My son-who has been training seriously for about 6 months-uses these. They aren't very expensive and seem well made. We bought one Anat and one flared and he preferred flared so I got a second flared version. consistency is stellar. He uses pips on one side (as do I) with 729 Rapid Speed on the other. He gets plenty of speed off his smashes and the control appears good. A very good choice for a 9-12 year old boy because the handle is slightly smaller than most bats