COMPARISON OF LINEAR AND ANGULAR SWING VELOCITIES WITH DIFFERENTLY WEIGHTED WARM-UP BATS IN SOFTBALL PLAYERS

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Swing velocity has been considered as one of the essential factors of bat swing biomechanics, and traditionally coaches and players think it can be altered by using a differently weighted bat for warm-up before an at bat. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of 3 differently weighted warm-up bats on 3D linear and angular kinematics. Ten female varsity softball players were recruited and bat swing kinematics with normal (NW), heavy (HW), and light (LW) weighted warm-up bats were collected. Both linear and angular kinematic variables were compared between different bat weights using RMANOVA. Only 1 velocity variable difference between LW and NW, and 4 temporal differences between HW and NW were found. It is suggested that in general, swing kinematics is not altered by differently weighted bats warm-up prior maximal swing.