If a composite bat has gone dead it usually means it's flexing too much and is about to break. I know you want a bat to flex, but there is such a thing as too much flex.
I have always thought that a composite bat will be as hot as ever up until it breaks regardless of swing count. A friend of mine was telling me that they can hit a certain point and grow dead without breaking. Does it depend on the bat or is he full of it ?
kettering has already done this study and there results showed that composites DO in fact decrease in performance slightly after breaking in fully.
see here: http://paws.kettering.edu/~drussell/bats-new/abi.html
they don't have the biggest sample size, but 100% of the bats they tested showed a decrease in performance.
NOTE* a 'decrease in performance' is not the same as going dead. all bats tested maintained a higher level of performance than NIW, it was just less than their max performance
I don't think they were hitting the bats to failure. If they did, they'd see some drastic improvement on some models.
I heard the Combat Supremacy goes dead before breaking.
which models do you have in mind?
Those calling 'myth' may be overlooking the obvious fact that the longer you own a bat, the more swings you've taken with it, and the more you've developed a feel for it.