Indoor Hitting "Stuff"

I would suggest purchasing several tees, because ther are many valuable things you can do with the tee. You could have different tee stations with the tee set up in various parts of the hitting zone. You can also have tee stations where players swing with just their bottom hand/lead arm to work on pulling down and getting extension through the baseball. You can also have tee stations for batters to swing with their top hand. I would also encourage purchasing an L-screen for front toss drills. For excample, a right handed thrower will turn the screen as if he were a lefty and underhand toss around the tall side of the screen. The hitter can be close to do this, so room is not as important. It's a good way to work on specifics of the swing. Side toss (often called soft toss) is also very important to grove a swing. I really think tee work is invaluable. If you are interested in any of this and would like more ideas feel free to send me a message.

I don't recommend the Quickswing. You can't use a stride and you learn to hit with your hands instead of your body. If you want to get good at hitting weak grounders, this is the tool for you.

The other aids are good.

Hit weighted baseballs (10 to 12 ounces) off the tee or soft toss. Regular baseballs are 5.5 ounces and have more force when pitched. Increasing the weight of the ball off the tee and in soft toss compensates some for the loss of force off the pitch. A fast swing is useless if there is loss of power due to weak hands which produces secondary vibration at the point of contact. Hitting weighted baseballs makes regular baseballs feel and respond like tennis balls. Use old bats and don't hit pitches with the weighted balls.

I hate weak grounders. Some of this hitting stuff is useless. Kind of like trying to intentionally teach a pitcher to shot put the ball or short arm it. Hitters need to get all they can to hit the ball hard. Just glad I'm not part of the throw your hands at the ball crowd. Hit it really hard up the middle.

The Hit-A-Way is garbage. It may work for little kids who don't hit the ball very hard, but if you hit the ball hard then the ball swings around so fast that you have almost no time to get ready for your next swing. I found that this created bad habits because I had to go so fast to get ready for my next swing. I was often late on the ball because I was not ready for the ball to come around.

When my guys were in Little league the Hit-A-Way worked very well for my guys. If you hit the ball well it will come back fast but will rewind on its own and come again giving time to prepare.

It certainly will not take the place of soft toss, but provides a pretty good drill for a young player to do on their own.

Agree with Nicholas25 on the "T".

I'm kinda a "why buy it when you can make it" type guy so here's what I did in our basement area. First understand the basement is divided into 4 rooms with one area accessible with a garage door and about 12ft wide (10 ft ceiling) the area with the garage door was the hitting/pitching area.
NET: put a net wall to wall - ceiling to floor. Attached permanently to the ceiling. Used screw hooks screwed into the walls allowing it to be unhooked and rolled up when not in use. Acquired netting when local college replaced their batting cage net.
SOFT TOSS MACHINE: Atec soft toss machine. Holds about 25 baseball and powered by 110v.
BALLS: 5 gal. bucket of regulation baseballs and 1 large coffee can of golf sized whiffle balls. (whiffle balls hit with a broom stick bat)
"T": Invested in the the best "T" I could find.
SEAT: Need someplace to sit while hand tossing soft toss.
CAMERA: Video camera on tripod to view hitting/pitching
CHIN UP BAR: Self explanatory
PULLEYS/ROPE/WEIGHT: Designed a exercise system to target shoulder/arm/chest.
PORTABLE PITCHING MOUND: Built of plywood covered w/carpet. Set up about 15 ft from net and son would throw into small target on net.

"It's not really what you have in the way of equipment --- but more in the dedication one has to use it." I'm sure if a kid threw enough rocks or apples he could increase his velocity.
Fungo

This is great info and I appreciate your thoughts. I run a baseball academy with HS aged players and I have a son who will be 6 in January so I'm looking for things that will work well for both. I know some will work for both while others will work for the different age groups. I may end up getting a bigger place again in the near future, but until then I want to make the most of what we have.

the swingaway (not hit away fyi) is an incredible piece of equipment

You might want to try the Ultimate Hitting Machine. Great soft toss machine for young kids to use,to practice hitting. Will toss up baseballs, softballs, whiffle balls, etc. (no electricity or batteries needed to operate)

To use: First adjust machine to toss balls to desired height for batter. Load balls on to tray... step down on plunger to load ball on ring (spring loaded)...get in hitting position with front foot next to launch pad....step on launch pad (ball pops up)...plenty of time to load up and ready to swing as ball starts back down. (works similiar to self toss)

Hope this is not too late.
The Swingaway is great. An academy my son has gone to uses it at the end of one of their tunnels then they put a screen up and use the other 3/4 of the tunnel for underhand and soft toss. When they teach classes and have hitting stations they use it as a warm-up station before working with an instructor.

Try the Insider Bat hitting "softees" into a sock net(I think they're technically called LiteFlite balls or somesuch).

Great tool and fairly cheap. I highly recommend it. And, no, I don't have any affiliation with the company.