One of my pet peeves in life is that there are many hundred thousands of future high school baseball players that will spend millions of hours of their spare time shooting basketball today. They will go out into their own backyard and spend hours and hours shooting games of “Horse” or playing “Pick-up” basketball.
Why does this bother me? The reason is that I know that these players could be having just as much fun and entertainment swinging a baseball bat if they had the right batting machine at home. They could be building skills in the game of baseball that will benefit them greatly when they compete for a spot on their high school team later.
Backyard batting machines such as the BatAction Hitting Machine and the Derek Jeter Hurricane Hitting Machine are the “Backyard Basketball Goal” for the Future Baseball Prospect. The future baseball prospect “lives” to swing the bat like the future basketball prospect “lives” to shoot the hoop.
Here are my 5 reasons the Batting Machine is like a Backyard Basketball Goal:
1. It is pure fun to hit. It offers a variety of fun and entertaining games and batting drills that kids love to play. The batting machine makes your backyard the most popular backyard in the neighborhood.
2. It is always ready for action. When the player gets bored at home, the machine is readily available.
3. There is not set-up required. To shoot basketball, all you need is a basketball. To hit the batting machine, all you need is a bat.
4. There is no energy required. The batting machine is fully self-contained. It operates off its on energy source. It uses the energy of the bat’s contact to propel the ball for the next swing.
5. A player can shoot basketball solo. The player can hit the batting machine without having to have a second person also. The “Streak” hitting game is comparable to shooting “Horse”. Players can play the “Streak” game alone.
So you can see why I call the batting machine, the backyard basketball goal for hitters. The two batting machine that are most poplar today are the BatAction Hitting Machine by Nedco Sports and the Derek Jeter Hurricane Machine by SKLZ.
You can see the batting machines described in theis article at BatAction.com and HurricaneMachine.com
Nick Dixon is the host for BaseballCoachingDigest.com, the YouthBaseballDigest.com, and BaseballParentGuide.com.
