Posted by: Tom (mentzert@hotmail.com) on Wed May 21 20:30:36 2008

Bear with me here. Tee work, probably the most underutilized part of baseball when you talk about rec baseball practices. I probably use a tee more then most coaches that I coach with. While I was at Jacksonville University my oldest son went to a baseball camp there and they have one area that has nets and nine tees. They are inside high, middle, low; middle high, dead red, low; and outside high, middle, and low.

Keeping with this simplified theory, I put my 4 year old on the tee constantly. I move the tee around and have him duplicate his swing, inside, outside, putting the tee in the spot that I want him to make contact with the ball. Now does a 4 year old recognize that the ball I put further out in front of the plate is making him open his hips early to make contact on a middle-in ball? Not at all, but he does gain recognition as to where the ball is and where he makes contact with it. Same thing applies for the outside pitch. (Bottom line is to get the kid to duplicate his swing, but making contact in a specific area around the plate based on the pitch).

Obviously at some point you have to move off the tee and go to live pitching, at that point I spend my first few practices on form and technique and hardly hit a baseball. (I have an 11 year old also). I actually get behind the kids and put a hand on either hip and force rotate their hips. Not to jump to another topic, but it directly relates to this is the “keeping the hands inside the ball”. I use the swing up against a fence method so they understand not to fully extend their arms. Ultimately it is lots pitches and pitch recognition is key. I’m not a coach who throws the ball down the middle all the time. I try to make the kids adjust in a non-threat environment, my 30 mph pitch. Long, convoluted, but this is what works for my kids (by that I mean my teams).
Tom