It rained the other day, so I invited kids from a team I’m helping to come over and hit in my garage using my beloved SoloHitter — sadly I think SoloHitter went out of business, but it’s a cool device that has a ball hang on a string with a net behind it so that batters can see where the ball goes. If any reader has an extra SoloHitter bag please let me know–mine has fallen apart and I haven’t been be able to find one, but I digress.
I was at a thrift store and got a couple of mirrors — one was $10 and one was $20 as I had a hunch that players might come over when it rained and they could swing off the Solo hitter, and I’d be able to use the mirrors to make it, so players could see themselves.
I tried it and one player saw himself collapsing on the front side during a swing and said OH — I SEE!!!!! And I was so happy — it was one of those AH-HAH moments that if you are a teacher that you live for. He immediately swung a few times in a row off to the side just to get the feel of not collapsing his knee and his next swing looked great.
Today in our game, he blasted a line shot to left field.
So I don’t know what to tell you — I’m hoping some coaches think of ways to get a mirror to a field as I think it would help, but if nothing else, tell parents that if they set up a batting T in the garage, they should get some cheap mirrors nearby.