One armed drills....Worth doing?

[Paulypal]

I have been doing them all winter. I like the front armed drill, but the rear armed drill -- I am not sure of the value.

What do you think about one armed drills?

Paul

[tom.guerry]

Yes. See Mankin for one progression, Peavy for another, both good, based on sound backward chaining MLB swing principles.

The injury thing is bogus in competent hands.

[Dirtberry]

This is the first most powerful mechanics proprioceptive builder and the second most important drill!

[Go Cardinals]

This is the first most powerful mechanics proprioceptive builder and the second most important drill!

What's the first?

[Dirtberry]

It's not even close,The Batters press is truly magic!

[Twitch5]

The injury thing is bogus in competent hands.

I'm finding it incredibly difficult to "bite my tongue" on this issue. The original discussion on this one-arm batting drill potential injury issue was merely an FYI after my son and I went to the PT and then follow-up with an Orthopaed.

Tom...

What exactly makes you an EXPERT on this issue? Everyone on this forum always stresses to see a specialist; and that very few people here are qualified to give a diagnosis, etc. And we went to see the proper specialists, and when they informed us of the reasons not to continue the one-armed drills during his rehab, I thought I would share this info.

Everyone on this forum seems enamored with the issues regarding the pronation/supination of elbows.

So, here is a statement which can be picked apart and debated ---

In a two-handed swing, the top hand helps prevent over-rotation(supination) of the lead elbow. In a one-armed swing (lead arm, bottom hand, whatever you wish to call it), the elbow tends to supinate during follow-through and can be over-rotated due to the fact that bats are end-weighted. Any attempts to not roll over the elbow or even to pronate the elbow during a one-armed swing (i.e. make it look like a tennis backhand swing), could lead to other issues/flaws in your normal two-handed swing.

Twitch5

[tom.guerry]

twitch-

If something causes injury, you see a lot of injuries over time doing it.

I have seen LOTS of medial epicondyle trouble from throwing too much and/or with bad mechanics.

I have seen lots of anterior and posterior shoulder injuries with stress from throwing.

I have not seen injuries from one handed hitting drills.

Lots of players do them with weights and donuts on the bat, not just little minibats.

Anything can aggravate an injury that is already there. I suspect that is what whoever it is is seeing and blaming on one armed hitting drills.

[Twitch5]

tom...

Here's a recent thread about one-arm follow-throughs (similar stress as one-arm hitting drills) where two people complain about shoulder problems.

http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=75200

[Go Cardinals]

It's not even close,The Batters press is truly magic!

How do you do it?

[Dirtberry]

Go Cardinals,

I've copied and pasted from it's original post.

I found Nirvana in the late 60’s with this one particular drill and to this day on all levels of Batters from 5 to pro. This is truly an amazing drill and will make the biggest impact on your swing if you are trying to build an Elipticalinear swing path with backspin ball exit (The Classic Power Swing).

“The Batters press”

This Batting drill is a “ Sport specific” resistance compound exercise that can easily be adapted to all forms of exercise types like Isometric, Isotonic, and Tempometric. It can be administered by machine or a human countervail.

When performing this drill the batter should assume the “Classic power position” at middle plate, middle ball contact position. Empisis should be made at perfecting the position of the Batters hands with the backside top hand in a flat wrested palm up position on the bat (Radial flexed) and the front side bottom hand and wrist in the palm down position (Radial flexed). This position builds specific functional strength and puts you in the best anatomical force coupling position so that your most powerful articulation of the swing lets your hands work in concert with each other. The front side leg should be straight with the front foot turned in 22 1/2 degrees. The backside leg should be pivoted with the heal vertical.The Batter must also pay attention to their inward lean and inward head position with the head always over the backside shoulder!

After the Batter assumes the position the partner steps up to the front of the Dish with their Barrel side Leg forward and their handle side leg braced to the back. The partner now puts his barrel side hand around the end of the barrel with the thumb on top and the fingers on the bottom held firmly. The partner puts their handle side hand on the handle end by putting the thumb on top of the Batters front side back of hand with the index and middle finger over and around the end of the knob of the bat. The partner will cause back feed resistance to the barrel in different exercise types with their barrel side arm.
Partners should be prepared for a workout also although they have mechanical advantage.
With exceptionally strong athletes a metal bat is preferable because of bat breakage.

The exercise starts when the partner puts the barrel back towards the batters shoulder then
the Batter starts to press (Force couple} the barrel forward by Ulna flexing the back side wrist and Ulna flexing the front side wrist through extention. At this point you can perform many types of exercises at full or partial length intervals from fully flexed to full extension. The partner just lets the bat travel toward their lead upper thigh.

I used to run this drill just to teach that particular part of the swing for proprioceptive awareness when very young kids struggled with the swing mechanics and after they perform this drill its like magic how well they hit after that.
I quit running this drill like I used to by doing it between the Batting routines and now do one set to exhaustion at the end of the session.

LF

[jamesh23]

Go Cardinals,

I've copied and pasted from it's original post.

I found Nirvana in the late 60’s with this one particular drill and to this day on all levels of Batters from 5 to pro. This is truly an amazing drill and will make the biggest impact on your swing if you are trying to build an Elipticalinear swing path with backspin ball exit (The Classic Power Swing).

“The Batters press”

This Batting drill is a “ Sport specific” resistance compound exercise that can easily be adapted to all forms of exercise types like Isometric, Isotonic, and Tempometric. It can be administered by machine or a human countervail.

When performing this drill the batter should assume the “Classic power position” at middle plate, middle ball contact position. Empisis should be made at perfecting the position of the Batters hands with the backside top hand in a flat wrested palm up position on the bat (Radial flexed) and the front side bottom hand and wrist in the palm down position (Radial flexed). This position builds specific functional strength and puts you in the best anatomical force coupling position so that your most powerful articulation of the swing lets your hands work in concert with each other. The front side leg should be straight with the front foot turned in 22 1/2 degrees. The backside leg should be pivoted with the heal vertical.The Batter must also pay attention to their inward lean and inward head position with the head always over the backside shoulder!

After the Batter assumes the position the partner steps up to the front of the Dish with their Barrel side Leg forward and their handle side leg braced to the back. The partner now puts his barrel side hand around the end of the barrel with the thumb on top and the fingers on the bottom held firmly. The partner puts their handle side hand on the handle end by putting the thumb on top of the Batters front side back of hand with the index and middle finger over and around the end of the knob of the bat. The partner will cause back feed resistance to the barrel in different exercise types with their barrel side arm.
Partners should be prepared for a workout also although they have mechanical advantage.
With exceptionally strong athletes a metal bat is preferable because of bat breakage.

The exercise starts when the partner puts the barrel back towards the batters shoulder then
the Batter starts to press (Force couple} the barrel forward by Ulna flexing the back side wrist and Ulna flexing the front side wrist through extention. At this point you can perform many types of exercises at full or partial length intervals from fully flexed to full extension. The partner just lets the bat travel toward their lead upper thigh.

I used to run this drill just to teach that particular part of the swing for proprioceptive awareness when very young kids struggled with the swing mechanics and after they perform this drill its like magic how well they hit after that.
I quit running this drill like I used to by doing it between the Batting routines and now do one set to exhaustion at the end of the session.

LF

you have any pictures to help describe it?

[Dirtberry]

you have any pictures to help describe it?

[chesspirate]

Is there a reason the bat is being kept so far out of the momentum path of the shoulders here??

[FiveFrameSwing]

Yes. See Mankin for one progression, Peavy for another, both good, based on sound backward chaining MLB swing principles.

The injury thing is bogus in competent hands.

Diddo what Tom said.

Would add that one-arm top-hand swings are a big part of Chris Yeager's drills and that I have my team perform these 6 days/week.