Having a higher velocity swing will enable you to hit the ball harder and further. The key to an effective swing is to consistently maintain high bat speed by having fundamentally sound mechanics that happen the same way every time you swing and by selecting good pitches to hit that won’t break down your swing. Swinging at bad pitches will cause you to alter your swing, usually resulting in poor results.
There is a bat swinging device that consists of an adjustable tee with an upper and lower rail that will guide your swing through the correct slope and force you to have a short swing to the ball, still allowing a good extension and follow through. Being “short to the ball” generates bat speed from the “whip” like action your wrists make. Also, there are radar guns or bat swing speed devices that use lasers to measure velocity giving swing speed feedback. This way you can see for yourself if your swing is consistently generating desired power. Unsatisfactory results will indicate possible flaws in your swing that need correction.
Hitting off of a tee is the best practice for your basic swing and it doesn’t require anybody else but you. The ball is always placed at the best point of contact in the hitting zone for an inside, down the middle, and outside pitch. There is no doubt this will train your muscles to remember the proper swing for those various points of contact because it can be and should be done over and over again. You will develop an excellent, but more important a consistent swing. Being set up in a position to hit the ball well will be automatic.
The tee should be set up slightly in front of and on the inside portion of the plate to simulate an inside pitch and slightly toward the back and outside portion of the plate to simulate an outside pitch, hitting the ball to their respective fields. Remember, when practicing to hit the ball to opposite fields, you want to let the ball travel deeper into the hitting zone before hitting it. That is why you place the tee on the back portion of the plate. Place the tee right over the plate to simulate a pitch down the middle and practice hitting the ball straight up the middle “through the box”.
As far as the height of the tee you should change it back and forth from high to low, allowing your body and hands to feel the various points of correct contact reinforcing that muscle memory. Primarily, you want to raise the tee as high as possible in your strike zone because it will train you to keep hands up and “strong” throughout your swing. It can help to prevent any unnecessary dropping of the hands and back shoulder. Picture your shoulders as an “airplane” trying to land. You would want the wings of the plane to remain level as you hit the runway and it is the same for your shoulders when hitting a baseball. If you find yourself hitting the tee at all or popping the ball up off the tee, you are most likely dropping your hands or shoulder or both.
Choosing the right bat is also very important. Of course, you want to use a baseball bat that is comfortable and can be swung with ease. With so many bats out there it can be a long test of “trial and error” before you find the bat that works for you. There is a basic model for selecting a length and weight depending on your body size. Like everything else there are unique and exceptional cases such as having very long arms or maybe extraordinary forearm strength and bat speed which will be a determining factor in choosing the right bat for you. As far as physics go, the bigger bat will have more weight to impact the ball with as long as your swing speed is not being compromised.
I maintain a website that has detailed reviews on many of the new baseball bats out there to offer some help as to which bat may work for you with the ability to buy baseball bats online. Also I have sites that walk you through the proper baseball swing mechanics to improve your hitting ability.
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