When people hear the words batting cage, they naturally think about hitting. That is obviously a big part of what we do at Vicarious Athletics, but the cages are designed to be used for much more than batting practice.
Baseball development involves throwing, pitching, fielding, receiving, footwork, balance, reaction time and learning how to move efficiently. A lot of those skills can be worked on indoors just as effectively as they can on a field, and in some cases the indoor environment actually makes it easier to isolate a specific movement and get more repetitions.
Our individual cages are approximately 12 feet wide by 58 feet long, and the divider between two of our cages can be opened to create a space roughly 24 feet wide by 58 feet long. We also have three pitching mounds available. That gives players and coaches quite a bit of flexibility depending on what they want to work on.
This becomes especially useful during periods of bad weather, when fields may be closed or team practices get cancelled, but it is not something that has to be limited to rainy days. There are plenty of reasons to use an indoor training space even when the fields are perfectly dry.
Work on Throwing, Not Just Throwing Hard
One area we think young players can always spend more time on is simply learning how to throw well. Throwing is involved in almost every defensive position on the field, but compared with hitting, players often do not spend nearly as much time deliberately practicing the mechanics of it.
A cage gives you enough distance to work on throwing without turning every repetition into a maximum-effort throw. Players can work on getting their feet into the right position, moving toward the target, using their lower half and getting the arm into a good throwing position. A target can also be added so that accuracy becomes part of the drill.
For younger players especially, we are generally more interested in whether the movement is efficient and repeatable than whether the player can throw the ball as hard as possible. Velocity tends to improve as players get stronger and learn to use their bodies better, but poor movement patterns can become difficult to correct once they have been repeated enough times.
Throwing work can also be adapted to smaller spaces at home. A player can rehearse footwork and throwing mechanics without a ball, use a softer ball when appropriate, or work at a shorter distance with a parent. The distance may change, but the movement being practiced can remain the same.
Pitching Work on a Real Mound
Pitching is one of the areas where our indoor setup becomes particularly useful. We have three pitching mounds at Vicarious Athletics, which allows pitchers to continue working on their delivery in an environment that more closely resembles what they will use in a game.
A pitcher can work on balance, direction, stride, lower-body initiation, sequencing and command while throwing to a catcher or a target. We can also slow the delivery down and isolate individual portions of the motion when something needs to be corrected.
We actually like separating the movement from the result at times, particularly when a player is making a mechanical change. Young pitchers often judge every pitch based on whether it was a strike. If it hits the target, they assume they did everything correctly, and if it misses, they assume they did something wrong.
That is not always the case.
A pitcher can make a poor movement and still throw a strike, just as they can execute the movement we are working on correctly and miss the target. When we are trying to change mechanics, sometimes it is more useful to focus on what the body is doing before worrying about where every pitch ends up.
Having an indoor mound allows us to do that work while still letting the pitcher feel the slope, landing position and movement they will experience on the field.
Fielding Is About More Than Catching the Ground Ball
Opening two of our cages together gives us a much wider area to work with, and that additional width is particularly useful for fielding.
When we teach fielding, we do not look at the catch as the entire play. A lot happens before and after the baseball reaches the glove. The player has to read the ball, take a good first step, move into position, get the body under control, field the ball, transfer it and organize the feet for the throw.
All of those parts can be trained indoors.
We can work on balls directly at the player, to the glove side and to the backhand. We can work on charging a slow roller, moving laterally, getting around a baseball and creating momentum toward the target before the throw.
One of the advantages of working indoors is that we can repeat the same movement over and over without needing an entire infield. If we want to work specifically on a player's first step to the backhand side, we can do that repeatedly instead of waiting for that exact situation to happen during a normal practice.
That kind of repetition is often where improvement happens.
Short Hops and Glove Work
Some of the best defensive work requires very little space at all.
Short-hop drills are a good example because two players can work only a few feet apart and get a large number of repetitions in a short period of time. We can work on receiving the ball in front of the body, to the glove side and to the backhand side while teaching players to use soft hands instead of stabbing at the baseball.
As the player improves, we can vary the location and speed of the ball and introduce more of a reaction component.
This is also one of the easiest types of baseball work to replicate at home. A parent can roll or toss balls from a short distance, or use a tennis ball or softer ball when working indoors.
It is simple work, but that does not make it unimportant. A lot of baseball development comes from repeating basic movements correctly until they become automatic.
Catchers Can Get a Lot of Work Indoors
Catchers are another group that can get a tremendous amount of useful work done in a relatively small area.
Receiving, blocking, transfers, footwork and throwing mechanics can all be practiced inside a cage. A catcher can receive dozens of pitches while concentrating on glove position, work on moving the body into different blocking positions, or repeatedly practice getting the ball out of the glove and into throwing position.
Once we open the cages into the larger training area, we can start combining those movements. The catcher can receive the pitch, come out of the crouch, organize the feet and make the throw rather than practicing every part separately.
That repetition matters because catching movements happen very quickly during a game. You do not make a catcher faster simply by telling them to move faster. You improve the movement itself and eliminate unnecessary steps until the player naturally becomes more efficient.
Footwork and Reaction Work
Not every useful baseball exercise has to involve a baseball.
Footwork, first-step quickness and reaction time have a direct effect on what happens defensively. A player does not know exactly where a ball is going before contact, so the ability to recognize direction and move efficiently is important.
In the larger cage area, we can work on reacting to visual or verbal cues and moving forward, backward or laterally. We can add a baseball to the drill, but we do not necessarily need to start with one.
This type of training works particularly well with younger players because it can be made competitive without becoming overly complicated. They are improving balance, coordination, reaction time and body control while still enjoying the drill.
Balance, Rotation and Body Control
We also think players benefit from understanding that baseball improvement does not always come from taking more swings or throwing more baseballs.
Balance, rotational control, mobility and general body awareness all affect what happens on the field. A player who has difficulty controlling their body is going to have a harder time controlling a bat, repeating a pitching delivery or getting into a good fielding position.
For younger athletes, this does not need to become an elaborate strength program. Simple movements can go a long way. Single-leg balance, controlled rotation, lateral movement, changing direction and learning how to move athletically can all be useful.
These are also some of the easiest things to work on at home because they require little or no equipment.
Sometimes Baseball Should Just Be Fun
Not every visit to the cages needs to be about fixing mechanics or working through a structured drill. Especially with younger players, there is value in letting baseball be fun.
That is one of the reasons we like having HitTrax available in the cage. Players can use the Home Run Derby option to compete against friends, chase scores and simply enjoy hitting without every swing turning into a lesson.
There is still value in those swings, of course. Players are seeing pitches, making contact, competing and learning how to perform with a little pressure on them, even if that pressure is just trying to beat a friend on the leaderboard. More importantly, though, they are having fun playing baseball.
We think that matters. Development is important, but if every trip to the cage feels like work, it becomes easy for young players to lose some of the enjoyment that made them want to play in the first place.
A Home Run Derby can also be a good way to finish a training session. After spending time working on mechanics, fielding, pitching or another specific skill, letting kids compete and hit for fun gives them a chance to relax and end the session on something they enjoy.
Sometimes the best baseball training is simply giving kids another reason to want to come back and play again.
Why Indoor Training Can Be Useful Even When It Isn't Raining
One of the advantages of an indoor environment is that it allows us to control the training session a little more closely.
During a normal team practice, a player may only see a handful of opportunities to work on a particular movement. An infielder may get a few backhands. A catcher may only block a few balls. A pitcher may be more concerned about getting hitters out than about one specific part of the delivery.
Indoors, we can decide that the entire session is going to focus on one of those things.
An infielder can get repeated work on the first step and approach to the ball. A catcher can get a high number of receiving or blocking repetitions. A pitcher can work on one portion of the delivery without worrying about the result of every pitch. A hitter can spend part of the session making a mechanical adjustment and then jump into a HitTrax Home Run Derby and compete.
That focused repetition is one of the reasons indoor training can be valuable regardless of the weather. It gives players the opportunity to work on specific parts of their game, while also giving them some freedom to enjoy baseball in ways that are harder to recreate during a structured team practice.
The Cages Are Baseball Training Spaces
That is ultimately how we view Vicarious Athletics.
We have batting cages, and of course we use them for hitting. Players can take batting practice, use the pitching machines, work on timing and make mechanical adjustments to their swings.
But the cages are also baseball training spaces.
Players can throw, pitch from one of our three mounds, work on fielding, train catchers, improve footwork and reaction time, and use the wider combined cage area for drills that require more lateral movement. They can also jump into HitTrax, compete in a Home Run Derby and just have some fun playing baseball.
When the fields are wet, that means development does not have to stop. When the fields are dry, it still gives players an environment where they can slow the game down, isolate a specific skill, get the repetitions they need, or simply come in and enjoy hitting with their friends.
Hitting may be the first thing people think of when they see a batting cage, but it is only one part of what we can do inside one.
