Increasing your skills at the plate can be done by utilizing a batting tee for hitting practice. Of course, the objective for 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 placed at the ideal point of contact in the hitting zone for an inside, down the middle, or outside pitch. There is no doubt this will train your muscles to remember the right 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 placed just in front of and on the inside portion of the plate to simulate an inside strike and a little toward the back and outside portion of the plate to simulate an outside pitch, while you practice hitting the ball to their respective fields. Don’t forget, when practicing to hit the ball to opposite fields, you want to let the pitch travel further into the hitting zone before making contact. This is the reason that you place the tee on the back portion of the plate. Put the tee over the middle of the plate to simulate a pitch down the middle and practice hitting the ball straight up the middle toward the pitcher. The keyis to get a good feel for your swing directed at any type of pitch anywhere in the hitting zone.
When adjusting the elevation 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 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 unwanted 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 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.
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