Want to save a substantial amount of money on your team’s indoor practices? Consider these four activities that will keep your players busy, in a highly effective practice:

1. Pitchers and catchers in a 65-foot netted tunnel, with baseball pitching mound or softball pitching rubber and mat.
2. Teaching batting in an adjacent 65-foot tunnel, with an accurate, hand fed baseball or softball pitching machine. Here you can start and stop pitching whenever you like, so your coach can instruct the batter.
3. Open up the two tunnels above into a 24 x 65-foot fielding area for ground balls and throwing.
4. Add an automated batting cage, where your hitters can practice what they’ve been taught earlier in the instruction area. By using the automated cage, batters will get many more swings than in the instruction area where a hand-fed machine is used.

The two tunnels and instructional equipment are $70 an hour. Add the automated batting cage and the total price for an hour practice is $110. If you’ve been paying twice that--or more--for indoor space, consider this: Book your winter practices at Grand Slam and you can easily save $500-$1,000. That will buy a lot of team equipment or uniforms!