A batting donut is something that is surprisingly simple as a kid and gets more complicated the older you get. The donut is a weight that hitters use while waiting on deck for their turn to hit. It allows the hitter to use a heavier bat to produce quicker bat speed in the game.
Why is it called a batting donut? It looks like an actual donut – at least the basic and simple variety. It is a round weight with a hole in the middle that slides over the knob of the bat. However, the older a player gets, the more variety of bat weights are available. Some still get referred to as a donut while others are unique enough to warrant being called something different.
The literal term used is bat weight. Sometimes bats are chosen to have weight added permanently, whether by adding weight to the inside or outside of the bat. These can be called a heavy bat. If you don’t want to spend money on a store bought weighted bat, there is a simple way to make your own. All you need to do is cut off the end of a metal bat, fill it with pennies, rocks, or sand, and reattach the end of the bat. Duct tape it all around and you have a heavy bat for the on-deck circle.
Although a batting donut adds weight, the purpose is to make the bat feel lighter during an at-bat in a game. The perceived notion is that more bat speed equals higher batting averages. There have been studies that show the opposite is true, and that hitters need to only swing the same bat they would use in the game.
Some of the popular brands of batting donuts or bat weights include: Varo, Pow’r Wrap, Hitting Jack-It, and the Bratt Bat. If you look at the on-deck circle of any professional baseball game, you will find a plethora of bat weights alongside pine tar and substances for better grip. Baseball bats get put through a lot, and they receive a lot of treatment knowing that any given pitch could be the one that breaks the (wood) bat. Metal bats can also break, but it is a much rarer occurrence.
A traditional batting donut many times is not suitable for adult sized bats. Bat knobs can be large or shaped differently and will not fit through the hole of a batting donut. That is why there are so many different styles of bat weights, not to mention that each one is a new marketing opportunity for how players can improve their batting averages and hitting power.
If you have played baseball, you probably have used some type of batting donut. They aren’t required to be a good hitter, but you definitely have quicker bat speed immediately after swinging the heavier weight beforehand. This may or may not lead to more home runs, but you feel like Babe Ruth with a twig in his hands before the pitch, and that is a feeling everybody should get to experience.
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