Before diving into these, understand that almost all drills can be done interchangeably. By that, we mean that most tee drills you can do off of front toss or live and vice versa. Also remember that not all drills are going to work for everyone. This is about finding what drills help YOU with what YOU need to fix your bad tendencies and reinforce your good tendencies. Find some you like and develop a routine that gets you ready to hit before every game.
At Extra Hacks, our tee work is intentional. Each drill targets a specific concept: barrel control, hand path, rhythm, direction.
đź’ˇ Most drills are interchangeable. You can run them off front toss, live BP, or off a tee. The key is using them to attack your tendencies.
Build a tee routine that gets your brain and body right before a game not just your swing. Below are four of our go-to drills and why they matter.
1. Short Bat Drill
Goal: barrel control. We want you to feel the ball on the barrel.
This drill is a great warm-up staple and good way to start your routine when you first get in a cage.
Take your regular, preferred bat, and choke up ~3 inches on your bat to simulate using a short stick. If your full-size bat is 33 inches, make it act like a 30. Hence the "short bat".
No cheating with length or leverage. If you're not hitting the ball square and hitting line drives with a shortened stick, it's going to be very tough for you to do so with the full length.
If you can square it up consistently with a short bat, you're in control. Set the tee up middle-middle and aim for different parts of the cage to challenge direction and flight.
2. Slot Drill
Goal: Get your hands set into your hitting slot.
The "slot" is where your hands fire from. Different players have different slots (higher, lower, farther back, etc.). For this tee drill you want to take all the moving parts out of your swing. Get into your post load position, meaning pre-strided with hands back.
Most people perceive their hitting slot to be different than what it actually is. Here’s how to check:
- Get into your post-load position (already strided, hands back)
- No stride, no load, just fire from that slot
- Hit line drives off the tee
- Film yourself from the side
What you’re looking for: Are your hands starting from the same place every time? Or do they drift, drop, or wrap behind you? This drill helps kill wasted movement.
đź“˝ Bonus: Tiger Woods used a version of this drill in golf. Same principles apply. Check out this video between him and his old coach, Butch Harmon, talk about it for golf:
3. Happy Gilmore Drill (a.k.a. Babe Ruth)
Some call it the “Babe Ruth Drill.” We call it Happy Gilmore because, well, it’s more fun. We're definitely aging ourselves here but if you weren't born when this movie came out, check it out. Here is Happy Gilmore swinging a golf club:
Goal: Get your weight moving through the ball, not stuck on your backside.
How to do this drill:
- Start 2–3 steps behind the tee
- Walk into your swing: step, step, swing
- Make sure the tee is far enough out front to match your stride
- No need to rush it like Happy does, just stay smooth
This one’s great for warm-ups and syncing up lower body rhythm. If you feel stiff or grounded in early rounds, work this in.
4. High Tee Drill
We talk a lot about “getting your hands above the baseball.” If your hands are not above the baseball on contact, it's extremely hard to hit the ball effectively. But what does that actually look like?
Try this:
- Set the tee high—letter-high or even higher
- Take normal swings with a focus on keeping your hands above the ball at contact
Why it matters: MLB hitters always maintain this relationship even on pitches at the top of the zone. It’s a major key to clean ball flight and adjustability.
Here are a few side-by-side MLB screenshots referenced:
In all three, hands are above the ball. Even on the middle image, Realmuto's hands are above a ball that is nearly 4 feet above the ground.
For this drill:
- Set the tee up at chest height, matching Realmuto’s pitch location
- Avoid clipping the top of the cage with your batted ball
- Work through the middle of the field
- It’s easy to cheat and yank this to the pull side, but that’s not the goal here
Feel your hands stay above the ball, let the barrel fall into place, and drive a clean line drive up the middle. When done right, it should look a lot like this:
Final Word
Tee work shouldn’t be mindless. Use these drills with intention, film your reps, and build a routine that gives you feedback.
Got a go-to drill you love that’s not on this list? Send it our way and maybe we’ll break it down in a future post.
As always...happy hacking!
