The quickest, most efficient and most productive, start for running the 60 out of a baseball starting position.
Why listen:
One of many examples…. Terry Schneekloth was a 6.7 runner as a junior in college. After only a few months of learning “the start” and perfect running technique he ran a 6.25 at Busch Stadium in a tryout for the St Louis Cardinals. Terry also stole a small college record 100 bases while being thrown out only 9 times his senior year. He stole the 100 bases in just 52 games. Schneekloth was fast to begin with, having stolen 25 bases as a junior. Then he went to work and cut nearly a half second out of his 60 time. Most of this time was cut out of the first 20 yards because of mastering the start and what it did for the rest of the distance.
Terry was one of the very best running students I’ve ever seen. He and I wrote a manual that was featured in Collegiate Baseball magazine. There have been invitations to work with professional teams and without advertising, the manual sold out in short order. There are only about 3 copies left in existence. There are several big colleges using these running fundamentals. Many scouts who became familiar with the results would send their son’s to our clinics. Every single person we had ever worked with, got faster (a minimum .2 in the 60) often much more improvement than that.
I no longer do clinics or running camps. Have no interest in making money by selling manuals. Every once in awhile, we see a player that could benefit and we help him. The reason I mention this is so people understand there is absolutely no marketing agenda or price attached to what is being said here. So, if you don’t believe it, you got as much info as what you paid for
The start….
The Negative Explosion:
Chances are that you have heard the term “Explode Out” at the start. Explosion is BAD! Think about the term explode. Think of a bomb exploding. A bomb explodes in every direction with very little control. A better word to use is “pop”. A pop can give control, everything moving in one direction. A pop is quick, precise and efficient. It can get all the energy and balance geared toward a single target. So when you perfprm the start, think “pop”, not “explode”.
How to Guarantee A Good Start:
Some of the best base stealers of all time were left foot pushers. The all-time record holder, Rickie Henderson, actually makes his first movement with his right foot. While this is true, in slow motion you will see he uses his right foot as a timing device. He brings it up, points it to the target and, if it comes down at precisely the right time, he pops and goes. So he has perfected this method and it is a great method for stealing bases.
If it were strictly a run for the stop watch and the timer started the watch on first movement, Rickey’s actual times would seem slow.
His first “real” move after the right foot drops is a cross over step very similar to the one we teach. This is a case of “GAME RUNNING” vs “STOPWATCH RUNNING”. Rickey uses his right foot to be able to go in either direction (forward or back) which all great basestealers must be good at. He was great at it!
We have found that nearly everyone is apable of mastering the right foor push. This start that we use is one of many. It is not even necessarily the best one, but it is the best one we have found for what we want to accomplish. It creates some very important advantages.
1. Accuracy
2. Balance
3. Efficiency
4. Consistency
5. Ease of mastering
It is the quickest and best way we have found for a player to reach a good well balanced running form in the least possible time.
Stance:
Just as hitters have different stances, so do runners. Comfort is of utmost importance. For some the feet will be wider apart. The key is to find the quickest and most “cat like” position. Most people are quickest when using a stance wider than the shoulders.
As in the foot placement, the crouch will differ from one athlete to another. As a general rule, the lowest position you feel comfortable in will work best. There are three major reasons for this:
1. Bent body parts are quicker and more relaxed
2. The lower you start, the more natural and well balanced and accurate the initial lean will feel
3. In a base stealing situation, it simply puts your hand closer to the bag, diving back on a pickoff attempt.
The technique for returning (the quickest possible way to the bag) is the same technique you should use to go forward (steal a base). After all, if it is quickest one way it should be quickest the other way. If looking in a mirror your first step returning to a base from a big one way lead will show you going the opposite direction.
To get in the best possible position or stance to run a timed distance you must understand the value of accuracy and efficiency. Here is the basic idea, pictures would work much better.
1. Stand with feet together, toes of both feet just behind the start line with body squared to the target (finish line)
2. Keeping hips and shoulders squared to the target, take one large step back with the left foot
3. Lift up on the balls of your feet without changing your position and pivot into the lead off position.
4. Then open your front (right foot) slightly towards the target.
5. Crouch down into your most “cat like” comfortable position. The position you feel like you can really pop out of.
6. Take your right hand keeping your arm fairly straight and place your hand in front of or just behind your tight knee
7. Take your left hand, with arm bent into a 90 degree angle and place your hand somewhere in front of your body in a comfortable position (not to close, not to far away)
8. At this point, to check yourself, take both hands and reach out directly towards the target. If you are in the most efficient position these two arms should create a “tunnel” if you visualized your arms to be 60 yards long. This is the tunnel you will run in. Check your feet, you should be open just enough to be able to cross over without interference from your right leg. You should be able to cross over directly at the target (not to one side or the other)
First Movement:
Is a combination of the following…
1. A direct flick of the right hand just right of the target. The more accurate the flick the better. Important to not allow the RH flick and arm to go above your right shoulder or it will cause you to stand up too quickly.
2. The same exact time the right hand starts its flick the right foot pushes off and the left foot makes its cross over step. It is important that the right arm stays back when the right foot crosses over and lands. This will put you in a position (if stop action) with right hand out in front – left foot out in front – right foot back – left arm back. Your shoulders and hips should be directly square to the target.
3. While you are doing this make sure your left leg (knee) goes directly to the target rather than using a rounded path to get the foot down. (very important)
First full stride…
Right foot forward – Left arm forward maintaining the 90 degree angle in the arm. The right arm will get into a 90 degree angle and come back to the right hip.
From this point try to keep your arms both maintaining 90 degree (or close) and your arm action should stay straight (create a tunnel). Most runners are not flexible enough to go above their shoulder (with their hand) in the arm stroke. Getting to far behind the hip can also create problems on the down stroke. Hip to shoulder is advised to start with. Watchout for elbows flailing off to the side and creating back and forth action (balance problems)
That’s enough to get started towards faster times, even though there is much more involved. 100 page manual!
Runners must understand the importance of accuracy as it relates to speed. We see thousands of runners every year who are off balance immediately in their first stride. They don’t know it because good athletes simply adjust when they are off balance. It is these adjustments that cost dearly on the stop watch.
If you were off accuracy by one inch in your start and kept running straight without any adjustments you would miss the target at 90 feet by around two feet (obviously more in 60 yards. One inch misses are actually pretty good, we see runners miss the line by a foot or even more at times. If a runner misses his start by one foot and didn’t make an adjustment, he would miss the target at 90 feet by 18 feet. These adjustments not only create accuracy problems, but they create balance problems and even other problems. Then when the trying to make the adjustment, runners tend to over adjust and some never do get into a accurate path which allows for the least possible time to cover the distance from start to target.
Best of luck!
Thanks PGStaff/Jerry!