What equipment is provided and what equipment do I have to supply?
The CBA provides recreational league teams with catcher’s gear, pitcher’s helmet and chest protector and batting tee as needed. Also depending on the age group a score book and practice and game balls will be provided. The CBA provides all necessary equipment for BlastBall including Tee, Balls, Foam Bat and special Blast Base.
The CBA provides uniforms for Recreational leagues for each player. Uniforms include team jersey and baseball cap. The CBA also provides the head coach and one assistant coach a team baseball cap and uniform.
Batting Helmets, Baseball Gloves and Bats are not provided to players. It is highly recommended that all players wear a protective cup at both practices and games. Additionally, most players wear rubber baseball cleats. No steel cleats are allowed. Due to the use of the foam bat and ball in BlastBall, there is no requirement to wear a batting helmet or use a baseball glove – these are optional.
For U9-U10, batting helmets are required to have a face guard.
Bat Regulations
Bats can be very expensive so buying a used bat is not a bad idea (Play it Again Sports or other family’s may have bats from older kids). Getting the right bat may the most important purchase you make (especially in coach pitch). Players using a bat that is too heavy usually will hit the ball softly to pitcher, 1st Base or 2nd Base (easy outs for most age groups with live pitching). By using a lighter bat, the player will generate more bat speed and pull the ball to shortstop or 3rd Base (much harder play to make for most age groups). It is as small thing but can be the difference between your child getting on base and having more fun versus the easy outs.
Bat weight is measured by the minus or drop weight which means the drop weight is the difference between the length and weight of the bat, so a bat that is 27 inches long and has a drop weight of -10 will weigh 17 ounces. You might look at a -12 (drop 12) for players that are smaller or new to the sport and may not have the swing speed for a bigger bat.
Players playing in older age groups, select, premier or tournament level baseball may have more regulations to choose from regarding bat weights. Most leagues will be looking for USSSA, BBCOR or NHSF approved bats. Please use the 2 links below for guidelines.
http://usssa.com/baseball/baseball-baseball-bat-marks/
https://www.usssa.com/baseball/baseball-withdrawn-andor-non-compliant-baseball-bat-models