JUGS Lite-Flite Machine for Baseball and Softball

Ordered this for my 8 year old AAA player who wanted to work on both hitting and fielding. He is primarily a catcher, so he also wanted to practice both catching and blocking pitches. This has been exactly what he wanted. He and I researched extensively and made lists of features for many different models. We both agreed that this machine seemed too notch, and we weren't wrong. He is in love with his pitching machine, and was able to build it himself. It's light enough for him to transport back and forth to our garage, and he found it simple to power with a few extension cords. We originally were worried about using it without a battery, but now that we've tried it, we'll stick with plugging it in since it's not a problem. He's saving up for the automatic feeder, so right now either myself or his sisters feed the balls for him to hit, which is very simple to do. Moving the machine to make slight adjustments is also very simple, and all components seem built to last. We've been extremely happy with the ease of use. It's also been great for practicing pop-ups. The one thing I will say is that, even after adjusting the machine to exactly where you want it, there are occasional pitches that are just off the mark. I understand that's to be expected with something like this, and that it's also more of what he'll see in a game, but sometimes I end up readjusting the angle only to miss my target by even more. I think the accuracy of the machine is somewhat determined by the way in which you feed the balls. But in general, we've been pleased with the accuracy. If you're on the fence or confused by all the different options out there, or even if you're wary of the price, I don't think you'll be disappointed if you take the plunge and purchase this. My son has had friends over recently, and this machine occupies them for hours, and requires very little input or help from me. If it's easy enough for a third grader to operate, but is also great for my 30 year old brother, it's clearly a machine with large appeal and versatility. I already see an improvement in his hitting. We are very happy with this purchase and look forward to using this for years.

I coach a U8 baseball team and was looking for a machine that was solidly made, but not too expensive. I was a little reluctant to purchase this model because you have to use the Lite-Flite balls, but this turned out to be ideal for multiple reasons: 1). Kids who were jumping out of the batter's box even when it was a strike became less afraid, were able to identify a strike coming into the plate, and started hitting in games much to their parent's surprise. 2). Safety - I was able to conduct more efficient batting practice because I didn't have to make sure the entire team in the field was paying attention to every pitch since if these balls hit them, it doesn't hurt (with 8 year olds, many loose their attention span in 30 seconds). 3). There is some variance in the location of pitches since the balls are lighter, so the player doesn't get used to hitting pitches right down the middle of the plate. 4). I used this for teaching them how to catch pop-flies and get under the ball without the fear of getting hit in the face (you can use it for grounders, but if there's grass it dies out quick since the balls are light). I purchased two buckets of balls (18 per), so I could give each kid 72 looks if I went through all of them twice. This probably at least doubled our efficiency in batting practice versus coach pitching. I highly recommend purchasing the battery pack since you don't always have an outlet nearby and it eliminates the safety hazard of having the electrical cord run through the field. It's a bit overpriced, but almost a must have to be mobile. I plan on using this machine for years to come as it goes up to about 75-80 mph, throws curve balls and sliders, and could also be setup in your basement with some netting. Even for older ball players, it would still be effective to keep the hand/eye coordination going, but I'd probably want to supplement it with a hard ball throwing machine at some point.

This is the first year my 7 yr old is on pitching machine baseball league and I wanted to get somewhat of a similar affect to the game. My son was not even coming close to hitting the pitches of the pitching machine roughly 43 mph fast balls from practice. We have worked on this machine maybe 4 times in the last 2 weeks. His hitting is up dramatically. We went from not hitting anything before the season started and in his first 2 games he has gone 2/2 and 3/3. this machine really does help. it is very consistent on where it pitches and extremely intuitive on adjusting the pitches. I was skeptical just as anyone else would be of this product. It has surpassed all of my expectations and the results have been phenomenal. There is little risk to NO risk of injury. these balls do not hurt if it hits them. My son will stand right in front of it and I will shoot it at him as we are goofing off. I would recommend this product to anyone as it is less than half of the cost of a real pitching machine ($1,300) and virtually the same affect to build timing. you will not be disappointed. Also, You will be able to sell it for close what you paid for it when you are done with it. I was amazed /shocked on what these still sell for on ebay and craigslist which is also a good indication that it is a very well built machine. I will comeback in few months to see how well this has worked over the next couple of months.

I just received this unit today, and did some hitting with it with my son who is 8. I selected this unit based on the fact that it throws foam balls, making it lighter, less expensive, and safer than a traditional hitting machine. I have no qualms about using it my yard without a cage, although with the pricey and specialized balls, it's important not to hit them places where they are difficult to retrieve. The other unit that many people recommend for younger batters is the Louisville Slugger UPM 45 Blue Lightning pitching machine. The advantages of the UPM 45 are that it can throw real baseballs, does not require electricity, and is less expensive than the Jugs Lite Flite machine. On the other hand, since it uses a mechanical throwing arm, it is much more effort to position and calibrate the machine to throw strikes. Since our yard is not perfectly level and we intend to move and store the machine when it's not in use, I was concerned about the difficulty and effort in calibrating it. The Lite Flite machine, on the other hand, is easy to calibrate with just a few practice balls, since it is more like aiming a cannon. The Jugs machine is also easy to adjust to throw "sliders" and "curveballs" that break either left or right; once the head of the unit is repositioned, it just takes 3 or 4 more calibration pitches to re-adjust it to throw strikes with these pitches. Overall, this seems like a very solid machine that will provide good practice to younger players. The build quality is remarkable for an "inexpensive" pitching machine. I think it does not pitch fast enough to challenge experienced teens and adults, although one could still practice technique with it. With the machine set up 40 feet from the plate as recommended in the instructions for baseball practice, I was able to step right in and hit fastballs on the maximum speed setting easily, and although I do hit a lot of tennis balls, I am hardly a star baseball player. The marketing material claims it throws a "simulated 85 miles per hour", but in that case I must be a simulated David Ortiz. More likely, it is topping out around 50mph. The other thing I noticed is that the ball, being foam and fairly light, does not behave quite like a real baseball pitch. The backspin it picks up from the wheel gives it a very flat trajectory, and it looks like it decelerates more rapidly than a real baseball as it passes through the air. However, my son found it plenty challenging and I think we will get good use from it for years to come.

I had debated on which machine to buy, glad I listened to the baseballexpress salesman's recommendation and went with this one from Juggs. Use it with my nine and six year old sons all the time. especially enjoy the fact it can throw five different pitches (Righthanded curve, Lefthanded curve, righthanded slider, lefthanded slider and fastball). Variable speed is as easy as turning the knob (which is nice since my six year old needs them much slower than my 9 year old. Switching pitches is so fast, just a few turns of a knob (then realign the machine so it is throwing the ball over the middle of the plate. Setup is a breeze. Foam balls are great (buy a few dozen), we smash the foam balls off the house and it doesn't do any damage to the windows or siding - reminds me of my youth when ragballs would blast off my partents picture window, but never break anything. Great for doing popup, flyball and grouding drills...great tool for teaching kids the proper way to field and not have to worry about them being afraid of the ball - foam balls are also great for developing "soft" hands. the easy repositioned vertical, horizontal and speed controls allo you to easily adjust where the ball goes so fielding drills aren't the ball going to the exact same place every time. I've had the thing for a few months now and it has worked like a charm. rather expensive, but oh so much fun. Kids are having tons of fun and along the way they are becoming much better hitters and fielders. BTW, goes plenty fast enough for adults.

We've had this for about a month now and have used it quite a bit. My son is 6 and loves baseball. He moved into a machine pitch league so we bought the machine for practice. The machine is well built and solid. It comes in two strong fabric cases (one for the machine and one for the legs) with 1 of each ball (baseball/softball wiffle, baseball/softball lite flight). It also come with 2 ball shutes for a baseball and softball. The whole thing is pretty top notch. Set up took about 10 minutes. This is mainly screwing the legs together. For baseball, I'd just leave the legs together when you take it down. That will save you 8 minutes right there. For softball, you only use half the legs so setup is pretty quick. You have to setup the machine for the ball you want to use. There are four distinct setups that require you to unscrew/screw a pressure plate for each size and style of ball. So if you have a mix of wiffle and lite flight balls, you can really only use one without having to re-adjust everything. And really, after ANY change you make, you have to re-adjust and calibrate the machine. It's pretty easy to find the sweetspot though after any change. In about 3-4 balls you can find the zone for fastballs. Curveballs seem to take me a bit longer. A lot of what makes the machine work for you is actually the ball you use. We have been using the lite flight balls almost exclusively. We bought 2 dozen at first but realized 4 dozen is the perfect amount of balls before we have to go pick them all up. They fly pretty accurately, usually in or around the strike zone. Sometimes in the wind they will get unpredicatable but never dangerous. I think it mimics a real pitching situation. The balls are foam, but dense, with very little weight. I got hit on a come-backer in the leg and while it didn't hurt that bad, it stung enough to get out of the way on the next one. Also, we were catching some pop flys with bare hands and that stung quite a bit too. My son also took a pop fly off the face that stung him pretty good but didn't leave a bruise. That said, my son doesn't fear the ball at all, even after getting hit in the face. The balls travel further that I thought they would. I don't have a huge backyard but he sends them into the neighbors yard once in a while. Whe he gets older we'll have to get a net. It doesn't work well for popups as the the ball is so lite it just pops out of glove so when we practice it is more for footwork and positioning. You can launch the ball pretty high for popups. Also, the wiffle ball that comes with it is probably the strongest wiffle ball ever made. It is way nicer than the Nike ones I have (Which incidentally work with the machine but are not very accurate and tend to slow down right before the batters box). The only other negative of the machine would be the speed control. You basically have to guess what speed it is. The Jugs Jr machine we have at the baseball field has a digital speed display. That would be great on this. So what about results? Well, he used to strike out almost every at bat and this weekend he went 5 for 5. I'll give the credit mostly to his superior genetics, but the machine helped quite a bit too.

This pitching machine was a great purchase . We have used it at least 20 times this past summer and it has run near flawlessly. We bought it to work with our 6 year old, entering his first year of coach pitch after playing T ball. We have all had a great time playing with it. My son has improved but more importantly, he just loves playing baseball . It throws a very consistent pitch. The machine allows you to change trajectory, velocity, and can rotate side to side, allowing you to tweak pitch location. We have had it running non stop for 1-2 hours nearly every time. We've packed it and taken in to local parks ( bought external battery pack) but most of time use and extension cord at home. We have had no problems. My husband feels the key is buying the heavy duty extension cord that can handle the power demands of the machine. We picked one at home depot . It was about 60 bucks. Perhaps a cheaper one will work but we wanted to avoid blowing fuses. The machine is also fantastic for teaching a young player to track fly balls. It allows you to shoot launch balls between 10 and 50 yards plus and when pointed straight up, shoots some seriously high pop ups. The Lite Flite balls are safer than normal pitch machine balls as we've had more than a couple glance off his glove and hit him without any significant issue. We've also pegged the house with no dents and my son hit another ball of a neighbors window ( screen in) and we didn't break it. The balls make noise off an aluminum bat but not nearly as loud as normal batting practice balls. The machine is very well made. It weighs about 35 pounds, very solid. It can be a bit of a pain lugging in and out of the trunk but I'd rather have a solid machine than a lightweight one of lesser quality. One limitation is ground balls. The lite flite balls are a bit lighter and just don't perform as well on grass or a dirt infield. They die rather easily. My husband feels they 'd do better on a gym floor but we don't use it much for infield work. The machine clearly can grow with us with more velocity and Id think would be a huge hit with any kid through say age 12. My husband loves hitting off it but eventually more speed will be needed. My husband feels it throws 50+ and of course that looks a lot faster when the machine is brought closer to the plate. We are really pleased with this purchase. It is a great option for a young hitter and even better option for those with multiple kids. It is a workhorse of a machine so far. $ 400 bucks is not cheap but if we get 3 more years out of it, it will be an incredible value. Saving the old mans pitching arm, saving batting practice $ at a cage, and saving travel time are worth it. We have all had a great time playing with this machine.We spent a long time researching this purchase and after one season, would still highly recommend it.

I purchased this for my 6yo daughter who had a lot of interest in getting better at softball. I did a lot of research on other products/systems as I didn’t want to spend a lot but also wanted something that would last a long time if she kept up her interest in softball. It was also hard to get her enough batting practice time through her team practice times etc. Construction: it’s a Jugs machine and built like it. The construction is solid with zero corners cut - this thing will last years! The motor is powerful, consistent and quiet. Consistency: Ince you get it dialed in it will delivers balls in the strike zone more consistently than a full sized machine. Balls: you have to use the light-weight jugs foam balls which at first made me a little nervous. These are a better practice ball than full size/weight softballs! You get great feedback on contact without the stinging etc. when my daughter squares one up the ball will take off. There is also less/no fear of getting hit. Ease of use: the machine isn’t light and be prepared to have to put a little effort in when setting it up - but once you get the hang of it there isn’t much hassle. The machine is so consistent that you can usually get it dialed in pretty quickly once its set up. It has a large band of power so you can go from pretty slow to pretty fast with just a turn of the dial. I haven’t messed with the curveball/slider adjustments as my 6yo isn’t seeing any of those in a game but have no doubt it’s fully capable of giving those looks. Cons: weight-I’m comfortable lugging it around but if you have any mobility or strength challenges you may need a second person to help. That is the ONLY con. Overall: my daughter went from an average hitter to one that now rarely misses the ball and can hit with power. This is a great investment if you have a kid(s) that are softball nuts and looking for more batting practice. You can set up in your yard without fear of bust out windows and can easily take it to your local ball field if there is a power source.

I bought this for my 11 year old son two and a half years ago when he decided to switch from casual softball to serious baseball. It is a great machine for what it does. It has allowed my son to practice consistently, achieve better plate discipline and develop a better swing due to his ability to get in more reps than his friends. When I initially purchased the product, I set it up to test and the rubber on the wheel that pitches the ball spontaneously flew off at higher speeds, leaving me with a wheel with huge gouged out sections before I had even tried to pitch a ball. Amazon told me to contact Jugs directly which I did. They knew about the problem which had affected an entire batch of machines. I gave them my shipping address, they sent me a new one. It came in a couple days and all was well. After a frustrating first year of trying to locate all the balls he was hitting in our 5 acre field, I invested in a netted batting cage and a hopper for the balls so my son can go out and practice without someone needing to feed him the ball and without constantly needing to buy more balls because he keeps losing them. He is now 13 years old and plays against 14-15 year old kids who regularly pitch in the mid 70s with the better kids able to pitch in the mid 80s. This machine just can’t quite match up to that. At best, you will get close to 60 mph. The machine says that it can “simulate” speeds up to 85 mph, but just to be clear, that doesn’t mean the balls go that fast. They don’t. Luckily, we researched how to mimic hitting faster pitches with a slower machine. Because it comes down to reaction time, the solution was to move the machine closer to give yourself less time to react. There are several websites that give the math you need to achieve the relative reaction time based on the speed of pitch you are trying to mimic. The Jugs website says that at 25 feet, you will be simulating 85 mph. Good enough for us. Overall, this is a good solid machine that has taken more than a few direct hits from the Lite flite balls and kept on pitching. This is a machine we will be able to use for years for various drills and just to work on basic swing mechanics. It is also useful for kids who hit faster pitches if you adjust to account for reaction time. No buyers remorse here.

Máquina de picheo de gran calidad, excelente para entrenamiento de todas las edades,muy versátil y fácil de transportar...

maquina con excelente calidad y buena oprtunidad recreativa

The batting machine arrived within 2 days of ordering. We purchased it without physically seeing one. It is a well made, sturdy unit. It works very well and is a great value. Our 8 and 11 year old children love it . We highly recommend this pitching. machine. A+

Mucha potencia buena maquina