• It's FUN to use for kids and adults


• Battery Operated - Rechargeable 4 hour battery


• 4 Speeds - 20 mph to 60 mph, can be faster/slower by adjusting the pitching distance


• Low Cost (Free with 2 referrals - just pay shipping)


• Lightweight - Less than 4 lbs and older kids can set it up themselves


• Groundballs and Flyballs by adjusting tripod (standard camera tripod)


• Adjust to hitters height by adjusting the height of tripod


• Teaches to hit and catch an object smaller than a baseball


• Curveballs/sliders (Pro Model Only) with Repetitive Setting


• Left Hand / Right Hand Pitcher operation


• Holds up to 100 golf ball sized wiffle balls


• Unique Pitch Light allows batter to stride when light glows prior to pitch


• Can be used indoors during winter (garage, racguetball courts, gyms, etc.


• Used by Major Leaguers to maintain swing - see videos on main website


• Effective for Baseball and Softball Swings


• Great reviews online - been around since '96

Note: The only drawback is that the wind on windy days outdoors can move the ball around at the lower speeds.

My opinion is that you should always upgrade to the PRO model because at some point you will want the curve balls and sliders + left and right hand pitching. It also increases your ability to resell when you are finished with it.

Next I would make sure and purchase extra balls. The price of the balls is nominal and decreases the swing learning time if the batter only has to pick up the balls a couple of times to get a couple hundred swings in. I recommend at least 96 balls which the 100 ball adapter holds fairly well (a couple of balls may fall out) or even more if you can afford it. In a team practice situation it is best to have a couple of hundred balls so you could have 1 batter hitting and the on-deck batters picking up balls for their turn.

Next I would recommend the grow-bat. More so for the older kids because the bat really causes them to focus on contact rather than just swinging for the fence. I have younger kids - 7,9,11 so I have the 30" training grow bat which has been working well.

The web gloves seem like a neat idea but I have found that the younger kids really don't have the agility and focus to work with them yet. Older kids may do better because they are refining their catching skills and this could be another tool that works for them.

Additionally, I would keep checking the parent Personal Pitcher Pitching Machine website for new products as it seems they are working on new tools for teaching kids to play baseball or softball.

Summary :

• 1 personal pitcher - FREE!


• 1 pro upgrade - ~$30.00


• 5 or more dozens of extra balls - ~$5.00 per dozen


• 1 Growbat - 30" for younger kids - ~$39.00

I've just been authorized by the owner of SPC to offer a $40.00 discount available to anyone who orders from the main website : http://www.personalpitcher.com and using my referral email address.

If the Free option doesn't really trip your trigger, then saving $40 off the standard price certainly should.

Remember, to receive the $40 discount off your Personal Pitcher then you need to use my email "tstai@chartermi.net" on the main websites order form.

So you want something for Free, right?

Well, the offer at http://www.freepitchingmachine.com is FREE with a catch. You need to convince 2 other people to sign up for the free personal pitcher offer. (Don't forget to use my referrer email on the order form : tstai@chartermi.net)

You might be thinking that it is hard to find 2 other people interested in signing up. It really isn't. We all know plenty of parents and coaches with kids in baseball and softball that could benefit from having a personal pitcher of their own.

The personal pitcher has so many advantages that it is difficult to imagine not investing in your childs' enjoyment of America's National Pastime.

One of the selling points for me was that if you child is struggling at the plate then a pitching machine and repetition is exactly what they need. It's called Practice and rarely do kids get enough of it just with their teams. The really good players have the initiative to work on their weaknesses outside of the team setting.

Along the same lines, if you have a player that is playing well but maybe needs to hit a curve ball better then having a pitching machine that pitches left or right handed curve balls consistently is a perfect match.

Here's the last point I'd like to make. Even if you don't get 2 other people to sign up for their own free pitching machine, you'll be automatically entered into the $20.00 payment plan which is applied 100% to the outstanding balance. It's a Win-Win solution.

OK, so you don't think that you know 2 people that would be willing to buy a personal pitcher using your referral email. That's OK!

Even at $150 to $200 dollars retail this is a great pitching machine and still costs less than almost every other pitcher with the same effectiveness.

Check out the links below for E-bay auctions for Personal Pitchers and the Amazon.com links if you don't like auctions.

I've recently noticed a number of visitors to this lens coming from searches for do it yourself plans for making your own pitching machine.

I have to ask myself: Self, why would anyone make a pitching machine when they can get the Personal Pitcher for Free? The only answer I can come up with is that they don't know about this free offer!

I did a little poking around to see if there were actually plans for making a pitching machine yourself and didn't find anything useful. My conclusion is that it isn't very reasonably priced and the time involved is significant to build a pitching machine yourself.

The reality is that even if you weren't getting the Personal Pitcher for free, it is still a great bargain compared to other whiffle ball pitching machines and especially to the larger, bulkier baseball pitching machines. And with no time investment for trying to build one.

I'm writing this Personal Pitcher review from the perspective of a parent. See the following entry for a review as a coach.

A couple of features jump out at me as I begin writing this review. The first is that in the last two weeks my kids (11, 9, 7) have used the Personal Pitcher pitching machine 5 times without my help setting it up or choosing which settings to use. I think that in itself is a huge benefit for all of us parents that hope for our kids to take their own initiative and practice.

So why are the kids able to use this by themselves? The first is that the weight is only about 4 pounds and it simply mounts on a camera tripod. Secondly, the Personal Pitcher runs on batteries not a large gas motor like many other pitching machines. And lastly, the size is small enough that anyone can snap in place on the tripod, load the balls, turn it on and start batting.

The other thing that jumps out at me is that it is FUN! Not only do my kids enjoy hitting from it but so do I and I have no reason to practice batting. The kids argue about who's turn it is next which is a good thing. They try to turn the speed up to challenge themselves and adjust the Personal Pitcher to pitch at different distances and pitch locations. It's amazing how much more they understand about hitting a ball now. If you have a child that really enjoys baseball and is a pretty good athlete, then this could make the difference in playing time as the competition gets stiffer in the coming years

My kids have also enjoyed the challenge of using a Grow Bat to hit the whiffle balls. I also find that aspect challenging but not quite as much as they do. At this point the kids are lucky to hit 1/3 to 1/2 of the balls with a Grow Bat. This is fine since when they go back to a regular bat they hit almost everything.

My last comment has to do with the cost. Even if you pay full price for the Personal Pitcher, it's a bargain compared to standard pitching machines which can run anywhere from $500 to $3,000. If you take advantage of the Free Pitching Machine (Referrer Code: tstai@chartermi.net) offer then you have 60 days to refer 2 people (other parents) and your machine will be 100% free (except the $15.00 shipping). It's a really great deal in my opinion.

This is my review as a baseball coach of the Personal Pitcher. My opinion as a parent is in the above section.

To start off with, it's FUN for kids of all ages and ability. It's so much fun that they don't even know that they are working on their hitting skills. The machine is pretty consistent on pitch location on calm days and on windy days it isn't horrible but can be a little unpredictable. The hardest skill to acquire can be bat speed and hip turning. I've seen amazing improvement from kids in both areas once they started using the Personal Pitcher.

I bought and use the Personal Pitcher Pro model because of the ability to pitch curve balls and sliders. There are coaches these days that teach their pitchers to throw these pitches at young ages (often too young) and you may have to teach your players how to hit them. The other thing that comes with the pro model is the left hand pitching curve/slider which can be trouble if faced in a game but have never practiced against the reverse break.

Many coaches that I've talked to wonder about the wisdom of hitting whiffle balls compared to baseballs. My response is that isn't necessarily replacing hitting baseballs but complementing it. By hitting against a whiffle ball pitching machine, the batter must concentrate much harder on the ball and the location of the ball (no swinging with your eyes closed). I believe it helps them to watch for the spin of the pitch (even though you can't see the seams) and react.

The other advantage to the whiffle ball pitching machine is the number of repetitions that can be done in a short amount of time without hurting the batters hands (or the coaches arm :D ). You can get through a batter hitting about 100 balls in less than 10 minutes on the 5 second interval setting. Usually, I let each kid hit about 50 pitches and then move to the next.

Because of the limited flight of the whiffle balls, I usually set the pitching machine up in a corner of the outfield, throw a home plate down and have them rotate from collection (pick up the balls for the next batter) to operation (watch the Personal Pitcher for any feed problems) to batter. The rest of the team is working with the coaches on other skills. Each player gets a turn and they enjoy coming to practice because of it. I've even had a number of players ask to practice early so they can hit more balls. I like to encourage those kids to talk their parents into getting their own Personal Pitcher for free!

OK, baseball season is long gone. My sons not really into hitting baseballs or anything else having to do with baseball. He's only 8 so he's still figuring out his favorite sports.

Right now his favorite sport is football. Flag football through the local Y has been great. He's learned a lot and they get to play some fun games.

One of the hardest skill for a young kid to learn in football is to catch the ball with their hands instead of their body. So I started thinking...

Why not turn the Personal Pitcher into a "catch with your hands" practice machine? So, we tried it out last weekend. I set up the machine for a medium speed, 8 second feed and pointed it into the air. Not quite as high as a flyball but more like a soft line drive.

Then had my son stand out about 25 feet away and turned it on. He had a blast! He actually didn't catch very many at first - thus the reason for trying this in the first place. Eventually, he was at least getting both hands on the ball and moving his feet to make the catch.

I think the same principles that apply for baseball with the size of the balls helping to learn to hit will also help to learn to catch footballs. With the balls being the size of golf balls, catching a football will seem like a big fat watermelon.

I just thought I'd add this tidbit because it seemed like another fun use for the pitching machine in the baseball off-season.

How do you keep baseball exciting year round or at least during the off-seasons from other sports that they may be involved in?

Sometimes it isn't easy. It can take some creativity and ingenuity to keep the kids excited about playing baseball. Simple "let's play catch" isn't going to always do it.

Here's some suggestions that I've tried and can be a lot of fun, even during baseball season when the kids are getting a bit bored.

1. Play kickball. Kickball is surprisingly similar to baseball and all the kids love to play it. Make sure and decide before the game starts whether 'pegging' is allowed and if any body parts are illegal (like the head). I've used kickball every year with the kinderball and 1st graders to help them understand the game better before they even put on a glove. For some reason they get it quicker - I think it's because they already learned it at school.

2. The 5 Gallon Bucket. Younger kids need to work on their throwing skills often and particularly their aim. Put a 5 gallon bucket in the outfield upright and have the kids start 10 yards back and see how many can hit the bucket with a throw. As more and more hit the bucket, then move them back until eventually the distance is equivalent to an outfielder throwing to 2nd or 3rd base. As a bigger challenge, tip the bucket on its side and maybe even put it on a chair so it isn't on the ground.

3. Hula Hoops. No, not to twirl them! Place them on the ground during batting practice and challenge the kids to hit balls into them. This will help the older kids pinpoint placement of the ball and help the younger kids to just hit to one side of the field or the other. You could even rig something up where the hula hoop was suspended in the air and challenge the hitter to hit line drives into safe areas of the field.

Remember that baseball is supposed to be a fun game. So often these days, coaches and parents forget that and worry so much about winning/losing and their own statistics. If you want you kids to keep playing baseball and progress their skill you have to make the game fun.

Even though there is about a foot of snow on the ground here in the upper mid-west, we just had baseball sign-up for the summer. This has got me thinking about all those new baseball parents and players that are going to playing for their first time. Now, this isn't a problem because it is never too late to get your kids into physical activities. But it can be hard for your kids to "catch up" to the other players who might have played a couple of years already.

So, I thought I'd write to those parents that are looking for a way to help their child catch up to their teammates. It's been my experience coaching that 1st time players have the hardest time with hitting. Throwing and catching will come soon enough and even many experienced players will still be struggling with throwing and catching. But that eye coordination that comes with hitting can only be gained with experience. For most young players, they only get to hit during practices and games so getting that experience is invaluable.

So, finding a way to get your child hitting experience in the backyard is where many parents turn to. I personally think that the best pitching machine for kids is the Personal Pitcher Pro. It's easy to set up and can build confidence in 1st time hitters in a matter of minutes rather than an hour of coach pitching.

I also suggest for 1st time hitters to not use the Gro-Bats but to use a regular lightweight bat that they would usually use in their game. This will help them feel comfortable with their own bat and help get them contact while using the Personal Pitcher.

And lastly, remember that you need to be patient with 1st time hitters. Also, if you can have them watch a online videos on proper hitting techniques.