The greatest tee drills on the planet

I’ve never been a big fan of tee drills. 

We aren’t playing golf.  The ball doesn’t sit there placidly waiting to get clobbered.  It’s moving.  Up.  Down.  In.  Out.  Breaking as sharp as a machete.  Cutting sideways like a swallow in flight.  Tumbling.  Running.  Humping.  Spinning.  Dive Bombing.  It’s a damn carnival of sporadic, frantic, schizoid movement like a Psycho UFO.

With the notable exception of Eldrick, golf is for country club white boys attacking a pill that sits obediently on the tee like a masochistic pellet. 

Baseball, on the other hand, is for rough and tumble kids facing pitchers with nasty, filthy stuff.  They attack a five ounce flame fired from 60 and six, bursting through the air anywhere from 75 to 100 mph, out of the paw of an assassin who may have no idea where it’s going. And it’s fun.

Obviously, BP is infinitely better than hitting off a tee.  Except…Tee sessions are great for making corrections.

      “I dunno, doc, my head just started spinning…and spinning.”

          Don’t Just Hack Away.  Have an Idea.

There are dozens and dozens of tee drills.  Invented by Hitting Gurus who can sniff out a fault or three in any swing anywhere, any time.  No matter how solid your swing is, they can always find something wrong.  Even when it’s a ghost that doesn’t exist.  And then charge you to fix it.

But some faults are as lethal as Ebola and need to be exorcised or you’re screwed like Linda Blair’s 360 swiveling neck.  (Is that a pun?)

Most young hitters just plop the tee in the middle of the plate and hack away like a robot, pounding room service shots into the net.  Accomplishes about as much as spitting on the ground to end a drought.

But these four are like Elvis creating rock and roll, Ronaldo owning a soccer ball, Brando on the set, Dickey Betts caressing his Les Paul on Jessica.  They are Fort Knox gold.  The last two are my favourites. 

          Stay Inside the Ball       

Set the tee up on the inside corner at the front of the plate. Do NOT hook around the ball.  Pull your hands in and stay INSIDE THE BALL.    Drive the ball into the left center gap (RH hitter) by making solid barrel contact.

Let the Ball Get Deep

Move the tee to the outside corner at the back of the plate. Go with the pitch.  You’re letting the ball get deep.  This time you’re crushing a line shot over the second baseman’s head into the right center gap.

And now we arrive head first at the CORE of what hitting is all about.

DIRECT to the ball. This eliminates long, loopy swings.
THROUGH the ball. This is extension and POWER.

Double Tees—Direct to the ball

Set up one tee in front of the other about two feet apart.   Line up as if you’re hitting off the front tee.  When you swing you want to get DIRECT to the ball.  If you clip the ball on the back tee your swing is getting loopy and long.  Anyone throwing even reasonably hard will handcuff you and knock the bat out of your hands

NOTE:  Start with the tees staggered fairly far apart so the hitter is not altering his swing to beat the drill.  Then gradually move them closer—but not too close.  We want a natural swing without getting loopy.

Don’t ever let the hitter start chopping.  We’re NEVER swinging DOWN on the ball.  That’s yesterday’s news and it’s always been wrong.  (Just ask Ted Williams.  If you can communicate with the Hereafter.)

We just want to get the bat head directly to the ball on plane.

The King of the Hill—Extension

Now comes the best tee drill of them all.  The best.  Double tees again.  But this time you line up with the BACK tee.  Take your swing and drive THROUGH the ball with EXTENSION out front.  You’re trying to crush both baseballs.  We use a wiffle ball on the back tee so it won’t impact the baseball on the front tee.

When you get EXTENSION OUT FRONT you make solid barrel contact with both balls.  You can adjust the distance to the size of each player.

Did you ever watch Mark McGwire swing?  He had the extension of a boa constrictor.  He kept the bat head in the hitting zone longer than a Scorcese movie.  Keeping the barrel on plane for more than three feet gave him solid crushing contact even when he was a bit early or a bit late.

          Releasing the Top Hand

McGwire let go with his top hand on his follow through.  This elongated his extension.  On paper that makes no sense at all because you don’t release your top hand until well after contact.

But when you hold on with both hands on your finish you often have a tendency to cut off your swing and hook the bat head.  This gives some hitters a U-turn swing and the barrel is only in the zone for a few inches.

By releasing the top hand out front you get a full, fluid follow through and better extension.  Some hitters feel comfortable with this.  Some don’t.  Give it a try but don’t force it and don’t release too soon.

Barry Bonds releases his top hand on his follow through. He hit a few jacks.

A lot of hitters adjust according to the location of the pitch.  They’ll release on the ball away and hold on with both hands on the pitch inside.

This double tee drill is all about the MAGIC OF EXTENSION. When a pitcher gets long out front his velocity jumps.  When a hitter gets long out front his bat speed revs and he’s in the hitting zone forever.

Extension is a POWER PITCHER. 
And extension is a POWER HITTER. 

 Eldrick?  That’s Tiger’s real name.

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