If you are a baseball lover and fanatic, then you know how important it is to have the right bat with a perfect grip for easy handling and control of the ball. Taping a baseball bat is one of the easiest ways of ensuring that you personalize and customize your bat to suit your playing needs. Players have different preferences when it comes to how they want their bats to be like. This is why taping a bat is recommended even though it is necessarily essential for all players.
All beginners don’t know How To Tape A Baseball Bat Handle. It is very simple, let me show you how to do that with 7 steps below here:
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Benefits of taping a baseball bat
There are numerous benefits and advantages associated with taping a baseball bat. For starters, it helps in improving the lifespan of the bat by providing a protective shield on its surface. In addition to this, bat taping helps in improving the player’s performance thereby enabling the player to exhibit classic game playing skills. It goes with saying that taping your bat will save you a great deal of cash that would have been spent in acquiring a new bat after your present bat wears out too soon.
Despite taping being a seemingly useful and beneficial, it requires unique skills, experience, and knowledge to execute accordingly. This is why you should familiarize yourself with the important steps of taping the bat correctly. These steps include:
1. Mark the baseball bat out
Before you begin taping your bat, the first thing you should do is mark the bat. Marking guides you on how you will tape the bat. Draw a fine line along the bat’s length where you want the tape to wrap and stretch on to. Needless to say, you should first remove any wrapping on the bat if it had been taped previously and the tape has become worn off. If the bat had been wrapped before, you necessarily need not mark the bat as you can use the previous marking as guide.
2. Position the bat
After you have marked the bat, the next thing you should do is put the bat in a perfect position. This should be a position that provides the ultimate support and stability to the bat while taping. Usually, unless the bat is placed in a perfect position, it is hard to tape it rightly and uniformly. The ideal position to place the bat should be a parallel position/placement to the ground. After you have taped the first round, you should hold the bat in an upright position so that you tape it at an angle. You can use your legs to hold the bat firmly when in an upright position.
3. Decide on the tape to use
There are different types of tapes you can use for taping your bat. These tapes differ in terms of quality, size, and color among other aspects. As such, you should conduct some research on the tape to use; this is a tape that will absorb moisture since such tapes ensure that your hands are dry at all times even when your hands are sweaty. There are various types of tapes that include grip tapes, electrical tapes, tennis tapes, and bat tape among other tapes. You should avoid opting for plastic tapes as they do not have ability to absorb moisture. Additionally, you should not use shinny electrical tapes as these tapes are prohibited in most leagues and competitions.
4. Polish the bat
It is worth noting that taping on a bat will only be permanent if it is done on a smooth surface. Therefore, it is necessary to remove any residue, dirt or other foreign objects on the bat particularly those left behind after removing a previous wrapping. It is advisable to use sandpaper for wooden bats or a residue remover for aluminum and composite bats. You need to be cautious when sanding a wooden bat so that you only minimal wood to ensure that the surface of the bat is even.
5. Tape the first layer
The first layer provides the primary wrap and needs to be done perfectly and carefully to provide a perfect taping foundation. Most pro-baseball players prefer taping this layer using a 45-degree angle as it provides a firm grip thus enabling easy handling of the bat. However, you can opt to use any other taping degree of preference depending on your playing technique and skills. For the first layer, you should gap the tape on the bat by a space that is equivalent to the tape’s size. Wrapping should be done for approximately 8-12 inches. At the end of your taping length, you should finish taping (cut the tape) at an angle. This helps in securing the tape to the bat.
6. Tape the second layer
The second layer should be tapped from the bottom/at the end of the first layer. Tape upwards at a 45-degree angle (or any angle of choice) and in an opposite direction to the first layer. It is important to note that the second layer should fit into the spaces you had left when taping the first layer. You need to wrap the bat carefully so that at the end, the bat not only looks impressively but is also comfortable in the hands.
7. Finishing touches
After you have finished the second layer, the next thing you should do is undertake the finishing touches. In this step, you should cut 2 pieces of the tape and place the pieces at the beginning of each wrap. This ensures that the wraps are firmly reinforced on the bat and firmly seal the taping onto the bat. This helps in preventing the tape from unraveling after the rigorous use of the bat for a long time. This will definitely keep the tape on the bat for long. However, these pieces of tape (at the ends of the layers) wear off quite easily with time and require regular replacement.
Taping a baseball bat does not necessarily need to be a hard and cumbersome task. This is because it is something you can do quite easily by following these tricks. You can use your creativity to wrap the bat uniquely using attractive and brightly-colored tapes. Always opt for high-quality tapes as they last longer and are more resistant to wear and tear than most substandard tapes.
