How to Make Bat Cages

Any baseball player that wants to improve his swing spends a lot of time in a batting cage. If you don't have access to an athletic center that has an indoor or outdoor facility where you can practice hitting, it is possible to build a batting cage that will fit in your backyard, provided you have the space for it. That way, you can practice whenever you want, for as long as you want.

Things You'll Need

  • Netting
  • Electrical metallic tubing, or EMT, pipe
  • Polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, pipe
  • Post-hole digger
  • Concrete
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Instructions

    • 1

      Pick the location where you will build your batting cage. The space in your backyard should be one determining factor in the size of the cage you build. Another is the player for whom you are building the cage. A smaller cage should be adequate for a little league baseball player, while a larger cage would be needed for an older, more experienced player.

    • 2

      Start constructing the frame of the batting cage using EMT pipe. It is a good rule to build the frame larger than the dimensions of the net you ordered, providing slack for batted balls to hit, instead of going right off of the posts of the frame.

      Assemble the frame in a rectangular shape. Use connector pieces to join straight pieces of pipe, and elbow pieces to form 90-degree corner joints. Plan for about 3 feet of the piping to go into the ground when you pour concrete and secure the frame.

    • 3

      Secure part of the frame into the ground using pieces of PVC pipe -- 1.5 inches in diameter is a good size. Use a post-hole digger to create a 40-inch hole and fill about 3-feet of the hole with gravel to allow for sufficient drainage. You can also put caps with small holes drilled in them on the pieces of the PVC pipes to help with drainage.

      Center the PVC pipe on top of the gravel and pour concrete around it. At the point where the concrete is filling about half of the hole, insert a part of the frame -- the EMT pipe -- into the PVC pipe to ensure it is level. Then fill in the rest of the hole with concrete, leaving about 1 inch exposed above the concrete. Make sure the post is level before the concrete sets.

    • 4

      Complete assembly of the frame and attach the net. To ensure safety, it is a good idea to secure the net to the frame pieces while the frame is still on the ground. Try tying the net to the frame using rope with secure knots.

    • 5

      Raise the cage when the net is attached to the frame. Depending on how many sections of the frame you have, raise any middle sections first and then raise the end pieces. When the end sections are up, the batting cage should be ready for use.