Suggestions on a good hitting aid.

[coach_jeffobi]

Recently I've been having some tee trouble. Not tooting a horn by any means, but my sisters have a good amount of power to their swing, so when we've done tee swings over the past few months our current tee (black rubber 5 location tee) has gotten pretty banged up from the hands dropping and hitting the tee. Sometime down the line I plan on getting one of those multi-location tees Howard uses in his videos here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tLNG6gu8I8

but until then I've been looking for something stationary, durable, and without the need to reload a ball after every swing. Figure it might help keep my 9 year old sister's attention a little better. But there's just so much out there. The snap back tee, hit n sticks, etc.

So I was wondering what you all have found useful, in detail why you think so, and still allows for working on hitting different locations. I'd like something on the cheaper side, but if it's highly recommended I just consider the amount I spend an investment. Thanks in advance!

 

[coach_jeffobi]

Also anything you think DOES NOT help, I would like here why as well

 

[obbay]

I think the hittin' stick is the best training tool for the money.
The only drawback is that it takes one person to hold it while the batter swings at it. If you were looking for something a player could use alone, this would not be it.

great for pitch location and working on a myriad of different swing problems. gives the coach a front row seat and you both feel the quality of contact.

doesn't replace a tee but it's a great tool. If you want more specific info on drills, pm me and I'll give you more info.

 

[starsnuffer]

I think the hittin' stick is the best training tool for the money.
The only drawback is that it takes one person to hold it while the batter swings at it. If you were looking for something a player could use alone, this would not be it.

great for pitch location and working on a myriad of different swing problems. gives the coach a front row seat and you both feel the quality of contact.

doesn't replace a tee but it's a great tool. If you want more specific info on drills, pm me and I'll give you more info.

My daughter has a contraption in the backyard that I was given a while back. It's basically a steel base with a pivot for a modified hittin' stick. The rotating part has bungee's attached to it so the stick rotates back after it's hit.

Supposedly you can use it to hit repeatedly after the ball rotates back, but I've never seen a real pitch thrown in that motion, so I'm not sure how useful that is. What I have my daughter do with it is use it like she would a T for practice. She doesn't have to chase balls out of a net or bend down to pick them up, so her practices at home are more efficient. We're lucky that we're in california but I imagine this could easily be used in a garage too. It's easy to adjust the height and she can easily move to make the ball inside/outside.

It's not something that I'd use for a team practice or anything but it seems to work great for the "homework" her hitting coach gives her. Half of it inside doing slow motion swings in the mirror, and then half outside on this contraption for whatever she's supposed to be working on.

I'll check tonight when I'm home to see if it has a name on it or if I can find out where it came from.

-W

 

[FPMark]

Sounds like starsnuffer may be talking about the Hit-A-Way. Costs about $30 without the pole. With the pole that you can move around, it costs about $80- $100.

I have been considering the Swing-A-Way. It's about $200 but may take up less room in my garage. Does anybody have one that they use? Is it any good? I appreciate any info before I buy one. Thanks.

 

[MsDinosaur]

To me, it sounds like starsnuffer is talking about the SLKZ hurricane; it's like a hitting stick with a base and bungie things to make it come back into position. We've used a Hit-A-Way and it never worked very well.

I too would really like to know about the Swing-A-Way. I bought one recently, but DD hasn't used it yet. Once I got it put together, I realized 1) it's pretty darn big and 2) our garage is too cluttered. ;-) I'm wondering if I should just pack it up and take it back before my 30 days are up or try harder to clean up the garage. Is it worth giving up a weekend clearing out all the junk so we'll have space for this behemoth?

 

[starsnuffer]

No it's not the hitaway, it's called bataction. Apparently you can get them at bataction.com

Personally I think it's worth it to have room in your garage for a T in order to hit softball's into a blanket or carpet you hang from the ceiling. About 7'x7' of space or even less is enough. Personally, I've no idea why it seems difficult for a player to pick up a ball and put it back on a T, but I guess it is a problem and is why these contraptions were invented. Said contraptions will fit in about the same amount of space.

-W

 

[MsDinosaur2]

A 7' width would do for the Swing-A-Way, but it's about 9' long and then we'd still need enough room on the end for DD to stand and swing. I think you'd want an area around 14' in length to feel comfortable using it. I'm one of those who gets sucked in by new toys (those tcb balls are great, though), but I'm thinking more and more that this should go back and we'll just clear enough space for her to do tee work.

FYI, if you have the room, it does seem like it could be pretty neat. The bungy cords on the ball snap it back into position very quickly--probably in the time it would take you to do a decent job of resetting yourself.

 

[FPMark]

Thanks for the info MsDinosaur2. I guess I didn't realize it took up that much room. The add says it's like 54"x 48". Maybe thats the box size. But now that you say that, it must be width and height. It didn't mention depth.

I was trying to stay away from a T because I don't want to find softballs under all my work benches and none in my bucket. Know what I mean?

 

[obbay]

I got a hitaway a long time ago and it never worked the way it did on the ads or the video.(I need to post it on ebay)

The Swing-a-way does what it's supposed to do except I don't think any of the players who used it got much benefit from it. Gave them something to do when we had hitting stations, but you get better feedback hitting off a tee into a net (or blanket or whatever) I tried it and never felt like I as getting particularly good contact.

I hear what you're saying about stray softballs, but I think a bucket and tee is the way to go. maybe use a smaller bucket that only holds 12 balls so they have to refill the bucket and if they don't they have less hits before they fill the bucket again.

I wish I had enough room in my garage- it's borderline. they can do BP in there but it's too easy to break something.