The Batting Tee is why most players are just learning how to swing and not actually learning how to hit (partial article)

I’ve been asked many times why I really don’t ever train using a batting tee (or soft toss for that matter).

I’m currently writing an article on “why” in reference to the batting tee and thought I would put out a little “snippet” of some of the reasons. Not doing soft toss will be my next article.

This might seem like a long response but it is very short compared to the full article which will contain more facts and evidence based on scientific proof/ research. Including footage of batting tee swings vs. live pitching swings. No pseudo logic or assumptions or because everyone else does it.

While most tout a handful or maybe even twenty or thirty successful batters who use or used a batting tee as proof that a batting tee is the single-best practice element for a hitter, there are thousands upon thousands that have also used a batting tee that weren’t successful. That fact tends to be omitted.

Years of scientific research has shown that humans are wired to think this: If most believe something, it’s likely to be the truth. It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. If most do something a certain way, it’s likely to be the best way. The status quo, by definition, is extremely pervasive. Often times, we don’t even recognize that there are other ways of doing things because the status quo is all we’ve ever noticed and followed. Like Lemmings off a cliff.

From little league all the way into the professional ranks, players are being taught how to swing a bat, not how to hit. The main culprit for this is the batting tee. Soft toss is the second reason.

There are years and a multitude of scientific research that supports NOT training or doing drills with a batting tee. This includes the fields of biomechanics, physics, neuroscience, visual perception, learning science...the list is quite extensive. Despite how "functional" training on a batting tee may seem, science tells us differently.

If you really listen to what most say about using a batting tee, they are using assumptions, philosophies, partial logic, what’s easy, predictable, what seems to be practical or functional, their personal beliefs and practices. They are thoughts and ideas with very limited or actual science backing.

This isn’t a slam on them. Most coaches truly want to help their athletes and have good intentions. It’s just they don’t fully understand. While an athlete might make some strides training using a batting tee, it dreadfully slows their development and actually keeps the athlete from advancing to their full potential (there is a lot of research that supports this).  

Granted, you can do a lot of drills with a tee. That’s what a tee is made for, to do drills. But you play a game you don’t “drill” a game. A batting tee will make you feel good because you can hit the ball every time. But in a game the ball never just sits right there for you to hit it. You never know where the next pitch will be, at what trajectory or speed. There is not just one type of pitch being thrown. So with many different types of pitches (both from RHP and LHP) and many different locations, there are many different swing types needed. But a batting tee only “trains” for one type of pitch and one swing type. Plus most batters only “train” off a batting tee only using 3-8 different positions.

The motor system responds in real time to the environment, rather than following a previously simulated prediction(1). 

In other words, when a batter swings a bat in response to a live pitch (real time to the environment), the movement doesn’t follow the practice or training he/she did swinging at a stationary ball off a tee (the simulated prediction).

I get it though. The batting tee is easy. Not only for the player but for the coach or trainer. But you don’t get better doing easy. Training and practice aren’t supposed to be easy. It’s to push you out of your comfort zone. To properly learn something better or new. A game isn’t easy. It’s ugly, tough, demanding and unpredictable. You need to train and practice as much as possible under real conditions if you want to get better. The difference between explicit learning (a batting tee) vs. implicit learning (live pitching).

Location Alone Doesn't Determine the Type of Pitch Nor the Type of Swing Needed

We can all agree the pitch a batter swings at has everything to do with how well they hit. So…the type of swing is actually dictated by a response to a type of pitch. 

Before the pitcher throws a ball, here are just a few things the batter doesn’t know:

?         Where the ball will actually cross the plate

                 High, middle, low. Inside or outside or if it even crosses the plate

?         At what possible speed will the ball arrive (fast ball, curve ball, change-up, etc.)

?         At what angle/ trajectory will the ball come in at (fast ball, curve ball, change-up, etc.)

?         Whether they are going to swing or not to swing

You see, in real life, the batters swing type is actually dictated by quickly identifying and assessing the many variables of an approaching ball. Here are just a few of those things:

?         Estimated speed and predict where it will cross the plate. Research (2) has shown that a batter cannot see the bat hit the ball because it is physiologically impossible. They estimate or guess where it will be (contrary to the statements that some athletes said they could). This is because of angular velocity and couple other biological limitations. So early pitch identification is paramount.

?         Movement - the general direction the ball is moving. High, low, inside or outside, etc.

?         Possible Break - possible shifts in direction (two seam fast ball, four seam fast ball, curve, change-up, etc. All effect the ball path/ trajectory to the plate which affects the angle of the bat path and timing to hit the ball as solid as possible.

?         Then decide whether to swing or not. That means they have to assess the variables and decide whether to swing or not.

So the swing is a response to a pitch. Athletes have to anticipate action outcomes based on events presented earlier in a movement sequence that must be performed under severe time constraints.

Yet when working off a batting tee, even before the batter initiates his swing, he already knows all four stated above:

?         Where the pitch is exactly located.

?         What speed (0 mph since it’s on the batting tee thus giving him/ her all the time in the world - no time constraint - to physically and mentally prepare for it). And will see the bat and ball contact.

?         Already presupposes/ assumes a single approach angle/ trajectory of the ball. Because of this, every swing practiced off a batting tee in each tee position, only one swing pattern is used).

?         They know they are going to swing (no visual-motor response needed, No perceptual and motor skills needed, no hesitation because he/ she is already predetermined to swing). Basically, absolutely no assessment of variables or decision making involved.

How is this mimicking or training a real game swing? It's not.

Sample Example Research:

A recent study(3) found the location of impact for intercepting a moving ball is the result of the assessing variables such as type of pitch, speed of ball, trajectory of the ball coming in and several other variables, therefore, the impact location for a particular flight of a pitch cannot be one specific point (training on a batting tee) in hitting a moving ball. Impact locations in hitting a moving ball do not actually reflect the mental representation of a batter’s movement learned or practiced off a batting tee.

Since batters swing a bat towards a stationary ball on a batting tee, they produce the movements without needing to focus on their timing and also assessing all the variables of a pitched ball. Meaning you are only practicing hitting a stationary ball and that practice doesn't really transfer to hitting a moving ball.

Home plate has pentagonal volume. Why is that important? Well, most players only “drill” 3-8 tee positions. There are an abundance of locations a ball could cross the plate because the strike zone has pentagonal volume. This also doesn’t take into account all the different pitched ball trajectories coming to one location or speed that influences the swing pattern and timing. Remember, good hitters have good timing and are able to match the angle of the incoming pitch to make solid contact by staying on plane with that pitch as long as possible. So there are countless “positions” the ball could cross the plate in time and space. Yet using a batting tee, athletes only practice or drill for 3-8 locations and practice only one swing type for those locations even though there are many possible swings for the same location.

(4) Static targets (batting tee) and moving targets (live pitching) that are hit at the same position have different positions when the hand starts to move. They also found that ignoring the target’s motion has larger consequences for fast targets than for slow ones. A live pitch is a "fast" target and a batting tee stationary ball is a static target and obviously also considered a "slow" target.

Results from a study (5) verified skilled athletes rely on a specific vision-for-action pathway to produce real-time movements in the natural setting. The evidence thus far suggests that the more skilled players can only excel when they (athlete) actually intercept the ball under natural time-constraints (live pitching). This was supported by one of many others verifying the importance of using conditions and task demands that closely reflect natural performance(6).

Hitting off live pitching is a natural game performance – hitting off a tee isn’t. This is important because of anticipatory skills which suggests the need for advance information (from live pitching) to be present in the training environment to optimize learning.

The bottom line is that the swing off a batting tee is different than a swing vs. live pitching. I have trained hitters for over 25yrs (middle school to college) and I have the videos to show it. I also have professionals swinging off a batting tee and their swing is different vs. their live game swing.

Here are just a few more things athletes need to be successful at that live pitching trains and a batting tee doesn’t: Coincidence Anticipation, Sensory-motor and perceptual-motor skills, Action Anticipation, Directional Awareness, Temporal Awareness, Spatial Awareness, No Proactive Interference, Two-Visual System, Angular Velocity, Implicit Learning (for long term retention) and several others.

I could continue for a long time showing all the research (and actual videos) against using a batting tee. This includes biomechanics, physics, neuroscience, visual perception, learning science...the list is quite extensive - but this isn't the venue for that.

Ask yourself this question:

When a golfer practices, does his coach roll balls to him to hit? Of course not. A golfer never has to hit a moving ball so he doesn’t practice or train hitting a moving ball. So why in baseball do we believe we have to train swinging at stationary ball when we hit a moving ball?

Years of research has shown that the body and mind react and function differently when hitting a ball in motion (live pitching) vs. hitting a stationary ball (off a batting tee). Now, if you want to use a tee just to warm up and take 10-15 swings just to get loose, not a problem. Just don’t use it for drills thinking you are actually “working” on hitting.

But don't completely abandon the hitting tee. There are a few instances where it will help to initially "show" an athlete how to execute a mechanical skill. Some athletes have to see or feel what the corrected swing is like. The athlete (any age after t-ball) only uses the tee for 5-10 swings, then goes to live pitching with wiffle balls or regular baseballs. Don't use a batting tee for 50-200 swings. That's counterproductive.

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(1)      Fink, P. W., Foo, P. S., & Warren, W. H. (2009). Catching fly balls in virtual reality: A critical test of the outfielder problem. Journal of Vision, 9(13), 14

(2) Higuchi, T., Nagami, T., Nakata, H., Watanabe, M., Isaka, T., & Kanosue, K. (2016). Contribution of Visual Information about Ball Trajectory to Baseball Hitting Accuracy. PLOS ONE, 11(2), e0148498.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0148498 

(3)      Katsumata, H., Himi, K., Ino, T., Ogawa, K., & Matsumoto, T. (2017). Coordination of hitting movement revealed in baseball tee-batting. Journal of Sports Sciences, 35(24), 2468–2480. doi:10.1080/02640414.2016.1275749

(4)     de Lussanet, Marc & Smeets, Jeroen & Brenner, Eli. (2004). The quantitative use of velocity information in fast interception. Experimental brain research. Experimentelle Hirnforschung. Expérimentation cérébrale. 157. 181-96. 10.1007/s00221-004-1832-2.

(5)     van der Kamp, J., Rivas, F., van Doorn, H., & Savelsbergh, G. J. P. (2008). Ventral and dorsal contributions in visual anticipation in fast ball sports. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 39(2), 100–130

(6)     Mann, D. L., Abernethy, B., & Farrow, D. (2010). Action specificity increases anticipatory performance and the expert advantage in natural interceptive tasks. Acta Psychologica, 135(1), 17–23. doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2010.04.006