While meant to simulate wood bats, regulation USA Baseball metal bats are more forgiving than wood for young players who might not connect with the ball on a bat's optimal 'sweet spot.' After testing wood bats and two types of metal bats with youth players, researchers found that the exit speed of a hit ball was as much as 5% faster with metal bats over wood. Analyzing the data, they found that the performance of the USA Baseball metal bats at the sweet spot was similar to wood. It was when the hits were on less optimal areas that there was a bigger difference: there was more of a penalty with wood bats when the hitters were not on the sweet spot than with the metal bats.
