Our test results show that rolling an aluminum bat does not work.
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The exit speeds of the bat were measured.Rolling did increase the bat's average exit velocity, but not much.We found an increase of 1 mile per hour and just over 5 feet of distance when we focused our test on one bat, one hitter, and 20 measured exit speeds.We killed the bats compression from a 1450 reading to a 1300 through rolling.Rolling is likely illegal.
The test was short of industry wide testing.We think it's fair to say that rolling increases performance for fresh out of the wrapper bats.The improvement in exit speeds and distance is not overwhelming.We think it's likely that hitting the bat off a tee several hundred times would get the same results as rolling.
Although no study exists, working a bat in by rolling should decrease its longevity.The logic is easy to understand.A number of hits on the bat through rolling will lower the amount of hit before the bats life ends.The death of some bats will come from a crack or break of the bat.It will lose its pop for others.
The USSSA baseball bats are likely to see more success with rolling.It is possible for softball and fastpitch bats to be used in the USSSA standard.Our guess is that the USA Bats have the same results.To know for sure, more testing needs to be done.
The idea is that a rolled bat can hit balls faster and further than a bat that is not rolled.Rolling the bat's barrel through a compression vice breaks up the resin that holds together the layers of composite within a bat barrel.The bat has a trampoline effect.The bat's barrel can be loosened.More flex in the barrel means more trampoline effect.
The only bats that could roll were the barrel bats.The fibers in the barrel of the aluminum bats do not need to be lost to perform.Compressing an aluminum bat would make it less effective.The same thing can be done with an aluminum bat.Both result in a less effective structure.