When I grew up in the mid-1970s, the pitching machines that were available to us were based on a batting cage and required my mom or dad to drive us to use them and spend a lot of money (I remember 50 cents for 12 pitches) . The pitching machines also always had a lot of people watching, pressuring us as we struggled to hit the ball. That process was expensive, time-consuming, and rarely allowed us to work toward becoming better baseball hitters.
As the father of two sons who play the game, I have thrown balls at batting practice until my shoulder hurts to help them perfect their swing. This practice has been great in developing his ability to have a fundamentally strong baseball swing, but it has been limited by my availability. My wife practices hitting occasionally, but it's not her favorite activity (she's pretty good at it though!). The best part of the problem around how to get my kids to swing more is that my kids love to hit a baseball! If this describes you, read on ...
This dilemma led me to start researching baseball pitching machines a few years ago for our personal use. There are as many softball as there are baseball pitching machines and I was amazed at what was available, although some of the machines were a bit hard to find. I was even impressed that they made baseball and softball pitching machines that are a combination of both! When I talked to other coaches about pitching machines, they were enthusiastic about how the consistency of the mechanics of a baseball swing must be developed through a lot of repetition, and that a pitching machine was the best way to give players the repetition needed to perfect your mechanics. A couple of them thought the machines would be too expensive to install in a personal use configuration, but I was pleasantly surprised by how affordable they are today.
There is a great saying in baseball that "hitters will always find a place in the lineup." That is never more true than when your son or daughter begins to play competitively, either in travel teams or simply as they grow older and the requirement that all children play for the same amount of time is removed. The best hitters always play - every coach wants to compete and win, that's one of the main reasons they are coaches. Having your son or daughter practice the mechanics of hitting a baseball will help them improve to the point where the coach will want to have them in the game all the time so they never miss a turn at bat. It happened to my children and it can happen to you too.
Once my guys had the ability to hit every day, anytime they wanted, the results were fantastic. Our pitching machine made our house the central place for the kids in our neighborhood to meet almost daily, so the whole neighborhood started hitting better as a result.
When trying to figure out which type of launch machine is right for you, it helps to review a few items:
1) Environment - The area where the machine will be used is important - is it for personal use in your backyard or is it for use on the ball court for a team? Throwing machines for backyard use are typically less expensive and easier to set up and take down. Pitching machines for the batting cage or high school / college team setup are more expensive, more industrial, and have more features.
2) Age and skill level of players who will use the throwing machine the most: Players under the age of 12 don't need the speed and curveball, slider, knuckle ball capability that some of the more robust machines offer.
3) Budget: Launchers can range from $ 180 to $ 3-4,000 in price. Knowing what you have to spend in advance can make your selection much easier.
4) Type of pitching machine: artificial pitch UK machines have different methods of delivering a pitch to a batter. Some are operated with two spinning wheels, some use a single wheel, some use forced air pressure, and some use an arm that throws the ball. The types of personal or backyard throwing machines are usually single wheel or forced air. Hitting cage or high school / college throwing machines are typically two-wheel or mechanical-arm.
5) Options - There are a number of great options that can be added to launch machines, depending on your circumstances.
0 Comments