By: Ron Bing, Puritas League, Cleveland, Ohio
This is a quick paced drill that my son's Cooperstown team's coach uses. The advantage to this drill Put several boys at each base, including home. Have a second first base, several steps inside of the This drill can be followed by another running drill (or used at a different practice), which simply has Several helpful points to keep in mind: Leading off: with the runner facing the next base, his left foot should be on the right hand corner of
Date: July 02, 1998 at 14:19
is that it covers all aspects of baserunning in only ten minutes or so, and all the boys are moving.
usual first base so that the boys running to first don't collide with the boys leading off the other first
base. The players at the plate swing an imaginary bat and run to first one at a time as if they had hit a
infield grounder. The players at the "other" first base take a good primary lead, then one at a time
make a direct steal of second. The players at second lead off one at a time with their primary, get a
good secondary, and then run to third as if moving up on a passed ball. The runners on third get
their primary lead, then go back to the bag as if tagging up on a fly ball, then run home.
some boys at home and some at second base. The runners at home run to second as if they hit a
double, and the runners at second go from second to home as if scoring on a base hit. Naturally the
boys have to be watched carefully to ensure they are rounding the bases correctly, and using good
economical form. These two drills cover just about everything a runner will encounter, other than
how to get back to a bag on a pick off attempt.
Running to first, on an infield ground ball run straight through the bag at first. Just as you are about to
hit first, lean into the bag while you hit the front of the bag with your lead foot.
Shortly after hitting first, "break down" and glance over your right shoulder to see if the ball got by
the first baseman. Breaking down is simply landing on your left and then right foot (or vice versa),
while placing them more than shoulder width apart and parallel. This allow
s the runner to stop much
more quickly than simply slowing down and coming to a stop. In addition, if the ball does get by the
first baseman, the runner is in a much better position to crossover and continue onto second.
the bag he is on. His first step when leading off should be a crossover step, crossing his left foot in
front of his right leg. This should be followed by one or two shuffle steps. A crossover step,
followed by one shuffle step, will cover the same amount of ground as will three shuffle steps taken
alone. The advantage to using the one crossover is that this distance can be covered more quickly.
Even if the pitcher throws over while the runner is crossing over, all he has to do is reverse himself
and he will be right back on the bag. Crossing over while several steps away from the bag can get
the runner in trouble if the pitcher throws over while he is doing it.
The reason you want to take your lead from the right hand corner, is that if the pitcher throws over,
your entire body is in the perfect position to get back to the bag touching the outside corner. If the
runner leads off from the left hand corner, when he comes back to the bag his body will be closer to
the first baseman's tag. Even if he goes to the outside corner, his body will be at an angle with some
of it closer to the tag.