Technology of equipment benefiting players

Knock wood.

It wasn’t that long ago that wood and spring sports went together hand-in-hand. Baseball players learned to “swing the lumber.” Tennis players all had wooden rackets strung with gut. Golfers used drivers made from the finest persimmon.

Today you can’t even get splinters sitting on the bench – wooden dugout seats have given way to all-weather metal.

Technology marches on, and baseball, tennis and golf each has benefited. By manufacturing bats, rackets and clubs instead of crafting them out of wood, each has become both more forgiving and more responsive.

With baseball and softball bats, the changes have been both economic as well as substantive. A metal or composite bat will not shatter. Defects are few. Breakage is minimal. Plus, by using metal and composite materials, the ratio of a bat’s length to weight can be juggled. Balance can be tweaked, moving the balance point back toward the handle. The sweet spot can be expanded, providing a greater margin for error.

Without the danger of making the bat more fragile, metal handles can be customized to fit smaller hands – a major advantage for softball.

To get an idea of just how far the science of the bat has come, just peruse the latest product reviews. A player no longer shops by feel. They analyze specs.

The product description for the 2005 Liquid Metal 2 baseball bat includes the following passage:

“Liquid metal alloys possess an ‘amorphous’ or liquid atomic structure offering far greater performance and durability than the crystalline structures of aluminum bats. This ‘amorphous’ structure provides a Pure Energy Transfer during impact, drastically reducing the energy loss found in other alloys. The end result is more explosiveness behind the ball and improved performance at the plate.”

So much for the old adage just hit it square.

Easton’s 2005 LST1 Stealth baseball bat goes in a different direction, boasting that “Easton’s unique Opti-Flex composite handle technology provides maximum handle flex-three times greater than aluminum in the case of the LST1 Stealth. Easton’s patented ConneXion technology acts like a hinge to provide the most efficient energy transfer from handle to barrel. The result: Maximum bat head ‘whip’ for (a) quicker bat and more power through the hitting zone.”

Makes you wonder if it comes in a convertible with leather seats and a CD changer. More than that, it makes you wonder how Babe Ruth and Ted Williams managed to reach the Hall of Fame without “maximum handle flex” and “maximum bat head whip.”

Fastpitch softball bats have undergone a similar evolution

Louisville Slugger, a name synonymous with wooden bats for more than a century, now touts its XXL model as “a true two-walled bat designed for fastpitch play. It is made of Alcoa’s Gen1X alloy – a Louisville Slugger exclusive formula – and the walls are set flush against each other then tuned like a musical instrument to eliminate unproductive vibration and sting. Gen1X features more Scandium – a hardening agent – than other Alcoa alloys and has the highest yield strength of any of Alcoa’s high performance alloys. The weight is balanced throughout the bat, but the traditional shape, taper and two-walled barrel make this a power-hitter’s bat.”

The weight versus strength ration is equally critical for tennis rackets.

Until the advent of the metal frame in the 1970s, wooden rackets were 27 inches in length with a head size of roughly 65 square inches and weighed in at around 13 ounces.

Today, some exotic frames can offer a head size of as much as 145 square inches, although the limit for playing in official tournaments is 135.

Midsize rackets have a head size of between 80 and 90 inches and oversize, one of the most popular sizes (used by professionals like Andre Agassi), offers a hitting surface between 105 and 120 square inches.

With a larger hitting surface, these larger rackets provide a larger “sweet spot,” that section at the center of the racket head that transfers the most power to the tennis ball.

Rackets now can be micro-fit to players – divining the optimum balance, weight and stiffness for each individual. More importantly, those factors can be tweaked as a player’s game changes over time. Heavier, head-heavy frames are more suited to a slower game. Lighter, even head-light frames, are more responsive for faster games and more experienced players.

Golf clubs have enjoyed a similar revolution, and the result is an ever-expanding popularity.

Karsten Solheim began the revolution with his PING putter in 1959.

Perimeter weighting, oversized heads and composite shafts have revolutionized the sport, making clubs more forgiving and more responsive, especially for beginning players. The end result? Club selection and driving distance have replaced car talk around many water coolers.

And that’s not even mentioning the advances in golf balls.