Tee Work

Hitting off of a tee is the best practice for your swing and it doesn’t require anybody else but you. The ball is always placed at the ideal point of contact in the hitting zone for an inside, down the middle, and outside pitch. There is no doubt this will train your muscles to remember the correct swing for those various points of contact because it can be and should be done over and over again. You will develop an excellent, but more important a consistent swing. Being set up in a position to hit the ball squarely will be automatic.

The tee should be set up slightly in front of and on the inside portion of the plate to simulate an inside pitch and slightly toward the back and outside portion of the plate to simulate an outside pitch, hitting the ball to their respective fields. Remember, when practicing to hit the ball to opposite fields, you want to let the pitch travel deeper into the hitting zone before making contact. That is why you place the tee on the back portion of the plate. Place the tee right over the plate to simulate a pitch down the middle and practice hitting the ball straight up the middle “through the box”.

As far as the height of the tee you should change it back and forth from high to low, allowing your body and hands to feel the various points of correct contact. Primarily, you want to raise the tee as high as possible in your strike zone because it will train you to keep hands up and “strong” throughout your swing. It can help to eliminate any unnecessary dropping of the hands and back shoulder. Picture your shoulders as an “airplane” trying to land. You would want the wings of the plane to remain level as you hit the runway and it is the same for your shoulders when hitting a baseball. If you find yourself hitting the tee at all or popping the ball up off the tee, it is an indicator that you are dropping your hands or shoulder or both.