While pitching machines are a proven safe and effective tool for hitting and fundamentals development, there are a few safety precautions to keep in mind. What follows is a summary of simple and safe pitching machine practices we have used in our past experience, but ALWAYS read manual that came with your machine for full safety and maintenance guidelines.Batters should always wear necessary protective gear when in cage with a machine or on field for grounders or fly balls. Helmets and protective cups are a must. Do not allow any player into cage if they are not wearing an officially sanctioned batting helmet.
The person feeding a pitching machine should always stand behind an L-screen or similar barrier and should wear a helmet themselves as a precaution against batted balls hitting ceiling of cage and falling down.
If using a pitching machine after rain, or on a dewy morning, balls will pick up moisture and can behave unpredictably on feeding through pitching machine. Make sure your hitters are extra vigilant as a pitched ball may come out of machine erratically.
Visually inspect batting cage and L-screen netting regularly and patch when necessary. A hole in netting can quickly lead to accidents. As a part of this, always use high quality, thick netting material. In long run, this will prove safer and more cost effective than using cheap material in beginning.
In batting cage, only two people should be present at any given time — The batter and feeder behind their screen.
Use good judgment in setting pitching machine’s speed to a player’s ability. Just because a pitching machine can throw a ball at 102 MPH doesn’t mean your player is ready for that speed.
Before any batter enters cage, always feed a few test pitches into pitching machine to ensure that pitching machine is accurately aimed and so that batter has an idea of what to expect. Perform same procedure when any adjustment is made to machine, i.e. a new type of pitch or a different speed.