The High Tee Prescription
There are swings that look fine in warmups…and then fall apart in games. You’ve seen it. Maybe you coach it every day. Girls swinging through the low end of their midsection, toward the bottom of the ball, and dropping their hands. Rolling over. Falling forward. Dumping the barrel. Missing where it matters most: the heart of the zone.
And here’s the truth: It's not a “try harder” problem. It's a bat path problem. So what's the fix? The high tee.
Why the High Tee Works.
When you raise the tee to chest height, everything changes. Biomechanically, tee work already forces a hitter to control their body differently than live pitching. Studies on softball hitters show that tee swings create different trunk positioning and rotation, helping isolate and train specific movement patterns in the swing.
Tee work allows you to build your swing, not just react with it. Now take that tee and raise it: you've just exposed every flaw in that swing.
What the High Tee Fixes and Why.
1. Swinging Through the Low Mid Section
If a hitter lives low in the zone, they’re usually:
Dropping the barrel early
Cutting off their path
Missing through the ball instead of behind it
The high tee forces the opposite:
Barrel stays above the hands longer
Direct path to the ball
Contact happens out front
Coaching research and drill data show that high tee setups (chest height, inner half) force a tight, efficient turn with hands staying inside the ball, eliminating casting and looping.
2. Hitters-Slump
Slumps aren’t always mental. Many slumps are due to a late path, too long of a path, or weak contact. The high tee is able to reset this quickly.
Why? Because it demands:
Quick decision point
Short path
Clean barrel entry
If they cheat, they miss it. No hiding.
3. Falling Forward / Not Staying Behind the Ball
Girls who drift / lunge forward lose power, lose vision, and lose adjustability. The high tee punishes that immediately. If you fall forward on a high tee, you swing under it or end up jamming yourself.
So what really happens? The body self corrects with better posture, better balance, and better sequencing.
4. Bad Bat Path (This Is the Biggie!)
Let’s call it what it is: most hitters don’t struggle with effort, they struggle with direction.
A good swing is:
‘Short to it, long through it.’
That's not just coaching talk, it’s backed by hitting development principles which show that forward acceleration and extension through contact increases consistency and power output.
The high tee trains exactly that:
No looping
No scooping
No cutting off
What Should it Look Like?
Set the tee: at chest height (letters on the jersey) and slightly inside. Now watch how it forces the hands to stay tight and the barrel to work through the ball for solid line drive contact. Posture immediately corrects itself since players quite literally have to ‘rise to the occasion’.
What's the goal? To consistently be able to rip line drives off the high tee! Once you've reached that point, the high tee no longer is a prescription: it becomes regular maintenance like a multi-vitamin.
The Coach Marisa Truth.
If your hitter:
Lives low
Rolls over
Falls forward
Has a long, loopy path
Poor posture (curs up like a ‘c’ or croches too far over the plate, etc.)
You don’t need more swings; you need intentional reps. The high tee is not optional, it should be prescribed.
The Final Word.
We don’t guess at Clutch. We train with intention. The high tee isn’t just a drill, it’s a mirror and it shows the truth about your swing.
If you stay consistent with it, it builds a hitter who:
Stays behind the ball
Controls the zone
Delivers the barrel on time
And hits through everything
