By Dave Utnik


It all came down to the swing. That was the consensus of nearly two years of field research. The new line of fastpitch and slow pitch


bats from Combat all have one significant theme in common: They have been designed with a swing weight that gets the bat through the strike zone in a hurry. "We wanted to be able to build the highest performing bats and one of the things that drives that is swing weight. We have worked for the last 21 months to find the optimum weighting," said Combat Senior Vice President Don Cooper. "We have worked with Major through E class players as well as many female players. We then took all that data and came up with what we feel is the perfect swing weights for all. We have even went as far as eliminating the 30 ounce bats from the new line as we can get the better performance out of the 28." “Quicker is better and Combat has the bats to


prove it in the slow pitch Avarice and Avarice 98 as well as the Morphed Reload fastpitch.” Designed to accommodate new USSSA and


ASA accelerated break-in performance standards, the new line doesn't stray far from tradition. Essentially, the creative team improved on a concept that is already endorsed by some of the game's most prominent athletes -- most notably Olympic champion Lisa Fernandez and Team USA star Rick Baker. "We have done a bunch of field testing and


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we are very excited about the new line up," Cooper said. "It’s by far the best line up top to bottom we have ever had. What we really saw with the new test standards was a chance to


redesign our line." If the slow pitch models seem familiar it's not


a coincidence. The Avarice is already being compared to a pair of Combat's most popular bats -- the Dan Smith and the Plague. The Avarice 98, with a more pronounced weight in the load, reacts similar to the Antivirus. And that is just the beginning. In addition to


adding alloy to the company's baseball bat line, Combat recently moved into the lacrosse market and has purchased MF2, the premier custom hockey glove, pant and bag company. But the most significant strides are being made


in the expansion of the fastpitch and slow pitch bat line. For example, Combat's design team is still hard at work creating a two-piece bat that will make its debut this fall. "We will also be launching some alloy models


in both fastpitch and slow pitch," Cooper said. "And we have had great success this year with our hybrid baseball line." Innovation is one reason that Combat remains


a big player on the softball diamond. "It is pretty cool when you can have Lisa


Fernandez test your fastpitch bats or Rick Baker test your slow pitch bats,” Cooper said. “Our engineers are all here in North America and all play sports. We have great testing sessions together and they take that information straight back to the lab." “We do this in all our sports,” he said. “Our


head engineer plays hockey twice a week with a stick he designed. This also works for batting gloves, bags and our other accessories. The people designing them are using them every day. It’s nice to have a batting cage in your office."


Softball Today • August 2011


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