Practice Balls Review and Pricing Survey
Softball Website TopicsFor your drills based practices, you are going to need plenty of practice balls. The good news is they don't have to be softballs and for many drills they should NOT be hard softballs. For example, hitting tee drills, soft toss drills, and beginner fly ball drills are better suited for sponge balls or poly balls. Sometimes I like to use the hard balls, but if you are working in a confined space with several drills going simultaneously, some sort of safety ball is best.
My preference for practice balls are sponge or foam balls. They aren't as affected by wind as the poly balls and there is just no chance of injury with a foam or sponge ball. Not that there is any real chance of injury with a poly ball, but it can leave a nice little whelp or scratch. You will also notice the sponge balls run about 50% more than the poly balls. My suggestion is to get a mix of about 2 dozen foam and 2 dozen poly balls. You will find drills better suited to one type of ball over another, and two dozen of each plus the dozen hard balls the league furnished you will allow you to have 3 drill stations working simultaneously.
The prices below were as of April 09, 2007 and could change at any time without notice.
Jugs Lite Flight Sponge Balls

Softballsales.com
- $29.99
TheSportsAuthority.com!
- $19.99
OnlineSports.com -
- $20.00
Softballjunk - $39.95
Diamond Sports Foam Balls
TheSportsAuthority.com!
- $19.99
DicksSportingGoods.com
- $19.99
Mcsports.com
- $19.99
Trend Sports Yellow mini Dimple Foam Balls
Softballsales.com
- $19.99
Poly Balls (better known as whiffle balls)
Softballsales.com
- $9.99/dozen
TheSportsAuthority.com!
- $24.99/2 dozen
Mcsports.com
- $24.99/2 dozen
OnlineSports.com -
- $10.74/dozen or $67.45 for 100 balls
Good Luck and Go Get 'em Coach!!!
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