phenomenal.
So, why did I switch if the bats were so great? Well, I needed something in heavier weights and SH size bats were readily available in my weight category. One bat (standard SH) led to another and rest is history. Interesting thing is that I held my size-6 bats at the top of the handle and use the same position in my SH bats. The additional couple of inches that are left untouched provide the leverage/counter weight to my heavy (2-12 to 2-14) bats.
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Topic: 1 inch longer 1 inch shorter (Read 9318 times)