We know that a lot of players like to get extra practice at home and we see a lot of mistakes made in setting the tee when hitting at home. Here are a few quick tips to setup the tee for different pitch locations. For all tee work make the batters eyes start out at the pitcher, simulating a game like setup, as they load they can bring them to the tee.
Middle
For a pitch down the middle of the plate, the tee should be set up just in front of home plate. This makes the player stay through the middle of the field longer and work on attacking that pitch out in front In order to hit this pitch back through the middle of the field the player also must maintain a good front shoulder position and not rotate off the pitch. We want our extension to drive the rotation.
Inside Pitch
For an inside pitch, the tee should be set up in front of home plate and on the inner third of the plate. The key for hitting the inside pitch is to let the front hip lead the lower body movement so that it clear a path for the hands. Again we don't want to see any early rotation of the shoulder but a good tight hand path.
Outside Pitch
For an outside pitch, the tee should be set up on the back corner of home plate and the outer third of the plate. When hitting the outside pitch off the tee we want the player to make sure that they are attacking it with intent to drive the baseball in the opposite field gap. Too many players make lazy contact on the outer third and pitchers love to pitch there.
