Hey everyone, Mayor Taylor Hubbard here, and we're here for another episode of Locally Yours. I'm Michaela Hatfield, Chaska City Council member, and we're here today at D-BAT, which is located off Engler and Chaska Creek Boulevard, and we're going to check it out. >> Yeah, so let's go ahead and play some ball. Hi, my name is Nicole Croon, and I'm one of the owners at D-BAT. Hi, my name is Matt Croon, and I'm one of the owners at D-BAT. My name is John Howard. I'm the general manager here at D-BAT Chaska. And D-BAT is a amazing place where kiddos can come in, all ages, and learn and get better at the sport. And we've got pitching machines, we've got soft toss cages, we've got lessons, and we've got a pro shop. We are basically a baseball and softball academy here in Chaska. We serve the really strong baseball and softball community in Chaska and the surrounding areas of Southwest Twin Cities. And D-BAT, developing beliefs, attitudes, and traditions. Beliefs in yourself and the people around you. Attitudes around the game. It's a difficult game, keep a positive attitude. And then traditions, with family, with friends, with community members, and we look forward to serving this community for a really long time. >> [music] >> When someone comes into D-BAT, >> [music] >> what what are they greeted with? Like what's their experience like as soon as they walk through the door? We always try to greet the customer. We want to say, "Hey guys, how are you? Welcome to D-BAT." We got our price board up there, everybody can see what the prices are. We've got really good prices, which is nice. Yes. Like you were saying. Yeah, so you have community prices, absolutely. And they're intro prices, too. So, it's nice if they're new, they're going to get that kind of intro pricing, which is nice. And then we've got lots of gear. Yeah, pro shop. We've got gloves, softball, baseball. We've got it we've got that all, most most softball and baseball. We've got new bats, the hot new bats, and gloves, we've got hot spring break items, shirts, shorts. [music] Um just all that for spring break, and we're getting ready. And we're getting ready for ball. a huge selection of merchandise here for um you know, skill level of any kind to come in and get outfitted. And I saw that you guys do birthday parties. So, that's pretty cool, too. So, somebody can come have a birthday party here. You have a room. Yep. Tell us about that. Okay, birthday parties are 2 hours, and they can come in, and we have an instructor, a specific instructor, baseball or softball instructor. They'll come in and I'll take over your party. The kiddo gets to decide what they want to do. They would some a lot of them want to play whiffle ball, dodgeball. Um we also have HitTrax parties. We'll show you the HitTrax machine later. >> Oh, okay. The HitTrax machine is awesome. It'll statistically show you where on the field your ball was hit for that age level, for that speed that you hit it, and the height and everything. But yeah, so that's fun. So, we have HitTrax parties, and they go crazy. We've got a great facility where there's a big space back there, and they just go have fun and get their energy out, [laughter] and no cleanup by parents. So, that's one of the best parts. That's awesome. >> you know. And we've got a party room that they can bring cake, they can bring food, or we can also supply food. So, we can supply pizzas or drinks, or you can bring in your own. So, you know, D-BAT is a top baseball and softball training facility. What are some of the ways that athletes can train here? Yeah, a few ways athletes can train here. Uh we hit off our pitching machines, >> [music] >> um camps, clinics, classes, lessons are a great way to get involved. Uh that would be what I'd say. Lessons-wise, and you can learn anything you want. Um hitting, fielding, pitching, even base running, >> [music] >> um IQ, knowledge of the game, all those different things. >> Sure. And so, is that kind of based in like uh both in a private lesson setting and a group lesson setting? Yeah, our clinics would be small groups, [music] four to six athletes, and they'll run, you know, four even up to eight, 12-week 12-weeks long. >> [music] >> And then lessons-wise, yeah, baseball or softball, and those are one-on-one individual where we'll really [music] break it down and work on whatever the athlete needs uh at that time. >> [music] >> Can actual teams come in and train together as a team? Yeah, we love having teams in here. Um a typical cage rental for a team would maybe be two of our hitting bays. Um a lot of teams will rent out this big space here to work on fielding. Um and then they can get everybody in here, but yeah, teams can certainly come in and and [music] rent the the space out. Talk to us a little bit about how you help athletes build confidence along with skills. That might be the biggest thing that these games require [music] is how do you keep confidence and build confidence even when sometimes the results don't quite tell that story. So, these are hard games, baseball and softball. [music] Um we focus on the gain where they've come from and and you know, how much they've grown. [music] We try and stack small wins. So, um you know, if if a kid say he gets off the pitching machines, for example, and he can't hit one in his first round, and then by the time he gets through six or seven rounds, he's hit eight or nine pitches. And just to see that smile on his face and how excited he gets about [music] um growing and getting better that day is a really cool thing for us to see here. Yeah. Is there anything specific in lessons that you focus on, or how do you decide what you're going to focus on with an athlete? Great question. One thing that we pride ourselves on is meeting people where they are and trying to give them what they're looking for. And so, what we talk to our instructors about all the time is um ask, and then >> [music] >> listen. So, what do you want to work on today, you know, and and we'll get all sorts of different answers. Sometimes people want to split it up. Uh sometimes [music] a kid's arm is sore, so maybe they're going to work on something a little different today than they than what was planned. But we just ask, and we listen, and we try and involve the parents in the process. So, this is what we're going to work on today uh with the athlete and the parent listening, and then at the end of the lesson, this is what we worked on today. Here's a way you can reinforce that learning. Um and see you next week. What ages and skill levels do you work with here over at D-BAT? Yeah, I'd say all of them, and I really mean literally all of them. So, we'll have we've done lessons for 4-year-olds, and we've done lessons for 80-year-olds. We'll literally have adults that are playing uh slow pitch still. They'll say, "Hey, I'm sure you can't work with me." Uh but on both sides, a parent will come in and say, "I'm sure the kid's four, you're not going to have anything for him or her." And we do. Yeah. So, we kind of like I think John was saying it earlier, we meet you where you are. If you're four, if you're 80, or if you're anywhere in between. Um we've had lessons with D1 athletes. They're coming in, they're seniors in high school, they're going to be playing D1 college next next year. They're doing lessons still. So, I think anyone can get better, and that's kind of if you look around at our facility, you're going to see a lot of signs and slogans. Uh one of my favorites is probably um the only person you should try to be better than is the person you were yesterday. >> Mm. So, that's true for everyone. You can always get better uh where wherever you are, um you're going to get better here. And it's all about repetitions, I think John was saying that earlier. But yeah, it doesn't matter who you are or what your skill level is, we welcome you here, and we're going to try to help you get better. >> [music] >> I'm sure one of the number one questions that maybe um people who aren't in the know ask is, do you have to be a member in order to use the facilities here and all the amenities? >> Yeah, that's it. We do that is definitely a frequently asked question. The answer is no. Um so, you can be a member, we encourage it if you come enough to to make it worth your while, but a lot of people are not members. You can do everything you can here as a member that you can as a non-member. So, there's a lot of different lanes here, different things you can do. I'm seeing a lot of different, you know, machines and areas. Talk to us about everything that someone could could experience when they come in here. >> So, we have three types of cages. We have the pitching machine cages, those are 50-ft uh pitching machine tunnels. They do 50, I'm sorry, they do 35 to 70 mph. Um fastballs, curveballs, baseballs, and softballs, and slow pitch. So, they do everything. They're very high-end machines. So, that's one of our areas. Um those are first come, first serve. So, you can always come in and use it, you're not going to have to worry about them being reserved by a whole team. They're always first come, first serve, so anyone can come [music] in, and no matter what time of year, you're going to be able to get into a pitching machine lane. The other type is a hitting lane. So, we have L screens, tees, and balls, [music] buckets of balls. So, that's where you can come in, and you can do front toss, soft toss. Um you can do work on your hitting there. Um we're standing in a pitching lane, so these are 70-ft tunnels. You can kind of see the pitching mound for baseballs in the back. We also have softball pitching pads, and then we have plates built into the flooring over there. So, on the side of the wall, you'll see kind of we designate which plate is for which age. So, it doesn't matter again how old you are, you can pitch to the correct distance in our pitching lanes. So, those are the three types. And how do those different these different uh lanes help or cages help athletes improve? Yeah, I think it's all I think John mentioned it earlier, it's all about repetitions. Um I think like coaches are very good, and coaches are going to do everything that they can in their hour, hour and a half, but they're not going to really focus on individuals. There's just not enough time. They're going to focus on what do we do in in different scenarios. What do we do in pregame? What do we do in postgame? You know, kind of how to what is our attitude? What does the culture of our team look like? They can't really in a season get to like individual development, but that's what we're all about. We're about the individual development. I think you're asking like the busiest times of the year. Some of the busiest months that we have are right dead in the center of the season. Like June and July are very busy for us because kids I think realize that it's like they're on their team, and again, they're doing everything they can to get better in practices, but if you think about a practice, you're going to get maybe five to 10 good swings on a live pitch. Here you could get hundreds every day and the pitching machines will do that. John mentioned earlier pitching machines just keep going. They don't they don't get tired. They don't get worn out. So they just keep going. So repetitions that's true for pitching for hitting in the pitching machines tunnels. It's also good in the soft toss front toss key work areas and it's [music] true in the pitching areas as well. So you can have space to get better whether it's with our instructors with or without it. Place to get better with repetitions. That was really exciting. What an absolute home run. Yeah, thank you for watching another episode of Locally Yours. We'll see you next time.