Hitting off a tee can feel monotonous. You put a ball on the tee...you take a swing...you put another ball on the tee...you take a swing. You get a bucket in and you’ve had a good session. Right? Wrong!
Hitting off a tee is one of the best hitting drills you can do in all of baseball or softball. Here is why I absolutely love tee drills.
You can hit off a tee by yourself
All you need is a tee, some baseballs, and a bat. You can spend as much time as you want hitting into a net, fence or an open field. Have fun chasing those baseballs. I did that when I was a kid. I wanted to see where the ball traveled on the field. You load a tee by yourself, you swing by yourself and you can pick by yourself. Easy.
2. You can work on whatever you want
Do you have trouble hitting the outside pitch? The inside pitch? The high in the strike zone pitch? On a tee, you can set up whatever your weakness is and work on it. If you are working inside tee work make sure the tee is set up on the inside part of the plate in front of your front foot. When you work on down the middle pitches the tee is right on the plate (slightly to the front of the plate). When you work away, you set the tee up off your back foot on the outside part of the plate. If you want to work on hitting off a high tee and getting on top of the ball, elevate the tee on a bucket or stool. You can set up any scenario you want in your mind and hit off a tee, 2-0 count, 2-2 count, full count bases loaded; the bottom of the 9th tie game; game 7 of the world series! Who hasn’t done that one?
3. You can do it at any effort level
Sometimes working at a 50% effort level helps hitters feel the things they are doing wrong and doing right. Don’t be afraid to slow down your swing to feel inefficiencies. Whether it’s making sure you drive the knob to the ball, keep your hands inside the ball, making sure your hands are in front of the barrel or ensuring you are turning your hips before your hand’s fire; you can slow it down and feel it.
We can talk all day and night about the benefits of hitting off a tee, but your time can be better spent on a tee right now. Here are some closing thoughts. Don’t just go through the motions. Put the ball on the tee, look out to the pitcher, make sure you are in a game-like hitting stance, take a deep breath, follow the fake pitch into the tee with your eyes and take your swing based on what you are working on. If you make a mistake. Reset the tee and do it again until you get it right. Then do it over and over. When you do this you are training your brain to do the right thing. Muscle memory is when you do something and you don’t have to think about doing it. When you can get to that point and you are taking good swings. You will be a successful hitter. Even current pro hitters hit off a tee, all the time. I promise.
-Coach LeClair
