Batting Tee Review - Muhl Tech Advanced Tee

by Phil
(Michigan)

Muhl Tech Advanced Skills Tee

Hello...What is your opinion of the Muhl Tech tee? I coach varsity players and we currently work with standard tees. I was told to check out the Muhl Tech Advanced Skills tee by others and I did. It makes sense to me too that this tee would force/train hitters to have a short, compact swing.

Thanks
Phil

Swing Smarter Response:


Hi Phil, very good question, and when I was doing research on hitting aids a few months ago, this tee, and others like it, did come to my attention.

I see what it's suppose to do, shorten the swing, however, swinging down on the baseball is only half the process because you have to also be long through it, and this tee will make it difficult; let me tell you why...

The forward arm. It can be intimidating to a hitter having that steel arm there. Yes, the Muhl Tech tee sales literature says, contact is actually made in front of the plate, contrary to the way conventional tees typically set up with the ball over the middle of the plate.

The beauty of old school baseball hitting tee design is you can do a lot to simulate inside, outside, and down the middle pitches just by moving closer, farther away, back towards the catcher, or closer to the pitcher. When working up the middle I have my hitters line their stride foot up with the ball.

The forward arm will make it difficult to swing through the three baseballs I talk about quite often on the Swing Smarter site because the barrel of the bat actually drops below the hands in the contact zone.

So, I probably wouldn't recommend this tee, that being said, I haven't used it yet, so here's where I ask you: has this hitting aid shown any backspin line drive results with your team, besides more ground balls I'd assume? The Swing Smarter main goal is putting backspin on the baseball, make the ball work for the hitter...from what you've seen, does this device help to do that?

The Muhl Tech Tee and the hitting Skills Mat combo goes for $124.95 plus shipping on the manufacturer's website, which could easily be a $150 total cost.

Thanks Phil for your question, and your feedback on the tee's use is highly sought after. I also think you can't go wrong with the plain ol' baseball hitting tee...if you want better durability and swing functionality, you may want to look into the ATEC Tuffy Multi baseball hitting tee (we used them in college), they're $139 shipped at The Starting Lineup store, and are definitely worth the investment.

Joey
Swing Smarter dot com