Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Hi everybody,
I live in Massachusetts where winter & snow are fast approaching. I'm trying to find an inexpensive/free place for my 10-year old to practice baseball skills (hitting, throwing, fielding) in an indoor environment over the winter. I'd also like her to get individualized coaching because her technique needs work. (I have access to a good quality, very inexpensive coach.) Our town apparently doesn't have any space for baseball practice for little ones. (They save the town's indoor batting cage for high school teams.) A privately-run batting cage complex in a nearby suburb strikes me as pricey. There is another cage complex nearby that is also expensive. Can anyone recommend cheaper options I might be overlooking?

If you have the right type of ball (soft and unresponsive) an old high school gymnasium would work, if she isn't too old/big. You might need to buy a hitting net though and that would up the cost.

Chad wrote:If you have the right type of ball (soft and unresponsive) an old high school gymnasium would work, if she isn't too old/big. You might need to buy a hitting net though and that would up the cost.

Thanks, so we'd need a net like is used for soft-toss?

I was thinking of something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/PowerNet-Basebal ... 770&sr=1-1

You would have to toss the ball in from the side or have a tee.

The other option would be to use wiffle balls and mini-wiffle balls with a real bat. Here is a good example of a drill I was thinking of:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73Ljh3gELfg

Or, specifically designed training balls for indoor work:

https://www.amazon.com/Anywhere-Ball-Ba ... r+baseball

To be clear, I don't have a lot of baseball experience, just athletic experience, so I'm not entirely sure how stuff like this translates back to a real game. The coach may have better ideas.

Hi Chad,
Thanks, these look like some good ideas!