Our training drills portion of our blog that normally takes place on Tuesday, and has been delayed because of the wonderful articles that I have found the last two days, will begin right now. Along with my discovery of a wonderful website that I have not encountered before, called BaseballThinkTank.com, I found an even more wonderful video on the website that gives a unique perspective on tee work and an alternative, creative, simple, and effective drill to them. Hunter Bledsoe is the creator of the video called Hitting Lessons: 4 Hitting Drills That Are A Little Outside The Box. He, along with being able to provide a tremendous amount of baseball insight, is very well spoken and provides outside of the box way to practice hitting.
Bledsoe’s biggest qualm about tee work, or hitting off a tee when it comes to training, is its inability to generate an in game atmosphere and the potential bad habits that it can create. For example, Bledsoe is ultra critical of the way that tee drills always have you look directly down in front of your feet at the tee, as opposed to out in front, and at the pitcher, where the ball is delivered from. His other issue is the way in which hitters develop the bad habit of a front shoulder rotation toward the tee on their load.
Because Bledsoe sees the limitations of tee work in their inauthenticity and hindrance on mechanics, he provides a drill that takes place in a three-step progression with a foam ball. The drill must be done with two people. One person—the lobber—will kneel out in front of the second person—the hitter—on their knees. In the first progression, the lobber tosses the ball to the batter—who is without a bat—and with no lower body movement the hitter catches the ball with the hand that would normally reside higher up on a baseball bat. The first progression teaches a correct path to the ball and promotes vision of the baseball. The most important part is to keep your front shoulder closed when you catch the ball. For the second progression, add a load and the lower half of your swing as your partner tosses you the ball; you still just want to catch it at this point; remember to keep your front shoulder closed! For the last part of the drill—progression three—as the ball is tossed from your partner, punch the ball with the palm of your hand and remember what you learned in the first two steps.
The drill is simple, can be done in small spaces, and is a unique alternative to tee work. Watch Hunter Bledsoe’s video. You will most likely get a better grasp of exactly what he specifically thinks the drill does. However, what the video takes ten minutes to explain the paragraph above provides a brief summary that gets the gist across.
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