On the picture at the left is the Schutt Multi Position Tee that we added decals to and additional tee positions. We added a tee in the middle and additional tee positions on the black lines and sides of home plate so the hitter has a better visual of what to swing at as it could be a strike. I added these positions on my own and suggested it to Schutt however they said it would cost too much money to change the mold.
There are 7 baseballs and 5 softballs decals that are lined up across home plate and we added duct tape for the 6 inch area that most hitters struggle with as to if to hit the ball or not so it was appropriate to use gray tape.
We added a red line to the back corner of the home plate as this is where we measure off from for all our tee work and when doing soft toss. There are two lines marked in blue and we call this our window of opportunity to hit the ball. This window is 12.5 inches long and starts 4.5 inches forward of the back corner of home plate and for the most part balls that are hit within this window are fair balls. We took the tee to a field and placed the tee in several positions and all of the hitters used the red line to measure off from. We laid the bat across home plate so the end of the bat was on the outside corner and then placed our lead foot at the knob of the bat and used a stance width of 1 to 1.5 times the width of the shoulders. The hitters chooses an even or open or closed stance based on their ability to get a good two eyed look at the ball. In front of our blue line of the window of opportunity is a green line which is 4.5 inches forward of the front of the window and a yellow line 4.5 inches in front of the green line. The tee positioned at the green line will most likely produce a ball close to the foul line on an inside pitch depending on the hitter. The tee positioned on the yellow line will produce a foul ball. This visual concept of where our window of opportunity exist is trying to give the hitter a data base to build from of how far forward they can hit the ball and home far back they can hit the ball and still keep the ball in play and or hit it and foul it.
Mentally we want the hitter to take this window with them no matter where they choose to stand in the batters box and they can create it with the size of there shoes and draw the lines in the dirt. Look at Crystl when she comes up to bat and she draws the lines in.
Next to the Schutt Tee is an old bath mat and we traced an actual home plate on it and added the window of opportunity to it as well as the red lines to measure off from. We added what looks like an X in green using magic markers and the hitter works that X pattern using another tee and placing it on top of the bath mat so they can cover and work the entire plate. They start off with the lowest position on the tee and work it across home plate to the outside corner 8 inches off home plate and repeat. They raise the tee a little and repeat. To simulate hitting the rise ball height balls we place the tee on a 5 gallon bucket. This routine will take about 1 to 1.5 hours to complete with hitting 5 balls per position.
Remember when using a tee to have it placed so when you step, you step even or slightly behind the tee just like you would try to do in a game. Find something through the net also that represents the pitchers release point so you are always tracking the ball and not just staring at the ball on the tee. Use good vision mechanics like you would use in a game by giving you head a head start and then using more eye movement than head movement.
A couple of people suggested showing this as the cost of an old bath mat was cheap and easy to carry around in an equipment bag.
Thanks also to Chris for taking the pictures and posting it.
Howard
