Practice Batting Cages

Do batting cages make better hitters?

Like anything else, you get out of it what you put into it. If you want to learn to jump higher in order to get the edge on the basketball court then you would invest in vertical jump training. The same thought applies to baseball. It certainly won’t hurt to have a batting cage at your disposal whether public or in your own backyard. Learning to hit a baseball requires a tremendous amount of time and repetition. Now, if the only thing you do is put your player in the cage and simply let them hit pitch after pitch from a pitching machine then you are definitely not getting the most out of your batting cage.

It is not how long you work on your hitting but how effective your swings are that matters.

4 Hitting Drills
These hitting drills will make batting practice fun for your young player while at the same time putting the necessary swings in to be a better hitter. Work these drills into your practice time and you’ll begin to see the difference in no time both in confidence and mechanics.

Hit off of a tee
This is the classic of all drills and is not just for tee ballers. Don’t overlook this one as a lot can be accomplished with this little piece of equipment. The two biggest things that you want to work on is your weight shift from back to front as well as finishing your swing. First, start with the your weight slightly back on the back leg. Really exaggerate the weight as this will demonstrate how using your body can generate more power. Second, work on exploding through the ball with your hands – extending your arms as you finish your swing. This exercise will help create backspin on the baseball which allows the ball to carry and turn those singles into doubles and triples.

Soft toss from the front
You’ll want to use your l-screen for this drill. Place the screen about 8-10 away from the hitter. Feed the baseballs to the hitter in an underhand fashion. This will allow the balls to be flat but yet have just enough velocity. The goal is to build on the tee drill focusing on trying to hit line drives off of the l-screen. Again, explode through the ball with your hands and extend your arms.

Use a donut on the bat
This is a fun drill. Go to your local sporting goods store and purchase a donut for your bat. Again, using your l-screen in a similar fashion to the soft toss from the front exercise throw balls to the batter. With the donut on the bat, the player hits the baseballs thus reinforcing getting the bat through the strike zone. The donut will practically carry the bat through and help to create muscle memory.

One handed drill
The one handed drill is just that – use one hand to swing the bat. If the player bats from the right side, use your right hand and vice versa for the left handed hitter. Have the player choke up quite a bit so that they have a little more control. The idea is to teach the hitter to get through the zone with the knob end of the bat. Loading up the barrel until the last possible second until it finally hits the ball. Try to catch the ball out in front of the plate. Try not to have the ball get deep in the zone. This drill promotes quick hands and hand eye coordination.

A very important aspect of getting the most out of practice time, whether in your backyard or at a training facility, is the batting cage equipment.  The right equipment coupled with appropriate and highly focused drills will allow you to maximize the use of your cage as well as your time while at the same time making the practice time fun for the young player.

Home plate
This is an obvious piece of equipment.  Having a home plate available allows the hitter to align themselves up and maintain a proper hitting stance.  Effectively used for soft toss drills or actual batting practice from a live arm or pitching machine.

L-screen
An L-screen is simply that – a screen in the shape of an L that allows the pitcher to throw batting practice while providing protection from line drives.  If you can afford one piece of equipment then this would be the one to buy.  Having an L-screen will not only provides protection it will fully allow you to maximize the size of your batting cage.  You can place the L-screen closer to the hitter while still maintaining a very effective practice session as well as open your session up to many different types of drills.

Tee
A batting tee is often an overlooked piece of equipment but still needs to be a part of your training regimen.  There are, of course, many varieties of tees on the market today.  Some contain one single post or stem while others enable you to move the post around the area of the plate to work inside or outside pitches.  The ability to move the post is not essential for effective hitting practice.  You can simply move the tee itself around home plate to get the same effect and is really more cost effective.   No matter which type of tee you choose, be sure to work it in to your practice as it is still the best piece of equipment for instantaneous feedback on mechanics and the development of repetition.

Pitching machine
Of all the pieces of equipment listed above, this is the one piece that you could really live without if need be.  Pitching machines come in a couple of various types including wheel based and “arm” based.  Wheel based machines use a rotating wheel to throw the pitch while an arm type machine will catapult the ball towards the hitter.  It really comes down to preference and budget as to selecting the best type of machine.  A pitching machine is non-essential but there is also a lot to be said for predictability and consistency of pitches in practice time for developing young players while more experienced hitters can benefit from hitting high velocity and trick pitches.