The ideal moment of inertia for a baseball or softball bat

In selecting a baseball or a softball bat, both weight and weight distribution should be considered. However, these considerations must be individualized, because there is large variability in how different batters swing a bat and in how each batter swings different bats. Previous research has defined the ideal bat weight as that weight that maximizes the batted-ball speed based on measurements of individual swings, the concept of the coefficient of restitution, and the laws of conservation of momentum. In this paper, a method is given that extends this approach to recent bat designs where the moment of inertia can be specified. The data presented in this paper show that all of the players in our study would probably profit from using end-loaded bats.