Pitching machines about Hitting

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radness

Possibilities & Opportunities!
Dec 13, 2019
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113
To piggyback on conversations regarding pitching speeds thought to ask...

What are the mile per hour machine settings that people are working on hitting with?
Add age group!

How accurate are the mile per hour that are coming out of pitching machines?
Aka: what the machine says it's speed setting is and what is actually flying out of it?




seperate comment, hitting machines are certainly different to hit off of than live pitching.
Different types of visual timing going on!
 
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LEsoftballdad

DFP Vendor
Jun 29, 2021
2,838
113
NY
I have a Jugs Super Softball machine, which goes to 70 MPH. I find it to be accurate for speeds, but my girls hate it. They'd rather face live pitching. I think it is useful for some things, but the person feeding the machine has to be consistent or it screws up the batter's load.
 
Jul 29, 2013
6,782
113
North Carolina
HS ball is the only place I've ever been around a machine, and I can honestly say I've never once, ever, had a positive experience with one!

Anna's college coach used to set their machine at 66/67 and to throw only a low outside pitch, then lose her stupid mind when no one could hit the ball?

Not a fan at all. If I couldn't hit outfield fly balls myself, I could see where someone would use one for outfield practice, but even then.....
 

LEsoftballdad

DFP Vendor
Jun 29, 2021
2,838
113
NY
HS ball is the only place I've ever been around a machine, and I can honestly say I've never once, ever, had a positive experience with one!

Anna's college coach used to set their machine at 66/67 and to throw only a low outside pitch, then lose her stupid mind when no one could hit the ball?

Not a fan at all. If I couldn't hit outfield fly balls myself, I could see where someone would use one for outfield practice, and even then.....
My daughter had a coach who used a slingshot bench for fly balls. It worked great.
 

Strike2

Allergic to BS
Nov 14, 2014
2,044
113
I've used machines quite a bit...always indoors. I've not used a gun on them. My sense is that a ball out of a Jugs set at...say...55mph, "looks" faster than 55mph in a game. For DD's team, that's typically what we set the machines at during team BP at 18U.

Working with DD individually, we'd sometimes work up to the high 60s, which looks like a cannonball. The challenge with a machine is that anticipating and picking up the pitch is harder out of the chute than a hand. I always simulate the pitching motion with my right hand holding a ball and bump the ball I'm holding at the chute with my left.

It's a valuable tool, but only part of a progression from movement drills, dry swings, T-work, soft and front toss.
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
MLB’ers often use machines as part of their pregame hitting routines but if you watch them they typically shorten everything up, similar to what you see them do in a lot of their tee work.

When I was a kid there were two pitching machines I used to ride my bike to. One was an Iron Mike, which was easy to time up. The other was one where you had to follow the ball as it went down a chute. For the latter I would basically go no stride and just work on hitting the ball up the middle.
 
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Apr 20, 2018
4,581
113
SoCal
Hold a ball in each hand. One in the shuttle and with the other hand mimic the windmill. With a little practice, you can get timing down to almost look real. Good pitching machines with good balls can be very accurate and a great tool for hitting velo. Great for practicing bunting also. Note: the little pre game bunt station wth players lobbing the ball to each other doesn't prepare them to bunt in the game.
Another thing I like to do is turn it up to70 plus and just have hitters get in the box and track 10 balls with their eyes. Vision training is a real thing. When you turn it down to 58 it looks easy. Usually the machine is at 35 feet away from the plate.
I like live hitting but coaches that can throw 60 mph BP don't grow on trees.
Seen many girls kill the coaches front toss but are unable to hit 60 mph FB come game time. These are the same ones that don't like hitting off pitching machines.
 
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Jan 25, 2022
880
93
There was a team we played away last season in MS who we played tight to the end. They were basically right at our level. Slightly better defense, but we had the better pitcher. Neither team could consistently make contact after the #4 hitter.

They came to our place a month later and beat the absolute crap out of the ball. 16 hits. Legit, mostly line drives. It was brutal. The only other team that hit us like that had a bunch of corn-fed "7th graders."

So after the game I asked the coach where that display came from. He said "We had staight rain-outs for almost four weeks. So after that first week I put them in the gym and set the machine on 50, and that's about all we did until today."

So...I guess my answer, for MS, would be 50.

Our #1 pitcher, despite what she's been told, really only has one pitch, and she's very good at it. Fastball, right down the middle. I'll give you three guesses on the speed...


For HS, based on what I've seen around here, I'd set it between 55 and 60. I believe the machine is a great tool, and especially when you don't have a stable of pitchers to throw BP.
 
Jun 6, 2016
2,714
113
Chicago
Not a fan at all. If I couldn't hit outfield fly balls myself, I could see where someone would use one for outfield practice, but even then.....

This is all I use it for, and that's at the beginning of the year when the fields are not yet playable. It is obviously not as good as hitting fly balls, but it does teach them how to track a ball in the air.

I haven't done it yet, but I think I'm going to start using it for catcher practice if I don't have an available pitcher. With a live pitcher, she is usually working on her own thing. She's not throwing dirt balls on purpose to help the catcher work on blocking. She can't (mine can't anyway) always locate pitches in certain spots to work on framing.

I don't think it's horrible for hitting if you do it right, but it's not really necessary.
 

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