A batting cage is the only place a 13-year-old can face live pitching safely and get 40+ swings in 30 minutes. Cage time builds confidence and teaches pitch recognition.

Equipment needed: A batting cage, a pitching machine or a coach who can throw strikes, 50-60 baseballs, helmets, bats.

Setup: Hitter at the plate in cage. Pitcher (machine or coach) at 50 feet (Little League distance). Balls cycle automatically or a feeder loads between pitches.

How to run it:

  1. Hitter faces 10 fastballs down the middle at 45-50 mph. Focus: contact and line drives.
  2. Rest and regroup. Next 10: mix fastballs and changeups. Focus: adjusting to different speeds.
  3. Next 10: pitches in and out. Focus: staying balanced and hitting it where it’s pitched.
  4. Final 10: your choice (fastballs up, changeups down, whatever they struggled with).

What to look for: Swing path consistency and decision-making. Do they chase pitches out of the zone? Do they adjust when the pitch is faster or slower? The cage reveals pattern recognition problems that don’t show up in soft toss.

Variation: For younger kids, stay with fastballs only, all 40 pitches in the zone. For advanced kids, add a scoreboard: count made-contact swings as points, outs as negatives, and run a final score.