Everything You Need To Know About Batting Cages
You’ve no doubt heard the old adage, practice makes perfect, well it is true. Talk to any professional athlete, and they will tell you that if you want to succeed you must practice, practice, practice. This is also true about batting cages. While there are numerous batting cages available for people to use, at a fee of course, your location, and your schedule, combined with the schedule of the batting cage may limit your access to the batting cages in your area.
The easiest, most effective way to help improve your batting, or that of your child, is to make it a game. People, especially children learn better when learning is fun. Keep score of your practice sessions. Use a three point scoring system, give line drives three points, grounders and low balls get two points, and fly balls get one point. Keeping track makes it easy to make it a game, and when you’re trying to beat your own score, you’re improving your own skill, and it can be a lot more fun.
If you don’t have access to a batting cage, you can always build your own, right in your own backyard. You’ll have access to it whenever you want. A good size batting cage is seventy feet in length, fourteen feet in width, and twelve feet in height. The height shouldn’t be a problem for anyone, but if you don’t have a big enough yard for the length or width, just modify them to suit your area.
When purchasing the batting cage netting you need to consider the size of ball you will be using in comparison to the size of the holes in the net. As well if it will be outside it will probably stand up better if it is made of polyethylene than nylon. The support posts can be aluminum or wood, and to help keep it light you could use PVC pipe to join it all together.
Once you have laid out your batting cage, dig holes for the support poles. The holes should have a depth of between three and four feet, as these poles will support the weight of the nets. You may wish to pour cement around the poles for increased stability. Attach the net to the poles and drape it down.
The last two things you need to make sure you didn’t forget is an entranceway so you can get in and out of the batting cage. You also want to make sure that the balls can’t get out from under the bottom of the netting. Your netting should come all the way to the ground.
Now place the pitching machine inside the netting, and you’re ready to start practicing your batting. Remember to use the scoring techniques to make practice more fun, and more effective. Get out there and practice, practice, practice. Before you know it your RBI’s, runs batted in, will increase and you will get on base more and get out less.
