Bownet Nets for Sports Coaches: An Honest Review

Covey Sports on 05/01/2021

bownet big mouth x baseball & softball net

As coaches, we need a certain number of products to run an effective practice. The Bownet net options can definitely help you this season…just like it helped me!

Just head to a travel baseball or softball tournament and you will see them (or their competitors) popped-up all over the place!

But BowNet has much more than baseball nets. If you coach any sport that requires a net or goal, they have something for you! From lacrosse & soccer goals, to volleyball & softball nets, the BowNet company offers a lot!

So what makes the bownet options so special?

First, let me tell you how I got hooked on this product. I was “turned on” to the bownet during our 2016 fastpitch softball season.

I saw them frequently, but I had purchased too many “pop-up” nets in the past that I didn't work. So I stayed away.

Then, when playing an away game, the opposing coach kindly offered to allow us to use theirs. Two of my players quickly responded “Coach we can set it up for you. We use these with our travel team all the time.”

So I figured I would give it a shot.

And “BOOM” 2 minutes later there it was. Two sturdy sock-nets that allowed my players to go through a productive pre-game hitting routine at someone else’s field.

This was MUCH better than what we were doing prior. Which was, in a nutshell, nearly killing each other doing “live” soft-toss hitting to the outfield.

Just imagine 10 girls spread out in the outfield looking like they are playing dodge ball with teammates hitting softballs at them. Yes, I’m embarrassed to admit it but that is what we did for away games. FOR YEARS.

NOT RECOMMENDED.

OK, we were a lot safer about it then that. But it wasn’t good.

Below is a short video highlighting the newest BowNet option, the Big-Mouth X! This is a 7x7 sized net, but they have a few other sizes available as well.

And again, they have options for other sports as well.

Here are a few points as to why I like the bownet big-mouth baseball & softball net specifically:

Easy Set-Up: Like I mentioned, my players had them up (and down) in just a minute or two.
High-quality: Ours are new so I guess it’s hard to say for sure, but they seem to be very stable and durable. And the reviews I’ve seen suggest the same.
Sturdy: The thing I hated about some of the pop-up nets I’ve used in the past is that if there was 5 mph wind “gust” they would fall down. Drove me nuts.
Multi-Purpose: For softball & baseball, these can easily be used for offense & hitting, but also for defense, pitching, & throwing drills as well. For other sports, such as lacrosse or tennis, this can be used for shooting and hitting.
Easy to transport: This folds up into a small carrying case, making it incredibly easy to bring to away games (or travel tournaments).
Lastly, because of #1-5, these nets are easy to use for practice on your home field as well. If you use a city field, a few of these nets will make your hitting stations WAY more productive and organized!

So needless to say, after my introduction to the bownet big-mouth product I quickly used the budget money I had left and purchased 2 of them.

So don’t come to our away games to watch pre-game dodge-ball…we don’t play it anymore…sorry.

Update: At the time that I originally wrote this article, we had mainly used the bownet for pre-game hitting. We are now a few weeks into our fall season, and use these nearly every day.

Below are a few additional pieces of information regarding this product:

This truly is INCREDIBLY easy to set-up, take-down, and transport. I typically ask a couple of players to get the nets set-up and they take care of it in a couple of minutes.
We do skill-workouts during our fall season. I am finding the Bownets to be very helpful for drills in which I want players to throw into a net. For example, if you do not have a 1st baseman at practice the net can take her place for a drill. Sometimes I want every player doing the same drill to isolate a skill…in which case I will use one of our bownets.
If you do not have the budget money for the bownet baseball/softball big-mouth, there are alternatives that tend to be less expensive such as the PowerNet. I have never used the PowerNet Version, but they get great reviews as well!