SKLZ Lightning Bolt Baseball Pitching Machine

We have several of these and we love using them. We have used them now for the second season and they have held up well. I use them for my own training, as well as with my 4 and 5 year old daughter. I am still stumped by the bad reviews, and I am wondering if it is bad luck or people just don't like doing the small by training (in which case you may like the SKLZ Lightning Strike Pitching Machine). Bottom line, it shoots small balls relatively consistently over 20-30 feet at a decent speed when you give it proper power and battery charge.By relatively, it is good in that the balls will shoot in the general area, but with will move around. For me, that is fantastic is I have to adapt and makes it more valuable. For my daughter who was 4 when first using it and is now five, it can be frustrating, but has been a valuable tool for her to learn about variability and focus.I purchased more than one of these as I figured alternating them would get more more balls and longer battery life, and I was one hundred percent right. Now we use one, then the other, then go get the balls. The little bit of rest helps a lot with the battery life, and it also makes taking turns and getting a lot of reps much easier.When I did have an issue - one of them stopped working on battery after I used AC power, SKLZ sent a replacement within a week and had good customer service.Note - I really recommend you get the skinny light (SKLZ Lightning Rod) and heavy bats (Power Stick) as part of training. The Bolt Shagger is also a great product.

Lightweight easy to use. Adults and the kids enjoy to use. the balls are small and easy to lose. Been using every summer since buying.

UPDATE: I posted the review below on the SKLZ website, or at least I tried. They told me the review was "moderated", which meant deleted! They did not try to resolve the problem at all ... just deleted my review entirely. I won't be buying anymore SKLZ products.We got this for Christmas 2015 and we're already on our third unit trying to get one that works. Luckily Amazon has been good about the returns, but I'm embarrassed to return the third one.Issue 1: When we put in the batteries, the conveyor gear that releases the balls came on even though the switch is in the off position. We could not turn that part off. Only the spinning wheels would come on with the switch. This caused us to have to take the batteries out every time we were going to be done using it. Unacceptable, especially because the batteries require a small screw driver and are very difficult to put in. So we sent this back.Issue 2: This unit did not have the "always on" feature but instead had a wobbly wheel and was very inconsistent on the pitches. If I hadn't had the first unit which was very consistent on pitching, I might have thought this was just how it was supposed to be. Reluctant to return a second unit, I took this one apart. I discovered that two tiny screws that attach the motor to a plastic plate were not tightened. I could see that they were loose, but I couldn't access them to tighten them. This was definitely the source of the wobbly wheel because I could see the difference by looking at the good wheel. Therefore, had to send this one back too.Issue 3: Just got our third unit, and guess what? Same issue as our first unit - the batteries turn on the conveyor gear even in the off position. Uggghhhh! This was a Christmas present and my son really wants to keep it. What do I do?

This tool is extremely nice for what it costs. It literally takes minutes to setup and can run off a cord or battery. The tube can break apart easily to fit in a bag. It can take a few balls to get the location right so you'll want to buy the extra bucket so you're not constantly fetching the 12 balls that it comes with.For both young kids and adults/older kids this should result in rapid improvement of hand eye coordination and hitting a variety of pitches as you can focus progressively on making good contact, swinging for power, pitch selection, etc.The challenge with this machine is pitch location as wind has a big effect and there tends to be ball movement as well, which makes this a bit more "realistic" than some might want since you'll need to be able to swing all through the strike zone and exercise good pitch selection. If you're looking for something that puts out a consistently hittable ball then this is not for you. Sometimes the machine will throw so many "bad" pitches in a row that you end up missing the perfect strikes.Overall, a great tool, lots of fun for a pretty cheap device and you don't even need a batting cage since the balls generally stay within the "infield" on well hit drives.

the machine is great if you have patience. the pitching is a bit erratic and I feel you need to weigh the machine down so the motor doesn't change the path of the ball. the machine works amazing with the practice golf balls with holes in them.I use this machine with the thin practice power stick and light metal thin bat (slz sells them too)goes a long way to help hand eye coordination.if you can use a baseball donut around the top and the practice golf balls for some added success and life to the machine.sklz if you are checking these reviews weigh down the base.