So my son's league decided to switch from kid pitch (3rd and 4th graders) to a pitching machine this year. the last couple of seasons of Coach pitch, the kids always pitched the last few innings of the game, then in 3rd grade they'd pitch the whole game. On a whole, the pitching machine has been nice in terms of avoiding walks (none allowed) and getting balls into play, encouraging defense and smarter base running. I wish they'd allow to the boys to pitch a couple of innings at the end to give them a better idea of how to take a walk, as well as allowing the handful of kids that can pitch a bit the ability to try it out, but I digress.

anywho, this is the machine that they are using (or at lease something very similar if not this exact model)

https://www.amazon.com/Louisville-Sl...70_&dpSrc=srch

Not seen in the picture are the spikes that are added to the front of the machine that allow it to dig into the dirt. the only problem is, that if the ground is hard (and sometimes even if its been raining a bit the last few days and is soft) the machine jumps all over the place. I "tweak" the machine with just about every pitch, moving it up/down (adjustable screw), kick the back leg into place if that moves on my a bit which is all pretty easy. The part that is a pain are when the front of the machine jumps. I swear in 1 inning the front probably moved 2 inches to toward the plate and towards 3rd base. After the 1st inning, I grabbed my son's water bottle and wetted the area down a bit where the pins were going in, and that helped a bit, but eventually it would start sliding. In order to avoid slowing down the game/inning I keep adjusting the back leg to get the ball back over the plate but I've got to think there is a better plan.

has anyone had experience with these type of machines before and have any tricks to keeping them in place a little better. With typical Ohio weather, the only use we got with the machine prior to games were in the cages where you couldn't put any spikes in (concrete floor) and the machine would really jump a ton, so they got in bad habits of getting antsy and jumping out of the way even when they didn't need to. I promised them in games if I ever hit them, I'd buy them ice cream, to stay strong, step towards the machine/pitcher and hit it back up the box. Last night was the 1st time in a game I actually got close to hitting a kid (twice) with the machine jumping on the hard dirt as much as it did. I don't want to buy ice cream