Many indoor commercial sports facilities, particularly for baseball and softball, opt to hang their netting and batting cages right from their ceiling structure. This works very well for many netting installations by periodically clipping the top nets of the enclosures to the rafters with a ‘vertical hanger’. As you can see from these images sent by MVP Baseball in Illinois, they chose to suspend their Gourock-supplied baseball nets in this manner, resulting in a great and unique training area that utilizes lots of netting within their building.
The best way to approach the ‘vertical hanger’ method is to use the following materials:
Since everyone will have a different overall distance between the ceiling height of their building and the overall installation height of the netting panels or enclosures, sourcing the materials in “bulk” is the best approach. What you want to do is cut a length of the twine/rope that is about 1′ longer than the actual distance that you need for the the hanger. For instance, if your building has a 25′ ceiling height, and the nets are to be hung at 15′, then the length of your hanger should come out to 11′ (10′ for the actual distance + 1′ of extra length). You’ll need to make a loop to connect the snap-hook to on each side of the twine/rope, so the extra foot of length provides enough material far a 6″ loop on each side. Then clip a snap-hook on each end, and you’re all set to hang the nets! Consider using a vertical hanger every 5′-10′ in order to maximize the support and function of the netting.
Using the materials noted above allows for a very strong hanger, a very functional method of hanging your nets, and a fantastic ease-of-use while being soft on the hands (there’s no reason to use steel cable for vertical hanging). Also – it is a great value regarding overall cost!
