Any young batter will seek the right equipment as he or she tries to make the most of natural talent. It doesn't hurt if the youngster is gifted with cat-like reflexes and sharp eyesight, but there is no substitute for a balanced, economical swing. Only repetitions hone this sort of swing, and without baseball hitting aids it is quite difficult getting those kind of repetitions when batting is interrupted by collecting balls from over the field.

A good place to begin might be with perhaps the simplest aid of all, the everyday batting tee. It does just what a golf tee would do but holds the ball higher, usually between thirty and forty-five inches high. This is a good range for younger hitters just perfecting their stroke.

To keep from having to spend all day running after balls struck off the tee, one could add a screen so the ball can be netted and pocketed . A few nets come with targets stitched in their netting to allow the youngster to know when the ball is a sure hit. Tees and screens are both just as good for softball as they are for baseball, and ought to be designed to stay upright and stationary during moderately windy days.

The problem of netting the struck ball is avoided altogether with the use of a swing tee. With these tees, the ball is affixed to a swinging arm that is parallel to the ground. Once the batter strikes the wall it whips around on that stalk but snaps back at the end of the rotation so it can be batted again.

Any sort of batting tee is good enough for honing one's form through repetition, but none can simulate the action of being pitched to by a real pitcher. Unfortunately, needing to have a pitcher to practice with almost always means having to cut down on the repetitions one needs, not just with form, but to practice seeing the ball into the strike zone and timing that first move to ball. Here, a pitching machine is a crucial piece of equipment.

One might reflexively assume a pitching machine might be expensive, enough so that one might not expect to see one except at a ballpark or a batting range. These days, however, pitching machines have been scaled down to where they are just right for boys and girls, and at that scale made to be as inexpensive as a better catcher's mitt, or even less expensive than that. Indeed these machines have become some of the most economical hitting aids one might find.

There are protective nets, looking like elongated rooms made out of mosquito netting, built to contain the batted balls when they are pitched, either by a pitching machine or by a cooperative practice pitcher. On the higher end of the price scale come the packages of equipment, often represented by famous major league players. With these packages also comes a good deal more differentiation between baseball and softball.

Much equipment once available only to the professionals is now ready for home use. It has been brought down from man-size to boy-size and girl-size, but is still tough enough to take the punishment. These are a useful set of tools to sharpen players' talent, all across the country and all across the world.