Correcting "Arm Bar"

You can stand behind the l-screen and toss him pull balls. Here are some teaching points as he swings with only his bottom hand:

1. Keep your hands inside the ball
(swing through and not around)

2. Let your arm get straight toward the pitcher as opposed to out beside your body and then to the ball.

3. Take the knobb of the bat to the ball

4. Get your arms extended toward the shortstop/5.5 hole on an inside pitch and not toward the third baseman/left field.

We are big on extension and staying through the ball as opposed to around the ball by pulling off. We call that slinging, instead of swinging.

quote:

Originally posted by The Great One 21:
Coaches,

I've got a hitter who does an arm bar on an inside pitch...he gets extended too early (bottom hand). He's long to the inside pitch...what teaching points or drills do you use to correct this or reinforce proper path to the baseball?

This can be a very tough habit to break.

Partly, because the 'natural', 'intuitive' way to hit an inside pitch is straighten (bar) the lead arm and make contact when it's well out in front of the plate.

IOW, It's counter-intuitive and un-natural to maintain the bend in the lead arm until contact.

I recommend lots of reps off the batting tee, with the batter consciously "paralyzing" his lead arm elbow joint in order to maintain the bend in his lead arm (whatever bend he starts with) through contact, with the tee set up at an inside location about 12" in front of his lead foot.

He must learn how to swing with his forearms and not his arms and shoulders. Typical arm bar hitters use their front arm as their power, where in reality they should be using their lower half(rear hip) and forearms as their power source.

A simple drill that can help with this is to use a batting tee. Place the hitter with his foot almost touching the tee. Force them to stand too close. Have the hitter hit into a sock net or hit wiffle balls into a trash can right up the middle. By learning to keep the hands in and hit the ball up the middle with this tee position they will learn to use the hands and hips together as well as extend the arms THROUGH the pitch not TO the pitch. This simple drill usually works very well for our players.

Magic cure for arm bar...

Keep your hands near your armpit/shoulder as long as possible.

Thanks for all of the replies. The information is greatly appreciated!