The sweet spot of a hollow baseball or softball bat

The ‘‘sweet spot’’ of a baseball bat is often defined as a region approximately 5–7 in. from the barrel end of the bat where the performance (as measured by a batted‐ball speed) is the greatest and the vibrational sensation (the sting felt in the hands) is minimized. In terms of the vibrational properties of a bat, the sweet spot region includes the nodes of the first two bending vibrational modes and is often also identified as being related to the center‐of‐percussion (COP). This paper will discuss recent research which shows that the COP has no bearing on performance and little, if any, on the perception of feel. We will also discuss the contribution of the bending vibrational modes to the location of the sweet spot and compare results for a wide variety of wood, metal and composite baseball and softball bats. We will attempt to correlate the sweet spot defined in terms of performance and that defined in terms of vibrational sensation. Finally, we will discuss the contribution of the hoop mode, unique to hollow bats, which correlates strongly to performance, and which may also influence the perception of feel.