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Polyball Resources
Live Pitched
Polyball Batting Practice
How to Throw Live Pitches
part 1
You need to learn how to do some live pitching for a complete polyball batting practice regimen. The pitching machines are best for certain types of training and you must do live pitching for other types of batting practice.
The Ball
The standard polyball is made plastic ("poly"), has perforated holes around the whole ball, and is made for hitting. Easton makes baseball sized polyballs for batting practice. These are ideal for pre-game hitting in situations where you may not take batting practice with a baseball, such as in a tournament or where there is no batting cage attached to the field. There are several companies that make polyballs actually, I am most familiar with Easton and Wiffle brand polyballs, but there are other brands out there in the marketplace. Wiffle makes golf balls size polyballs and their own patented curving "WIffle" half and half ball.
The polyballs come in three sizes actually: golf ball, baseball and soft ball size. I prefer the baseball size for live throwing outdoors. We keep a five gallon bucket of them with the team and use them for pre-game hitting often. You can use the "Wiffle" balls for curves and the standard polyballs for fast balls and change ups. It can be hard finding enough of the "Wiffle" balls I will admit.
We don't bother with using the half and half "Wiffle" balls, we simply use masking tape to mask off half of a regular polyball for curve balls. Typically a five gallon bucket of team balls will consist of about 50% taped balls and 50% untaped. For fast balls and change ups we use untaped balls.
Taping
There is probably a better way, or a better tape to use than standard painter's masking tape, but that is what we use for taping. Ideally a tape that will flex better than masking tape would work better than masking tape. The larger baseball size balls will compress a lot when hit with a bat and over time the masking tape will eventually fall off from all the compressions from well struck balls. (If a reader is aware of a stretchable tape that has good adhesive strength please email me and I will try it out). But in the meantime, masking tape will have to do for my own use.
The golf ball sized polyballs can be used for live pitch also, they do not compress so much and the taped balls will remain taped for a much longer period of time than the larger balls. I prefer the golf ball size balls for indoor batting practice because they are lighter and less likely to break something (that I may have forgotten to clear out of the area). The light golf balls size polyballs are more susceptible to blowing wind and therefore are more suited for indoor hitting. Indoor hitting can be done in a garage or basement at home if you can clear out and partition off an area large enough for it. Usually an area of about 15 feet wide or so by about 20 - 30 feet deep will do.
If you tape polyballs for live pitching and also use polyballs for a pitching machine, I would keep them separate so that you don't mix taped balls for pitching machine use. The taped balls can't be used (obviously) with a pitching machine and will jam the machine if used. We keep a bucket of mini balls for live (consisting of 50% taped and 50% untaped) pitching only. We have a separate five gallon bucket of (untaped) balls that we use for pitching machine only. These are the balls that are shipped with the machine and we use only those with the pitching machine.
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Learn to hit a small polyball with a small practice bat.
click here
Note: "Wiffle" is a trade mark of The Wiffle Ball Inc.
Polyball Batting Practice
The most practical way to improve your hitting skill. Serious batting practice - at home. (indoors or outdoors.) Fast balls, curve balls and sliders. Don't waste another coin at a commercial batting cage. Great for all ages and skill levels.
"If you are not doing Polyball Batting Practice -You are probably not taking enough batting practice"
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Improve Your Baseball Hitting
Train at Home with a Polyball Pitching Machine
The Sandlot Slugger
Strong - Powerful
Rugged
Four Pitch Speeds!
Holds 100 Balls!
Pitch Alert Light
2-Year Manufacturer's Warranty
AC Adapter/Charger
4-Hour Battery
Top pitch speed of 60 mph
Curve Balls or Fast Balls
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Available with
- Turbo Speed Option(makes top pitch up to 70 mph)
- Remote On/Off Option (turn the feeder on or off by remote)
click here
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