Improve Your Baseball Swing with a Hitting Tee

Improving your skills at the plate can be accomplished by hitting off of a tee. Of course, the point of this drill is to get the baseball bat from a comfortable resting point to the point of contact as quickly and as accurately as possible. The ball is always set up at the ideal point of contact in the hitting zone for an inside, down the middle, or outside pitch. Undeniably, this will train your muscles to remember the right swing for those various points of contact because it is something that should be done repetitiously everyday. You will develop an excellent, but more important a consistent swing. Getting set up in a position to hit the ball well 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 a little toward the back and outside portion of the plate to simulate an outside stirke, while you practice hitting the ball to their respective fields. Remember, when practicing to hit the ball to opposite fields, you want to let the pitch move deeper into the strike zone before making contact. That is why you place the tee on the back portion of the plate. Place the tee over the middle of the plate to simulate a perfect pitch and practice hitting the ball straight up the middle 'through the box'. The keyis to get a good feel for your swing directed at any type of pitch anywhere in the hitting zone.

When adjusting the height of the tee you should change it back and forth from high to low, enabling your body and hands to feel the various points of ideal contact. Primarily, you want to raise the tee as high as possible in your strike zone because it will train you to keep your hands up and 'strong' throughout your swing. It can help to avoid any unnecessary dropping of the hands and back shoulder. Imagine 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 swinging at a baseball. If you find yourself hitting the tee at all or popping the ball up off the tee, it is a sign that you are dropping your hands or shoulder or both.

Joe Rodgers teaches fundamentals to increase bat speed and reaction time at the plate and gives baseball bat reviews to help when selecting the right baseball bat for you.

- Joe Rodgers