tall tee better than nothing at all

I will be an AC for a rec team this spring, will comprise 7-10 yr olds, mostly 8s and 9s. I have previously been a HC, but pulled back this year due to time commitment involved due to Dd joining a travel team. I plan on offering to this years HC the use of my accumulated gear (if they want whenever I and DD can be at rec practices (TB games > Rec Games > Travel practice > Rec practice, Travel coach is on board with this, rec coach is aware, looks like DD and I will make around 50% of practices based on scheduled practices).

I bought a tee a few seasons ago, like to use it to have a station one or two girls can work with a little less supervision. Quickly realized it was a little on the tall side for the smaller girls (ie the 7 year olds). pretty much chest high on most of them. want to know if anyone thinks this will be detrimental to the development of the smaller girls swing?

Chest high OK, anything under thier eyes should be OK. I would not want to get higher then that.

definitely not that high, only tall for the really smaller girls (at shortest setting).

thanks

DD was really short at that age, she needed to swing at high balls if she wanted a hit.

You'll be ok.

The higher T will promote a higher starting position of the hands, and can help to prevent hitching (dropping, then re-raising) on the backside. It will also help your girls get comfortable at swinging through the upper half of the strike zone.

But at that 8U level, don't wait too long to provide the equipment needed to also develop skills at the bottom half as well.

If your training in a school gym, they may have some safety cones you could use as make-shift T's.

Chris

2-liter coke bottle

how would you use a 2 liter coke bottle as a tee? seems very short even for 7 yr olds?

bmakj said:

how would you use a 2 liter coke bottle as a tee? seems very short even for 7 yr olds?

Click to expand...

A 2-liter bottle is about 12-inches tall. I have used just the bottle but it is low and falls down easily. I have filled one with some sand (to make it more stable) and used a 5-inch piece of rubber tubing hose-clamped on the top of the bottle for a more effective low tee.

In high school softball, we occasionally see the low-ball umpire who seems to call the ankle-high strike...maybe higher that the ankle, but definitely below the knees

Thanks, makes sense, will try to make one! might replace tubing with a rolled piece of rubber (to make more of an inverted cone, might be having girls put ball on tee, and want it to be easy), or maybe even real tee topper. another improvement might be attaching bottom to piece of lumber (stability)