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Rough situation. Can't do much about it, the Coach loves his new toy. Hitters need to see as much live overhand pitching velocity as possible.

A few things... Heavy use of the machine, at least during some parts of the year, isn't uncommon at many colleges as well so he would be wise to figure out how to not hate it and make good use of it. Machines do have their place, at least for some aspects of hitting. Machines can have advantages as far as location consistency and good break if set properly, maintaining velo, etc. You can provide a steady dose of lefty and righty breaking balls with them. You can get unlimited bunting...

I know a guy whose son was on a team that did no live, simply because there was not a single coach on the team who could throw it. It was an uncomfortable conversation but he volunteered and was eventually accepted. Maybe that's the problem here? If so, maybe you could try to help out. ... or you could throw to just your own kid after practice. If you have access to the school cage, it might make a statement.

The coach can provide some rhythm by using his other hand to simulate a throwing motion. Put it in and at the same time wave down with the other hand that you have raised before. Maybe he can ask him to do that for him.

Weird then, because guys with arms like to use them. Maybe it’s a temporary thing.

CABBAGEDAD makes a very good point about many college programs using machines as part of their training. The top travel team in our state uses them, too. They set the machines up at 70mph from 35-40 feet away to help the kids learn to hit higher velocity.

Do you think it's messing up his timing more because he doesn't get to see a human throwing the ball, or because they have it set up wrong? If they're shooting 80 mph at him from 45' away, that kind of defeats the purpose of simulating real pitch velocity. Tough spot. How would a request for post-practice live BP from one of the ACs go over?

We used them to simulate fast pitching and to get a lot of swings in a short amount of time. Some loved it and some hated it. I have found that the guys that hit well hit live and pitching machine. The ones who struggled against fast pitching struggled against both. We did not use it exclusively but did it mixed in with live pitching. We had no one but our ace who threw fast and did not want to use him so we used the machine. I'm not a fan of coming in closer and throwing live fast because I...

There's his angle. As Mid and JCG noted, those college PO's like to throw. The player group appealing to that group is likely to produce results sooner or later. Or, at the least, they should ask one or more of those guys to throw live outside of team practice time. Meanwhile, conquer the machine.

In baseball, I used both. I find it hard to believe that machine alone is destroying a machine. I would suggest that the feeder can help the hitter by showing the ball just above the feeding chute and then, when the ball moves, the hitter start that load so that they are simulating a pitch in progress. Of course the best scenario is to have live arm. However, it is harder than one thinks to find someone who can really throw live BP that is beneficial. I've seen countless former college...

I hate the machines if they take the place of live pitching, but they are great for working on breaking balls, IMO, as someone pointed out above....assuming that you have a machine that throws somewhat repeatable curves. It's hard to get a BP thrower who throws a consistent, hittable breaking pitch from 35' away. I coached with a 6'7" former Milb/D1 pitcher last year. My 14 yo's team was terrified of BP. It wasn't so much the speed, but his breaking stuff, and the weird angle that his ball...

My son has trained on all machines, and they all have their benefits. But using anything exclusively is a bad idea. We knew they used a 2 wheel Jugs machine at the High School level and for the tryout. So he practiced hitting off one during the winter. But we would always compliment that practice with live arm throws as well as using a local Iron Mike, which is much more similar to timing live pitching. We used a ProBatter PX2 on the weekends to simulate live game at bats. You should do the...

One of the problems with regular pitching machines is a kid will tend to start timing his swing rather than reacting to a pitch. My son was fortunate to have access to a Pro Batter in high school and college. He would program it for twenty pitches that varied in speed and pitch type. Even then, whatever kind of pitch it was always came to one location for that pitch. He still did a lot of in cage, live pitching BP.

One of the best things we've done recently for my HS Soph kid's hitting is found a former D1 pitcher in his mid 20's who throws him Batting Practice twice a week (for a very reasonable minimal fee). This guy used to cruise in the low 90's, still throws mid 80's easy, can spin a good tight curve and throws 2 seams, 4 seams, changeups etc... My kid then has me videotape the BP on my IPad and looks at his swings in between BP Rounds. Anything you can do to face good overhand velocity is going...

My sons 2 travel coaches would pitch live AB's in the winter to the team indoors from regulation distance. Both old D3 players from a top level program. One was a righty and one was a lefty. They sat in the low to mid 80's and threw a great cb and slider. It was priceless practice. If you can't find that, look for a Probatter PX2 in your area. I would drive almost 2 hours both ways so my son could use one.

I recently tried to convince our HC to use Juggs machine to better develop our hitters. However, I think your son's coach is making a mistake if that is all he is doing to prepare them for hitting in game situations. It is a tool and should be treated as such. A good program is going to incorporate tee, soft toss, coach-pitch BP, and a machine. They are all valuable and provide opportunities for hitters to focus in different ways. Our HC has not incorporated machine yet but maybe that is why...