Quick picks from our radar guide: Pocket Radar Smart Coach • Pocket Radar Ball Coach • Smart Partner 2.0 (hands-free) • Blast Motion (swing metrics)
Why we brought radar to an indoor facility
Indoor practice is where habits get built—because you’re repeating the same reps over and over. But it’s also where speed readings can get weird if your setup isn’t right. We wanted to answer: Can a handheld radar gun stay reliable indoors? and what’s the easiest setup for coaches and parents?
If you want the full ranked list of devices (baseball + multi-sport), start here: Radar guns & speed sensors guide.
The setup that gave us the most consistent readings
We tested during a normal practice—so we had pitchers throwing, hitters taking reps, and the usual indoor noise. The secret wasn’t “the fanciest radar.” It was doing three boring things correctly:
- Line-of-flight matters. The radar needs to see the ball coming toward or away from it—not crossing sideways.
- Distance matters. Too close can cause missed reads; too far can reduce reliability depending on the unit.
- Mounting helps. A simple tripod stabilized readings (and freed hands for coaching).
What we used
- Pocket Radar Smart Coach for pitch velocity + session tracking.
- Pocket Radar Ball Coach for simple point-and-read reliability.
- Smart Partner 2.0 when we wanted hands-free + audio callouts.
- Blast Motion Baseball to capture swing mechanics (separate from pitch speed).
- Bushnell Velocity as a “budget baseline” to compare feel vs numbers.
Indoor accuracy pitfalls we ran into (and fixed)
- Side-angle readings: if you stand off to the side, you’ll under-read speed. We stayed behind the catcher line when possible.
- Netting + clutter: indoor facilities have nets, poles, and people moving. We aimed through the clearest lane.
- Battery fade: low batteries caused more misses than we expected. Fresh batteries fixed it instantly.
- Chasing numbers: players tried to “throw harder” and mechanics got sloppy. We used radar as feedback, not a contest.
Once the setup was right, the consistent takeaway was this: you don’t need ten features. You need dependable reads and a process for using them.
Where swing sensors helped more than radar
Radar tells you outcome (ball speed). Swing sensors tell you cause (mechanics). On hitting days, the swing sensor was the better coaching tool: we could cue one change, then confirm it moved the metric in the right direction.
Radar was the best motivation tool for pitchers—especially when we tied numbers to recovery, warm-up quality, and repeatable mechanics.
If you’re a parent or coach, do this first
- Pick one primary metric per session (pitch speed OR swing speed).
- Use radar/sensors for trends, not one-off highs.
- Make the setup repeatable: same spot, same distance, same alignment.
- Use our ranked list as your shortcut: compare all radar guns & sensors.
