Hey guys, it’s Alex Rodriguez. In this episode of my baseball coaching series, I’m breaking down one of my favorite swing drills for young hitters — the Alligator Arms Drill. 🐊
If you’re a youth baseball player or a coach looking to improve your team’s hitting mechanics, this drill is a game-changer. It teaches you how to keep your elbows tight, stay connected, and generate maximum bat speed through the hitting zone. I used this concept during my MLB career to keep my swing compact and powerful. When your arms get too long or you “cast” the bat, you lose both power and barrel control. The Alligator Arms Drill helps you stay short to the ball, maintain proper swing path, and hit with consistency and pop. Perfect for 10U, 12U, 14U, and high school baseball players trying to level up at the plate. Coaches — this is an easy drill to incorporate into your next batting practice or in the batting cage.
⚾ Drop a comment with your favorite hitting drill or questions for me to cover next!
If you feel like you’re struggling, I’m gonna give you a drill that will help you get tighter, stay behind the baseball, and increase your accuracy. Let me show you. Now, this is Joe here. Get in your stance. Get Yep. Right there. Get even a little closer. What What you see here is Joe is standing very close to this net. Now, the key is he has a swing, but he can’t touch the net. The only way you can do that is he has to stay behind the baseball. If he travels to me at all, he’s going to get long. Okay. So, there’s where alligator arms really help you. So, do it in slow motion first. Stop right there. Go back. Go back. Slow motion. Go back. Slow motion. See, this is a bad move right here. You see where this hand is? This hand is under this hand. That’s incorrect. This should be like this. You should be attacking the ball like this because this is your dominant hand. The minute you give up dominance, that pitcher got you. And that becomes a long, lazy, slow swing, probably a broken bat or a popup. You want to always make sure you say dominant. So when you come in at the ball, you want to come in this way. And then once you release that head or do it natural. Now it’s real versus feel. We’re trying to swing down. But I already know all you new schoolers. You’re going to tell me that everyone uppercuts and you’re going to show me my swings. I get it. But you have to feel like you’re swinging down to create the perfect uppercut. But the uppercut is slight. Okay, I’m not talking about a lob wedge or a sand wedge. Remember, in your head, it still has to be a three iron. You’re looking for neck high line drives, not lob shots. Okay? Lob shots, you go to triple A. Three iron where you’re hitting neck high line drives. That’s where you make the money. Okay? And the basically the drill is you you throw the ball here and you hit the ball right in here this way. Choke up the first few so it’s easier. So you choke up a little bit here. [Music] That’s good. And then what you want to do is you want to start hitting the ball like more right where that pitcher’s mound is. A little bit right left of drill. That’s better. That’s a good swing. [Applause] So, what this does is it helps you stay inside the baseball. It promotes alligator arms as we talked about, right? But it makes you get that head out in front the right way. And you got to go on top and you got to hit the ball out in front, but you still stay inside the baseball and you stay very tight. Let’s get a few more here. That’s best one. You can pull the ball but still stay inside. Good. Couple more. Good. That was perfect. Fun drill.
44 Comments
Alexgator arms 😃
The YT algorithm led me to this video and I'm thankful it did as the hitting mechanics and detailed breakdown for the world to see is such a gift and blessing.
It's also a gift and blessing to see two (I'm including JD) Westminster Christian grads coaching and discussing baseball at the U of M.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge, experience, and insights with us.
A new sub. Numbers 6:24-26.🙏
I can still see ARod’s swing in my memory when he’d crush that inside pitch using this swing technique.
I would think this would just be the swing thought for an inside pitch, or is this every pitch?
A Rod's baseball IQ is unreal. I could have used these videos when I was playing.
One of the 10 best players of all time. Alex knows his shit.
Thank you for this gem 💎
This is great man! Glad he called out the new schoolers drooling over teacherman nonsense. Good job dude I just subscribed.
Why are you not the manager for the Yankees? You should also lecture Aaron Judge and help him improve his batting production.
I have never been a fan of Arod. Pretty much disliked him since he went to rangers. Hated him when he went to the yanks. Press conferences bothered me. Shark tank business arod bothered me. Social media celebrity arod bothered me!!! This AROD IS INCREDIBLE. Such a good teacher. The best most easily digestible tutorials I’ve found and I have been scouring YouTube for instruction for my kids. Thanks Arod keep em coming! This is what giving back to game looks like. Totally changes my perception of those other versions as well. What a ball player!
Ahhhh, I would disagree and no, I am not a Richard Cheek follower or teach his nonsense. I am a Mike and Jake Epstein fan though and considering Mike Epstein played under Ted Williams with the Senators and built a life long friendship with him speak volumes over the rest. Ted gave Mike his only signed letter of support of Mike's teaching system some 40 years ago and they've only improved it.
I disagree with Alex's idea that you attack the ball with the barrel trailing behind your top hand above the top hand and then swing through.Do you sometimes have a lightly downward path getting into he zone? Depends on the pitch or if you got fooled. When the barrel is parallel to the other batters box it should be against or near your R shoulder for a RH hitter, the barrel near parallel to the ground and hands out in front of your tail shoulder (again, top hand and trail shoulder for a RH hitter is the right shoulder, arm and hand). I realize Alex stepped to explain real vs feel but it isn't a good explanation. That was to cover for the idea that you attack the ball with the barrel above the hands.
As Ted Williams said and are or were his fundamentals: Hips the lead the hands meaning the lower body started first and worked in a sequence up through the hands. Match the plane of the bat to the pane of the pitch. And get a good pitch to hit. It's the matching the plane of the bat to the plane of the pitch that that I think Alex unintentionally misleads hitters with the idea the barrel is above the ball when approaching it. Just for something to think about…to stay behind the ball just think about stabilizing your head-in other words don
t let your head drift forward during your swing. Use the front leg as a brake and don't dump your barrel behind you as you cast away from your body. Work through space, not around space.
Lastly, want good instructional tips? Search out Jake Epstein, Ron Sullivan or even myself-Richard Lovell The Baseball barn. I am the Founder and former owner of the Baseball Barn in Northern California and mentored under Jake for about 15 years and had the honor of being taught by his dad and in extension Ted Williams.Good luck hitters and remember, get a good pitch to hit. It's all about your 'Red Zone'.
Hey kids . Nothing beats putting in the time to get better. Work hard and good things will happen. Don’t cheat and do steroids like Alex did. It’ll shrink your pp
TY
The "new wave" huys are like a cult.
Robbie Cano is the first I seen do this drill.
Still don’t see the down swing!
Can we just agree to do what works for you? Old school, new school, who cares. Do what gets YOUR barrel to the ball.
I would give my left nut for you to be the next Yankees hitting coach
Alex is a genius. People are paying $100 an hour lessons to learn this just to get their son into HS Baseball. Imagine the cost : 20, 30 lessons a year for Grade 6 through 9.
What are some strength & conditioning to get a little leaguer ready for bigger bats or speedier pitchers?!
Wrong wrong wrong and wrong one thing is what he is teaching his feel of swinging down which is wrong in the example of his swing he had the rearward snap which is the opposite of what he teaches if you want to swing like the greats the rearward snap is the way.
Id like to see tee drills, drills for arm strength, and longevity tips for older players 👌
I am watching every single one of your videos over and over again.
A Rod I’m a young baseball player thanks for these videos because I’m trying to fix my swing after going 0-12 in my first at bats and getting dropped to the 9 spot from the 3 spot
Teach one thing yet his bat barrel snaps to the catcher and he uppercuts.
This swing is definitely one you need to have to play in the show. The problem is however, that you need to be big and strong like the pro guys or you’ll tear your obliques and simply not provide enough power to make this approach effective
So many technicalities, and yet Griffey's swing looked so smooth and natural, nothing seemed forced. What a talent.
ONE question: How far should the net be from the player? 1 feet, 2 feet, 3 feet? Looks like a great drill though and makes sense as to why it would help. Thank you for any feedback.
We used to do this drill in high school but never hit balls doing this drill, LOVE IT!
This is literally the first hitting drill I ever received in a hitting lesson in the 90s. I did it with my son as a drill when he was very young. It’s very effective for young athletes that get long.
I’m going to be Al mvp
One day a rod
Finally thank you awesome!!!
need more AROD content plz drop weekly
I looked like Alex Rodriguez at contact hitting 117MPH OFF MY HACK ATTACK PITCHING MACHINE
https://youtu.be/9uVZatcexc0?si=wtjesuebkesqkglR
Thank you for this
All great hitters have one thing in common, EXCELLENT technique, and A-Rod is no exception, these videos and drills show why he was an elite ballplayer.
This dude should be banned from teaching hitting. Now you'll see a bunch of little league coaches repeating the same non sense to kids. Great player for sure but horrible at teaching. Real vs feel bullshit..he's not even doing what he's preaching in his own swing. The swing that he taught this person on the video is 99.9% a pop fly. I am not talking about the alligator drill. I am talking about the swing path he was "correcting" the guy had it perfectly.
Not one single good MLB player dose this in there swing.
Look up teacherman he is the best person to teach you how to swing right
Get Ichiro to reveal all his secrets.
But your top hand is under your bottom hand at contact in your inserted video clip of your swing. I’ve concluded that it’s all somewhere in between the old school and hlp.
There are private instructors who charge $150/hr that will not give you the proper advice as this free 3:00 minute video just provided…
Can we have a teacherman collab?
Arod I'm a lifelong Red Sox fan and I have the utmost respect for you. You were a great all around player
Well said.