Phoenix Bats Fungo Bat Resource Hub
Hello and welcome to the Phoenix Bats Fungo Hub. Here you’ll find everything you could possibly want to know about fungo bats.
FAQs
1. What’s a fungo bat?
We’re glad you asked! A fungo bat is a long, thin baseball bat used by coaches for fielding practice. Fungo bats are lightweight, which lets coaches repeatedly swing one- or two-handed while tossing balls up with their free hand.
Fungo bats are typically made from birch wood, which makes for a lightweight and somewhat flexible bat. These qualities give the ball some pop on contact for solid shots with easy swings.
2. What do I do with a fungo bat?
Baseball and softball coaches use fungo bats to simulate in-game hitting situations. Holding the fungo bat in one hand with your ball of choice in the other, you toss said ball up and swing the bat to make contact.
With a fungo bat, you can hone your team’s fielding skills with an endless barrage of grounders and pop flies. Nothing’s getting past those guys or gals.
3. How do I hit with a fungo bat?
- Start as you would in your batter’s stance with your hands placed on the bat as usual, then let go of the bat with your bottom hand.
- With the ball in your free hand, extend your arm out straight and above your front leg. Keep your feet in position and toss the ball up to about eye level. Try to keep it below the top of your head.
- Once you release the ball, bring your free hand back to its usual position on the bat and begin your swing.
- To hit grounders, swing level or downwards for real choppers. For pop flies, swing upwards to give the ball some lift. You don’t need to swing too hard. Birch wood gives the ball a nice pop, and you’re gonna be doing this for a little while.
- Rinse and repeat until your team is a well-oiled fielding machine, gobbling up grounders and snagging flies in their sleep.
4. Why should I use a fungo bat?
Do you want to win? Do you want to dominate? Then you want to run some fungo drills and get your team’s fielding on point.
With enough fungo training, your fielders can read and react to balls as soon as they leave the bat. They’ll learn how balls react on different field conditions; how spin affects trajectory and bounce; how to get in front of anything hit in their general direction.
5. What does fungo mean?
Great question! Fungo’s origins are up for debate by some, but there are a few things we know for sure (or sure enough):
- The word “fungo” has been around since at least the mid-19th century (baseball itself was created in 1839). According to the omniscient Oxford English Dictionary, “fungo” first appeared in print in 1867 in Henry Chadwick’s The Base Ball Player’s Book of Reference. It referred to tossing and hitting balls with a bat for practice.
- Again following the OED, “fung” is an old Scottish verb that means “to fling, toss or pitch.”
- We know the Scots love hitting balls with sticks (thanks for golf, laddies!).
- Some folks think it’s from an old game where players chanted “one go, two goes, fun goes.” We think that sounds dumb, quite frankly.
Given the above, it’s pretty safe to assume we can thank Scotland for the word “fungo.” How it made its way to the baseball diamond is anyone’s guess, though.
6. Why do coaches put tape on a fungo bat?
The tape simply helps protect the bat and extend its life. The fungo bat’s long, thin profile makes it more susceptible to breaking than its full-sized brethren.
We only use the highest of the highest quality woods at Phoenix Bats, so you can be sure every one of them will last. But a nice tape job—just a few layers of athletic tape from where the barrel begins to a little below the tip of the bat—will give your fungo bat some added durability (and maybe a dash of color, too).
7. How do I choose a fungo bat?
That’s the million-dollar question! We have 5 different fungo bat models to suit particular wants and needs, each of which you can customize to your liking:
8. How do I choose the correct size fungo?
Since fungos are used by coaches for fielding practice, the length of the barrel depends less on your size and more on what kind of drills you aim to run:
- Go with a shorter bat for infield drills. Shorter bats are better for accuracy and control.
- Go with a longer bat for outfield drills. The longer barrel creates more leverage for farther hits.
- A 33”–35” bat is the sweet spot, giving you a good balance of control and power.