How to Use a Batting Tee - Tip of Day

Developing Batting Skills begins with how to Use a Batting Tee

Knowing how to use a batting tee is crucial for batting success.

Most three year olds can hit a ball off a batting tee, at least after a little while. Does that mean their swing is correct or is improving because they can hit it? Of course not, but that can also be said for hitters of any age. Why?

how to use a batting tee

As much as I love using a batting tee to teach hitting and believe it is the best hitting-training aide there is, I would have to say it is usually a waste of money for most kids and teams. Why is that? Unfortunately, rarely do people place the tee correctly to help with creating a better swing and/or help with analyzing when the swing is correct or not. Without correct placement of the tee, the correct contact point will be off, which most often leads to the incorrect swing fundamentals and incorrect result of the hit ball even when it is struck solidly. It is important players and coaches learn to place the tee the correct distance in front of them for different contact points of the different possible pitch locations. Read more here about how to use a batting tee.

Additionally, many batting tees do not even lower to knee level, especially for young ballplayers, so they start out of little use to begin with because knee high pitches are very important to work on, of course. Along those lines, I tell parents and kids to only buy a tee that can get to knee level or slightly below. Of course, part of the correct placement of the tee is that hitters stand the correct distance from the base of the tee, meaning the same distance they stand from home plate in games.