T Work

[Nor10]

My daughter is a lefty. When we're working off the T with the T set at a dead strike pretty much just inside her front leg at stride and she pulls the ball right, what is happening? When she pulls the ball left what is happening?

I have an idea that when she pulls it right she is either opening her hips too much, or not staying connected letting her hands get ahead of her shoulder and elbows. I think this is what some say barring the arms?

This is what she tends to do a lot off the T. I'd say 60% go to the right more than to the dead center of the net. Rarely will she ever hit it to the left. And when she does I can see right away she was all arms.

I want to get your thoughts one what I should be looking for, thanks a ton.

 

[Hitter]

My daughter is a lefty. When we're working off the T with the T set at a dead strike pretty much just inside her front leg at stride and she pulls the ball right, what is happening? When she pulls the ball left what is happening?

I have an idea that when she pulls it right she is either opening her hips too much, or not staying connected letting her hands get ahead of her shoulder and elbows. I think this is what some say barring the arms?

This is what she tends to do a lot off the T. I'd say 60% go to the right more than to the dead center of the net. Rarely will she ever hit it to the left. And when she does I can see right away she was all arms.

I want to get your thoughts one what I should be looking for, thanks a ton.

Make sure the tee is set up correctly to home plate and she measures off from the same place to be consistent. I have what I term a window of opportunity to hit in. The measurements are from the back corner of home plate which is where we do all of our tee work. Lay the bat across home plate on the outside corner and place you lead foot exactly at the knob and you choose your stance and width.

We start up the middle for bat control purposes with the tee 29 inches high and two lines 51 and 39 inches high horizontally with a center line and the tee about 4.5 feet from the net fo r up the middle. We place the tee 2 to 3 in the middle and slightly forward of home plate and the hitter should stride even or slightly behind the tee so adjust as required so the tee is relative to the stride foot. Our window is 4.5 inches forward of the back corner and 12.5 inches wide. Our outside pitch tee position is the back corner to forward 4.5 inches and the inside position is at the 12.5 inch line. As a lefty if it is going right when trying to hit up the middle look for toe to be pointing in direction of pitcher, front shoulder opening , not turning belly button towards pitcher or over rotating the belly button towards the first baseman's playing position as the usual suspects.

This should get you started...

Thanks Howard

 

[Nor10]

Make sure the tee is set up correctly to home plate and she measures off from the same place to be consistent. I have what I term a window of opportunity to hit in. The measurements are from the back corner of home plate which is where we do all of our tee work. Lay the bat across home plate on the outside corner and place you lead foot exactly at the knob and you choose your stance and width.

We start up the middle for bat control purposes with the tee 29 inches high and two lines 51 and 39 inches high horizontally with a center line and the tee about 4.5 feet from the net fo r up the middle. We place the tee 2 to 3 in the middle and slightly forward of home plate and the hitter should stride even or slightly behind the tee so adjust as required so the tee is relative to the stride foot. Our window is 4.5 inches forward of the back corner and 12.5 inches wide. Our outside pitch tee position is the back corner to forward 4.5 inches and the inside position is at the 12.5 inch line. As a lefty if it is going right when trying to hit up the middle look for toe to be pointing in direction of pitcher, front shoulder opening , not turning belly button towards pitcher or over rotating the belly button towards the first baseman's playing position as the usual suspects.

This should get you started...

Thanks Howard

Are you saying the BALL itself should be 2 to 3 inches forward of the center of home plate? I think, my T is set up wrong if thats the case. Dang...now I can't wait to get home and have a look. I had been setting my T up so the ball is 2 to 3 inches in front of the front edge of the plate. That might be why we were having trouble getting a hit up the middle.

 

[Hitter]

Are you saying the BALL itself should be 2 to 3 inches forward of the center of home plate? I think, my T is set up wrong if thats the case. Dang...now I can't wait to get home and have a look. I had been setting my T up so the ball is 2 to 3 inches in front of the front edge of the plate. That might be why we were having trouble getting a hit up the middle.

We place the tee in the middle of home plate and 2 to 3 inches forward of the front edge of home plate and if you measure off from the back corner of home plate and stride so the lead foot is even or slightly behind the ball on the tee it should go up the middle and if it does not we need to find out why. This is why we do tee work from this position so nothing else changes as we search for the issues preventing us from hitting the ball up the middle. If she is moving up or back during the drills you have no place to be consistent from and that will effect where the balls travels.

Thanks Howard

 

[softballphreak]

Are you saying the BALL itself should be 2 to 3 inches forward of the center of home plate? I think, my T is set up wrong if thats the case. Dang...now I can't wait to get home and have a look. I had been setting my T up so the ball is 2 to 3 inches in front of the front edge of the plate. That might be why we were having trouble getting a hit up the middle.

The ball on the tee should be relative to the batter; not the plate necessarily. That's because the batter can be anywhere, the plate doesn't move. Remember, it's the ball location--not the tee location. There are many variations of tees.

I try to have the ball at POC somewhere between the front foot and center line of the batter for a pitch down the middle. Somewhere near the back hip for an outside pitch.

 

[Hitter]

The ball on the tee should be relative to the batter; not the plate necessarily. That's because the batter can be anywhere, the plate doesn't move. Remember, it's the ball location--not the tee location. There are many variations of tees.

I try to have the ball at POC somewhere between the front foot and center line of the batter for a pitch down the middle. Somewhere near the back hip for an outside pitch.

As stated this is why when working off a tee doing drill work to develop your swing mechanics you want to stay in the same position relative to home plate and develop your mechanics to be consistent. Establish being able to hit the ball up the middle, then outside and last inside. Then position the tee to hit relative to where you need to work on the difficult pitch. You usually do not see hitters moving all over or in the batters box unless they are trying to bait the pitcher. I love it when a coach comes up and arbitrarily moves all his team forward in the batters box, as this will be a good day for my pitchers! The batters box is 7 feet long so how far do you want me to move relative to the tee?

By landing consistently you are are working on a consistent stride and mechanics and the ball should go up the middle if our release of the bat is consistent to the direction we are trying to hit the ball. The variation in where you land should not vary otherwise the amount you rotate would have to vary also. By having a window to hit in you establish what I would term a swing DNA of where you can make contact with the ball and where you could place the ball in a given situation you would want to exploit based on the defense.

We use a drill termed the Barry Bonds drill to create adjustments on every swing. We start off beyond where the catcher sets up and hit up the middle first. We are thinking low to high and slow to fast and step forward after each successful swing. Then when we are about 15 to 20 feet away from the machine we reverse our step and think high to low and fast to slow and that is a cycle. We repeat for outside and then inside. Tee work in my opinion allows you to be in one place to analyze what needs to be improved in your mechanics. Soft toss allows for the variation and requires you to adjust especially the drop drills and height variations.

Thanks Howard

 

[Chris O'Leary]

Are you saying the BALL itself should be 2 to 3 inches forward of the center of home plate? I think, my T is set up wrong if thats the case. Dang...now I can't wait to get home and have a look. I had been setting my T up so the ball is 2 to 3 inches in front of the front edge of the plate. That might be why we were having trouble getting a hit up the middle.

It doesn't matter where the plate is, because that is going to vary according where you start from and how long your stride is.

The tee needs to be placed where the instep of the front foot lands after the stride.

A couple of inches forward for an inside pitch and a couple of inches back for an outside pitch.

 

[softballphreak]

The batters box is 7 feet long so how far do you want me to move relative to the tee?

You can stand anywhere in the batters box as long as the tee is in the correct position relative to the batter.

Of course, you will most likely want to place the batter at the plate when working off the tee. But if you were working off the tee with no plate then, of course, you have to work in relation to the batter regardless.

 

[Hitter]

You can stand anywhere in the batters box as long as the tee is in the correct position relative to the batter.

Of course, you will most likely want to place the batter at the plate when working off the tee. But if you were working off the tee with no plate then, of course, you have to work in relation to the batter regardless.

What is relative to the batter mean?

Most hitters verses slappers develop a relationship to home plate. It is 36 inches rearward from the back corner of home plate and 48 inches forward. Where would you suggest a hitter stand when doing tee work? Where would you suggest they stand when taking batting practice? Not knowing the pitcher especially on travel ball teams where would you suggest a hitter start from?

Other than slapping why would I work with a tee without a reference to home plate?

Thanks Howard

 

[Chris O'Leary]

Other than slapping why would I work with a tee without a reference to home plate?

Unless the hitter gets fooled, the Point Of Contact is pretty much always going to take place in the same place relative to the body.

Unless you teach everyone to set up in the same place, with the same stance width, and take the same stride, it doesn't make sense to set the tee relative to the plate.