Turn a Batting Tee Into a Target: How to Coach Chest-High Throwing Accuracy

Ask an infielder why a routine ground ball turned into an infield single and you'll rarely hear "my throw sailed to the backstop." Far more often the throw was almost right - a touch low so the first baseman had to short-hop it, a touch high so they came off the bag, or pulled to the wrong side so they had to reach and swipe. Those near-misses are the real accuracy problem in the infield, and they're the ones ordinary drills fail to measure. A coach yelling "good throw!" from 60 feet away can't actually tell a chest-high strike from one that pulled the receiver a half-step off the base.

That's the whole idea behind the Tee-Topper drill. You take a batting tee - equipment every facility and every backyard already owns - set it at the receiving base at chest height, and balance a ball on top of it. Now the fielder fields a grounder and throws to knock that ball off the tee. The tee is a constraint, and a brilliantly honest one: a low throw goes under it, a high throw sails over it, a pulled throw misses to the side, and only a true chest-high, on-line throw knocks the ball off. There is no debate about whether the throw was accurate. Either the ball flies off the tee or it doesn't, and you get a number - hits out of throws - that maps directly to throwing accuracy.

Why a tee is the right target

Coaches have used the "hit the target" throwing drill for generations, and the logic is simple: a strong arm is secondary to an accurate one, and accuracy is highly trainable when the athlete has a clear target to aim at. Little League's long-standing backyard guidance is to give the player a fixed target and let them practice hitting it with a natural motion. The Tee-Topper takes that proven idea and upgrades the target in two ways.

First, it puts the target at the right height. A common mistake in target throwing is taping a square on a wall or setting a bucket on the ground, which quietly trains the player to throw low. Real receivers - a first baseman, a shortstop covering second, a catcher - want the ball around the chest, glove-side, where it's easy to catch and quick to tag or transfer. A tee set to chest height makes chest-high the default, so every rep grooves the throw a game receiver actually wants.

Second, the ball on top makes the target self-scoring and satisfying. Knocking a ball off a tee is a crisp, obvious event - the athlete gets instant, unambiguous feedback on every single throw, and the visible "pop" of a clean hit is motivating in a way a chalk square never is. Immediate, objective feedback is one of the most reliable accelerants of motor learning, and the tee delivers it for free.

The constraint does the coaching

The Tee-Topper is an example of what player-development groups like Driveline Baseball call constraint-based training: instead of layering verbal cues on top of a throw, you change the environment so the desired outcome is the only way to succeed. The athlete doesn't need to be told "stay on line" and "finish chest high" ten times - the tee simply won't give up its ball unless the throw is on line and chest high. The constraint teaches the movement more efficiently than a checklist of cues, and it keeps the player's attention external (on knocking the ball off) rather than internal (on their own mechanics), which research on attentional focus consistently links to better accuracy and faster learning.

That external focus matters for a subtle reason. The single most common way players sabotage their own accuracy is by aiming - carefully steering the ball, which tightens the arm, slows the delivery, and shortens the motion. The classic coaching instruction is to throw with a natural motion and let the target guide the ball, not to guide the ball to the target. Because the Tee-Topper gives the athlete something to attack rather than something to babysit, it naturally pulls them toward that free, repeatable delivery.

How to run it

Start with the arm, not the target. Throwing is a genuine workload on a developing arm, so the session opens with dynamic warm-up movements - arm circles, wrist flicks, trunk rotations - and 10 to 12 easy build-up throws before anything is scored. Then set the tee at the receiving base to the receiver's chest height, balance a ball on top, and mark the fielder's start spot so every rep begins from the same distance.

The rep is a complete play: field a rolled or hit grounder through a normal fielding path, get to a balanced throwing base, and throw to knock the ball off the tee. Score a clean knock-off as a hit, reset the ball, and go again. Three rounds of ten throws gives thirty scored reps and a clean percentage. A player hitting 70% or better from game distance is throwing accurately enough to convert routine plays; below that, shorten the distance or enlarge the target and build back up. Finish with a light-throwing cool-down.

Keep the whole thing submaximal. This is an accuracy day, not a velocity day. Effort should sit comfortably below max so the arm absorbs the volume, and the field-field-reset footwork - not airing out every throw - should be the conditioning. That distinction protects the arm and, conveniently, also produces better accuracy, since max-effort throwing is where control breaks down first.

Progressing it safely

The drill scales in every direction. For younger or newer players, shorten the distance and use a bigger, softer target ball so early wins come easily and the throwing volume stays low - the youngest, safest version of this drill lives at a shortened distance with a capped rep count and a rest day after. As accuracy climbs, move the fielder back toward true game depth, then shrink the target ball or tighten what counts as a hit. Finally, add game reality: field on the move, work a backhand or a charging slow-roller, or relocate the tee to second base and to home so the athlete trains accurate throws to different receivers and heights, not just to first.

Throughout, respect the arm the way youth-baseball medical guidance recommends: warm up and cool down every session, keep effort honest, cap hard throws, and give the arm real rest between throwing days. USA Baseball and MLB's Pitch Smart guidelines exist because repetitive throwing stress is the driver of youth arm injuries, and an accuracy drill - even a submaximal one - still counts against a young player's throwing volume for the week.

The takeaway

Infield defense is won on the near-misses - the throws that are almost accurate. A batting tee, a ball balanced on top, and a chest-high target turn "almost" into a number you can see, score, and improve. The constraint coaches the movement, the ball on the tee delivers instant honest feedback, and the whole thing runs on gear you already own. Warm up, keep it submaximal, chase a rising hit percentage, and you'll build the quietly decisive skill that turns routine grounders into routine outs.

Sources

• Little League University - long-standing backyard "hit the target" throwing-accuracy guidance and the principle that accuracy is more valuable than raw arm strength.
• Driveline Baseball - constraint-based training and external-focus principles for skill development and throwing.
• USA Baseball Medical & Safety Advisory Committee - youth arm-care guidance on warm-up, effort/volume management, and rest days.
• MLB Pitch Smart - workload and rest recommendations that inform how much throwing volume a young arm should absorb.
• American Sports Medicine Institute (ASMI) - research on the relationship between throwing workload and youth arm injury risk.