Review on 🏏 Portable Baseball Training-Station Swing Trainer with Stand: SKLZ Hit-A-Way - Enhance Your Batting Game by Stephen Schmidt

Update: Having used this product for a while I have to say it's still a great product with one caveat. You need to be able to hit the ball fairly hard and hit, drop and hit it again fairly quickly. My daughter is now 8 years old and has used this quite successfully but sometimes she just gets frustrated and throws up because if she is a little crazy and doesn't line up the ball or something is wrong you have to stop spinning the ball off the bar and start over. Some days it might not be the right tool for a small/younger gamer, but it should be fine for older kids or adults. Overall I think the tee/soft throw and net are probably the best tools, but the swingway is definitely comfortable and you can do a lot of reps in a short amount of time if you do it consistently and at the right time. ** * ************ This product is built for heavy use and should last a long time provided you receive the product free of defects. Like some of the other reviewers here, I had to return the first one I ordered because the top tube was bent into an oval shape either in production or when shipped, making it impossible to attach the top tube to the bottom. For some stupid reason they ship this in an off the shelf box which obviously should never be strong enough as a shipping container for a £40 item. Both boxes I received were battered and partially opened as the adhesive just wasn't strong enough to withstand the express delivery from the carrier. It's good that everything is intact and nothing gets lost in a hole in the box. Returning it was quick and easy and I actually received the replacement within two days! Many thanks to Revane for that! As said, this is a heavy item (around 40lbs) so not that easy for a child to install/remove without a parent. My daughter is 7 and it weighs almost as much as her but I don't mind helping her install it as I love the fact that it's sturdy and I don't have to worry about it falling . Although it comes fully assembled you will need some tools as both of mine had severely loosened screws. Loose screws always make it very unwieldy and a bit wobbly once installed, not to mention rattling a bit. 5 minutes, some 17mm spanners and a ratchet was all it took to tighten it up and now it's all secure and quiet. I don't understand why they aren't properly tightened from the factory. All nuts are split lock washer nylock nuts so they stay strong even when not fully tightened (you want them to be able to rotate and fold the stand down). For those checking to see if the cable is broken, two things: (1) make sure they aren't kinked before hitting them as this will put unnecessary stress on the cables and wear them out prematurely, (2) you can Buy a replacement when you stop wearing it for around $25-$30. So there's no need to buy (or throw away, as one reviewer said) the whole stand. I'm sure if they break on a new device the manufacturer will replace them for free or just send it back. I've had the standless version of this for years and used it on my oldest daughter when she was playing softball. It held up very well even when an adult hit it (me) regularly, so the cables shouldn't be a problem as long as they aren't kinked or damaged.