Equipment and Facility questions.

[DD11]

Hi all. Hope you can add some insight.

What equipment do you find to be ESSENTIAL to your team. Obviously balls, nets, etc. But is there anything outside the norm that you consider necessary?

Currently, our team is looking for an indoor facilitiy - to no avail. Wondering if any of you have any creative ideas for ways your team practices. We're not planning on purchasing land and putting up a 3500 sq. ft. metal building, just an FYI.

Thanks for your help!

 

[JAD]

Where are you located? The need for an indoor facility is usually dictated by the weather outside, so if you live in a warm climate you may not need an indoor facility. At one point I actually built a batting cage in my basement - not ideal, but we made it work. You do not need a full cage to hit off a tee or do soft toss, just buy a bownet and a tee and use it in the garage! You can also use the bownet as a background screen while pitching.

 

[DD11]

We're from NW Arkansas. Believe it or not, it get nasty in Jan - Mar.
I am pretty setup I'm the garage for my DD, but for the team - nothing yet.

 

[cmustangsfp]

One team we were with just rented a warehouse for 3 months, purchased one batting cage net and hung it up and divided the costs among both teams 10U and 12U. I think it equaled $90 per player. Which for 3months of indoor facility work turned out to be $30 month. not too bad. We used pop up nets for some drills. There was also no heat, so even though it was indoors, it wasn't always the greatest! But better than trying to rent a field and worry about the lighting costs and rain.

 

[cmustangsfp]

Look to see if there are any warehouses for rent or for sale. I am sure that someone who is trying to sell one wouldn't mind someone renting it out for a few months to make some dough.

 

[softball88]

I would check with your local school gyms or field houses. If by chance you have x number of girls going to that school someday, you might be able to talk the HS coach that your actually helping their future program success. I've seen the TB organization do 2hr training sessions to the public for $5....and then have there practice time after the session. Helps builds the school program and yours.

 

[marriard]

Hi all. Hope you can add some insight.

What equipment do you find to be ESSENTIAL to your team. Obviously balls, nets, etc. But is there anything outside the norm that you consider necessary?

TCB Balls or similar for front toss in a limited area
Heavy duty McGregor Tees or Tanner tees depending on your preference
Something to stand behind when throwing front toss
Lite-flight JUGS balls if inside and can't use real softballs
NECC Catchers Clinic DVD
Extra buckets to place around your practice area (as girls pass by the ball they can either place the ball in the bucket or roll it in the direction of one of these - 50% reduction in pick up time per practice).

 

[James Smith]

I would check with your local school gyms or field houses. If by chance you have x number of girls going to that school someday, you might be able to talk the HS coach that your actually helping their future program success. I've seen the TB organization do 2hr training sessions to the public for $5....and then have there practice time after the session. Helps builds the school program and yours.

Scools around here will let us pitch in their gym, they will not let use hit though.

 

[Dave619]

I had some of the same thoughts...rent out school gyms...that can be costly in most places. Our TB team is actually through our rec league so we can reserve one of the gyms. We are in a warmer climate so we have not had to do that yet. If it is raining or if it is too cold in the winter months I take my DD to the rec center and we pitch in the racketball court. If I am on my bucket all the way in one corner and if she is a few feet out from the opposite corner so her back swing doesn't hit the wall, it is 40' or close enough. She is still 12u so that works. I'm not sure every place will allow this...I just walk in with everything in my bucket and the ball (indoor ball of course) hitting my glove or sometimes the wall sounds very similar to the sound a racketball makes so no one has ever said anything to me!

 

[mogsoftball]

We are in Ohio so have to have indoor facilities (it started snowing this week).

Our orgs indoor facilities have three batting cage nets that are on a rail so they can be pulled out or pushed back as needed. we also have tee's, hitting nets, pitching machine,pitch through net, etc.

i think you need netting for a cage, a machine, and some tees on top of your normal bucket of balls.