Rundowns 101

Style,

You have a PM

Our philosophy is to just get them out. If we have to run them down 89 feet, then we do. The less throws the better. This seems to be the philosophy throughout our league.

By throwing immediately ahead of the runner you will allow the baserunning mistake to go unpunished many times. My philosophy is if they make a mistake you get an out. Run at the br and force him to go full speed towards the bag and get the out with one throw. This takes practice. Their are exceptions like at Home Plate we want a quick throw to the dish and if we dont get him we make sure its a third base and not at the plate. There are alot of key things that you must do to be effective at this. Close the distance , dont pump fake , create a throwing and catching lane etc. There are tons of drills you can do to work on this. It takes time and you have to be willing to spend the practice time on it to get good at it. One thing that irks me is a coach that gets upset when something like this is poorly executed but rarely worked on in practice. Kind of like sac bunting and baserunning an hitting cut offs etc. The things that win and loose close games etc.

At the school I am coach at we do a quick 5 - 7 minute rundown drill to start practice - it helps us get loose, some conditioning and work on executing rundowns.

We start by splitting our outfielders and put half at first and the other half at third. Ones at first take off when a coach (or even a pickoff move by a pitcher) throws to first. The first baseman starts running at the runner toward second. I take half my shortstops and all of my secondbasemen and put them at second. They are the receivers on this part of the drill. On the other side the exact same thing is going on - pitcher / coach throws to third and runner on third breaks to home. I have the other half of my shortstops and all my 3B at third. The recievers are the catchers.

After a couple of trips like this I call switch and the outfielders move to second and head to first (2B / SS start and throw to 1B) and outfielders move to home and head to third (C start and throw to 3B / SS).

Key things to watch for
1. Communication - calling inside or outside of the baserunner. I prefer to have the chaser call this out and choose in / out. Receiver calls "ball" when he wants the throw. IF the chaser thinks he can get the runner then he pulls ball down and the receiver peels out. If this happens you cannot throw here - more harm than good happens.

2. Throwing lane - since almost everyone is righthanded on this drill I prefer to call inside (runners heading toward to 2B / H) since the receiver is typically righthanded and his glove is on the side of the runner. In the other direction (going to third - going to first) I prefer outside for said reason about the glove side (only exception is if you have a lefthanded 1B)

3. NEVER fake pump by chaser - all you are doing is faking your partner. More harm comes from this than good - DON'T fake the throw. When chaser gets ball he has to get the ball out of his glove and up in the air for the flip throw. If it's in his glove or down by his side then it takes longer to get throw off

4. Work on one throw - really this is a drill designed for one throw (two if you count the coaches throw). I tell my chasers to get the runner going full speed (if he is jogging then he can turn on a dime - if he is sprinting he has to take a couple of slowdown steps). I want the recievers to close the distance before they call "ball" but not to the point where the throw is getting there at the time the runner shoots by. Ideally you call "ball" early enough the runner has to slowdown to change direction and the new chaser is going full speed at him.

Hope this helps. I think this is something you can use with older Little League player all the way up the ladder of experience.

quote:

One thing that irks me is a coach that gets upset when something like this is poorly executed but rarely worked on in practice.

Absolutely agree. My son had a "coach" for basketball that was like that. Talk about a frustrated kid.

quote:

Their are exceptions like at Home Plate we want a quick throw to the dish and if we dont get him we make sure its a third base and not at the plate.

Do you teach an immediate throw home, or do you let the runner get about half way and then throw in plenty of time? (It seems that if you make an immediate throw home you're giving the runner a free pass back.)

quote:

we do a quick 5 - 7 minute rundown drill to start practice

That's a good idea, I may steal it.

If the runner has broken into a dead sprint to home an immediate throw. If he is hung up it depends on who has the ball and how far up the line he is. Of course we would rather throw too early than too late especially at home.

Be my guest stylemismatch - I heard one time at a convention that coaches do not come up with new things. They take what works for other coaches, change the terminology and make it theirs.

I know I am not smart enough to come up with new things so I have to steal like crazy.

Get the runner moving back. That doesn't mean an instant throw that removes all possibility of an out. It does mean being conservative, throwing early enough to ensure there is no chance of the runner reaching that next base. Plenty of time so that the defense doesn't feel rushed on the throw or the catch. Not going for an out with the first throw, in this case.

Once the runner is going back, then close the play with one throw.

2709 laid out some great fundamentals. Just one little reminder - never try to throw over the top of the runner.

We have a drill that I stole from a colleague, who stole if from a small college coach. Load the bases with runner. The pitcher then picks the runner off of first. The fielders must execute a rundown and get runner #1 out. As soon as the first runner is out the second runner breaks from second to third. When runner #2 is tagged out, runner three breaks from third and runner four breaks from the plate. The fielders must get runner # 3 out before runner #4 reaches 2nd base.
It is a great run down drill,conditioning drill and competition drill. it is imperative that the fielders sprint towards the runner and limit the number of throws.

Great advice here guys. My 2 cents on the discussion so far is if there is no one else on base anywhere i like to have at least four fielders involved in any rundown play. This can be easily practiced in a 4 man rotation drill. It starts like this.

Base runner takes off and player with the ball [somwhere perpendicular to the baserunner's direct line to the next base] runs at baserunner with ball in hand and out of glove but not feinting throws. If base runner keeps going to next base, once he passes the half way point, the fielder throws to the fielder covering that next base well ahead of runner. Initial baseman catches the ball and heads towards runner while the player throwing the ball goes to cover the base the initial baseman had previously occupied. [IMPORTANT ASIDE: Remember that the one thing you do not under any circumstances want to happen is for the baserunner to reach the next base. You prefer to get an out but you want no worse than the runner returns safely to the base from which he started]

Where were we? Oh yes, the initial fielder at the next base is now chasing the runner back to the original base. If he can catch the runner before he gets 20 feet away from the base, all well and good. If not, he takes an angle in the direction of his throwing arm thereby clearing the runner and then throws to the fielder covering the original base. He then [and this is important] IMMEDIATELY rotates back to his original base [making certain to get way out of the baseline] and takes a position about 10 feet behind the original thrower who is now covering the "next base". The fielder covering the original base should now have a second fielder about 10 feet behind him backing him up. The covering fielder on the original base catches the ball and either tags the runner out sliding or, if the runner stops, begins chasing him back to the next base. But he makes the angled throw to the covering fielder [who should now be about 10 feet in front of the next base] when the runner is halfway [45 feet] from the next base. He then rotates back [making certain to get way out of the baseline] to 10 feet behind the original base with the backup fielder moving up to cover the original base, and so on until the runner is put out. I agree with the rule that the fewer throws the better [for the obvious reaon that the more throws are made the more chance of an errant throw] but this is helped a bit with the fact that you should always have a backup fielder whenever a throw is made.

For Little leaguers I recommend two of those plastic water slides and bathing suits with batting helmets the day you practice this and make a game out of it. Get everyone involved both as baserunners and fielders since you never know when an outfielder will need to get involved in a multiple rundown. It was always a highlight of our pre-season for the players. And to see 9-12 years olds execute it to perfection in a real game is a beautiful thing to watch.

Now guys and gals, how do you execute the rundown with baserunners on other bases? And what drills do you recommend to perfect it?

TW344

coach fabby that is awesome - I am so going to steal it. When I first read it I was wondering how the fourth runner would come into play but that is genius.