Baserunning

At the end of practice everyday the whole team ran the bases. Home to 1st to second 1st to third etc etc. Also did situations for defense with live baserunners. I felt that running for the sake of running was pointless.

I have always dedicated time to baserunning, made it station in BP and worked reading pitchers/low knees on the catcher. "make them unconfortable", thats my motto!!

We do what Will and turnin2 do as well as some other stuff.

One thing we do is put runners (with helmets) on the bases and have coaches hit fungos to the OF and then let the guys react. It teaches them to read the ball off the bat, locate the ball, sharp angles around the bags (if you have already taught that) but it also helps your defense work on relay plays and communication and back up positions.

We might have a runner on 2nd and have him score on basehit or read flyball to tag up on.

We might have a runner on 1st and have him read if he can go to third.

We might have a runner on 1st and 2nd and hit the ball in gap / corner.

Many things you can set up and accomplish. We let the coach hit fungo because you can get the exact hit you want to accomplish instead of waiting / hoping for it in BP.

I really like coach2709 suggestions here. Parcticing situational baserunning at the same time you are practicing situational outfield defense kills at least two birds with one stone. I almost always end practice with baserunning with coaches in 1B and 3B boxes. I watch to make sure the runners go through the bag at first the first time, adjust their running angle to touch first and head to 2B the second time. go all the way to 2B the third time making sure they pick up the 3B coach to see if they need to stop at the base or keep going, running all the way to 3B the next time and then all the way home. This last run is done with the next player starting to first as soon as the player ahead of him touches first. This adds a game situation aspect to the running for the 3B coach who has to make sure the runner coming into 2B is picked up soon enough and the runner to 3B is waived in in time. If you practice it every day both the players and the coaches will be prepared for those game time situations where runners have a tendency to run up each other's back and prevent that sort of thing from happening.

TW344

TW344,
I like the last thing you do. I have had that happen 3 times in the last 2 years and remember each one very well. I hate that situation, but it does happen. So far I haven't gotten two guys thrown out at the plate, but only because of a catcher error. I did have both guys stop at 3B when I only wanted the trail to stop. That was dicey. That idea is going into my plans.
I don't like the one guy runs at a time, and luckily came accross a drill that gets 5 guys going at once. It's called a baserunning curcuit and works like this. (Coach Fungoes ball to empty defense)It's easier to explain if I start at 3B:

R5 starts at 3B and reacts to a hit ball, but always scores. R4 starts at 2B, reacts as if 2 outs and scores on hit ball. R3 is at 1B and goes first to third, then stays at 3B for next round. R2 is at home and runs out a double and then stays at 2B for next round. R1 starts 15 feet foul of home on 1B side and runs straight through a False-1B that is set up about 15 feet foul of regular 1B, then goes to regular 1B for next round. End of round next round starts.

This doesn't hit all baserunning, covers these in 5 times less time, and sometimes R5s reaction will get you two runners at 3B at once.

I appoligize if I gleaned this from you.

In the running curcuit, R5 through R1 are all running at the same time on one hit from Fungo. Players run during 2-3 rounds until they reach home, then they switch to the other starting plate to get all reps in.

It is easier to show than tell.

The whole lead runner rounding third with me waving him home but the trail runner at 2B thinking I want him to come and he gets nailed miscommunication thing is tricky. What we do is teach the lead runner to watch third base coach all the way and the trail runner(s) are basically on their own to a degree.

We tell our guys that most of the time the defense is going for the lead runner heading home. Because of that and the fact the runner now has his back to the play I will have him as he rounds 2B and heads home. The trail runner(s) have the play in front of them so they can be on their own a little bit more. But they still need to pick up the coach and lead runner.

Our coach who is in the third base box will get pretty far down the line to help the lead runner but once the lead runner is committed to home and is not turning back the coach heads back up the line towards 3B. We tell the trail runner that once the lead runner passes the coach heading back up the line then he is now the lead runner and does what we say.

Basically our coaches will work the baseline to help our runners. If they know what to look for it helps prevent the miscommunication of "I thought you were sending me".

We try to teach game situations and score situations since we give them so much freedom. We don't want a chance an extra base when we are down a few runs. If a mistake happens we don't make a big deal over it because they are being aggressive. It's easier to teach the right thing to an aggressive player than to teach a laid back player to be aggressive.

If this doesn't make sense let me know and I will explain it better.

2709, sounds good.

We always had a baserunner during bp as they had certain drils based on situational hitting and then straight hitting. After each player hits, he stays at first and practices leads, secondary's, take-off and steals, tag ups and move overs. On the bp hitters first clean hit he comes home. At the end of practice we had them working on turning the bases efficiently, picking up the coach, sliding and going all the way.

Heck yaeh, work on baserunning. The more we can stretcht the D, draw throws, the better. Throws are opportunities, make em and take em. Runners should know how far they can round a bag when a ball is in the outfield, when it's at the cut-off ect. ect.
I would encourage my R's to please, draw a throw behind em, of course they know that unless something really crazy happens they probably aren't going anyway, just stretching the D and drawing throws.
A play to 1st how far can a R3 get down the line?
How far if we know he's not going, but far enough to draw a throw, or least grab say F4 and F3's attention away from what their doing.