Baserunning Drill

Baserunning is extremely important to the game of baseball. It should be practiced every day. How many of us do that? We are more concerned with pitching and hitting and fielding. Here’s a sure fire baserunning drill that takes very little time yet covers most of the fundamentals of running the bases. The players love it and it is a lot of fun. More importantly, you are covering an important aspect of the game of baseball. We ended our practice on a high note when we used this baserunning drill.



Four lines are set up, one at each of the bases. Even up the lines as best as you can. The drill begins with one runner at first, one at second, one at third and finally the starter at home plate.

Home Plate The player at home plate is the starter. He will take an imaginary swing to either left, center or right field. He then proceeds to first base, taking a wide turn as if he hit it to the outfield. He runs as hard as he could and touches the inside of first base and then stutter steps as if the outfielder bobbled the ball. He then runs to second base, taking the extra base on his base hit. After he reaches second base, his job is over. He then goes back to the first base and gets in the line.

First Base The player at first base takes a primary lead. On the swing from the starter, he takes a secondary lead and goes from first to third, touching the inside of second base. He runs as fast as he could and upon reaching third base, his job is completed. He then goes back to second base and gets in line.

Second Base The player at second base takes a primary lead off second base. On the swing from the starter, he takes his secondary lead and goes second to home, touching the inside of third base thereby cutting his turn as much as possible. Upon reaching the plate, his job is over and he then goes back to the line at third base.

Third Base The player at third base takes a short lead at third base. After the swing, he goes back to the base attempting to tag up from third base. He then pauses until the runner from second is close to the bag and then both the second base runner and the third base runner sprint home in a foot race. After crossing home plate the runner from third stays in the line at home plate awaiting his turn.

After each player has completed his turn at each base, the team gathers at home plate for an inside the park home run. Proper turns are stressed at each base.

Four things are going on at once and four new runners start the drill each time. In a matter of minutes you are covering wide turns at first, stutter step, primary leads, secondary leads, going home to second, going first to third, going second to home and tag up plays at third. Its a great drill because so much can be covered in a short time. The drill will reinforce your teachings at each base. Be creative. Use a stop watch and time each group of four. They will have fun and will go all out.

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Pitching Drills : 1 to 5

Pitching mechanics are extremely important if one is to become an accomplished pitcher. The following 1 to 5 progressions will greatly aid the pitcher in achieving this goal. They can be performed daily and can be done at very short distances thus saving the pitcher’s arm. Although they can be utilized by pitchers of all ages, they are especially helpful to the youth league coaches who are trying to develop young pitchers. Try them! They really work.




Progression 1
1. Show and Throw
2. Point and Dangle
3. Tuck and Pivot
4. Throw

A. THINGS TO LOOK FOR:
- ball in hand facing directly opposite the pitcher
- glove arm pointing toward target
- glove tucks to the side of the pitcher as he pivots. This gets the glove out of the way.
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Progression 2
1. Balance :ball in glove
2. Step and reach to show and throw position. Stop and check
3. Throw

B. THINGS TO LOOK FOR:
- lead leg lifts to about waist high with ball in glove
- lead leg foot points down to the ground
- ball taken out of the glove before the pitcher starts forward
- make sure he stops at the show and throw position
- all of “A” above

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Progression 3
1. Balance :ball in glove
2. Step and reach to show and throw position.
3. Throw

C. THINGS TO LOOK FOR:
- “A” above
- “B” above
- when the lead leg steps forward and reaches the ground, the throwing arm should be at the top of it’s arc. This is referred to as the power position. Reaching the power position will prevent the pitcher from rushing—a major factor in losing power and location

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Progression 4
1. Short step back
2. Step in hole
3. Balance Position
4. To Show and Throw
5. Stop


D. THINGS TO LOOK FOR:
- pitcher steps straight back with the lead foot keeping his target directly in front of him and not moving side to side
- pivot foot steps into the hole in front of the rubber and not on top , keeping his balance and also a push off area
- ball taken out of glove before he starts forward
- reaches power position

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Progression 5
1. Progression 4 without stopping
2. Follow through after releasing the ball
3. Square himself to be in a good fielding position

E. THINGS TO LOOK FOR
- “D”
-throwing arm travels along side the lead leg to complete the follow through.
-the pitcher actually faces sideward after a good follow through

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Building a Baseball

This time lapse video was taken during the “Canstruction Chicago 2007” at the Museum of Science and Industry. Thirteen teams of Chicago architects and engineers built structures entirely out of cans of food. After the event, over 50,000 pounds of food were donated to the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

The baseball, titled “Catch Me If You CAN!,” completed by the architecture firm BoothHansen, was awarded “Jurors Favorite” and “People’s Choice.” The baseball was constructed using a total of 5,500 cans including Bumblebee tuna (ball), Hormel ham (stitches), Perrier water (grass), and Jewel Peanut butter (dirt). It took about 7 hours to build.

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Catchers: 2nd Most Critical Skill, Blocking Pitches

It's number two on the list of "Most Important Skills To Have As A Catcher", BLOCKING THE BASEBALL. We consider it number two even though it has a fairly low frequency rate of happening -but when it happens, how it's handled will decide the outcome of a situation or the game itself.

First lets look at the potential results of a catcher that is an inferior blocking catcher. The most obvious thing is that unless the pitcher keeps the ball up all the time for him to catch, balls in the dirt will eventually kill you and the team. The trouble with keeping balls out of the dirt, is that your pitcher needs to be able to "dump" a curve ball on , or in front of the plate to get a strikeout at times. If the catcher is incapable of handling that pitch, we just took a bullet out of his gun and that speaks loud about who reallyeffected the outcome of the game. If the pitcher has absolute control of the breaking pitch but absolutely no faith in the catchers ability to block the ball down in the dirt, he's going to hang it and all we'll see is the back of our outfielders heads all day long! That becomes a real morale killer for the whole team, not just the pitcher. He's GOT to learn how to block pitches!

The next issue with a poor blocking catcher is the most obvious, advacing runners and allowing the man on third to score uncontested. Many a run has died at third because the catcher could handle the ball in the dirt and not give up cheap victories. What can be worse than to lose a game with the number 7,8,9 hitter up with two outs and the winning run on third and a passed ball wins the day for the otherside? Brutal, absolutely brutal.

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Catchers Priorities-What are the most important things to do?

Catchers Priorities-What are the most important things to do?

Our catchers need to understand that the role they play in the outcome of the game, every game, is every bit a determining factor, as the guy on the mound. That’s not to say that there are only two important players on the field at any one given time that would be dead wrong and certainly very narrow-minded.

HOWEVER, there is no denying that everything “takes off” from that runway between the mound and home plate and because that’s the first breath of every pitch of every batter in every game, there just has to be a close relationship between winning and losing and these two positions. Having said that, it’s clear to everyone that, having the upper hand with your pitcher that can just flat out throw gas, hit his spots and mix his pitches, certainly makes things easier. The trouble is when the opposition has that same looking gasser on the mound as well. So what makes the difference, or at the very least, what can make the difference in a tight ball game?

The catcher.

We all hear the usual words and praises when we win a close one; they were on the same page; they were in sync all game long; he knew exactly what his pitcher wanted to throw, yada, yada, yada, yada. What’s really going on here?

Well, we work on those things that we believe make a profound difference in the kind of game our pitcher may throw. Realistically, nothing is for certain in this game, but when two teams are evenly matched on the mound, and the apparent difference will come to who is the most effective on the mound, then the catcher plays a huge role in that formula. So what are the key things that we drill into the catchers? There are three simple things for young catchers to learn and they are in this order and they must be second nature to him and we ask our catchers to repeat them throughout the season. They are:

1. STEAL PITCHES…ALWAYS
2. BLOCK PITCHES, even in the bull pen
3. THROW PEOPLE OUT

That’s it folks. It’s that simple and that complicated. Why do we drill our catchers in that manner and in that order? Remember, these are in their order of importance and it bears repeating; steal pitches, block pitches and throw people out.

First of all we know one thing is going to happen 100% of the time in the game; our pitcher is going to pitch a pitch, no doubt about it. That means he has the potential of throwing anywhere from 80 to 110 pitches and in that number lies the question every coach wishes he knew before the game; how many innings will that get me? A lot of that answer is dependant on the way the catcher receives the ball! Can he steal the corners for the big guy, or is he losing the strike zone by inches that can make a profound difference in final pitch count and batter advantages in the count? YOU HAVE GOT TO STEAL STRIKES 100% of the time! Every pitch, every batter, all of the time! How we do that will be in our next article.

How about the next critical element in the catchers role – BLOCKING. This is where we separate the men from the boys. There is nothing more impressive than watching a young man block and CONTROL the ball in a crucial situation. We have actually placed a box for blocked pitches that prevent a runner from advancing or a run from scoring. There should be a stat called RBO, (Run Blocked Out), for the catcher because that one simple task effect’s so much of the game, that when done correctly, they are clearly game savers; and when not…game losers. While it ranks number 2 in frequency to stealing pitches, it really takes an exceptional young man to WANT to block an 85-95 MPH fastball being thrown at him. The good ones know that it’s the overlooked skill from the bleachers, most people are easy on the catcher when it comes to calling a pass ball versus a wild pitch. However, our catchers get called past balls when they are warming up the pitchers in the bull pen and in between innings! So they know that they have to perform all the time. They also know that great blocking catchers do nothing but endear themselves to the pitchers and coaching staff. There are just a few people around the team that realize just how much better you made the pitches breaking pitch, when he knows that you’re a lean, mean, blocking machine back there.

The last and most overrated skill needed is to throw people out. Yep, overrated. Now let’s face it there is nothing more intimidating to the other team and their coach than to see a 1.90 -2.0 arm behind the plate. But there are some real conditions that must exist with that kind of arm if you really want to be sure that he is a good throwing catcher. The first is, does he throw 1.90 in pre-game while he’s standing up, because that's no big deal. What does he do from the squat? How quick are his hands and feet? How accurate are his throws? However, the real question for the start of the game is, who’s pitching and what is his time to the plate from the half. That’s what really matters and that’s why we place the least amount of emphasis on throwing. Our catchers cannot control how quickly the pitcher will get them the ball, but they can and must absolutely control stealing pitches and blocking pitches. Furthermore, when you look at the major league level, you see some starters throwing out less than 25% of the steal attempts and others averaging in the high 30’s. Every once in a while there comes along a Pudge that skews the average, but NEVER throws out 100% of the base stealer's. In case you’re wondering, we also spend a lot of time with our pitcher’s getting the catcher the ball with something on it in about 1.3 seconds or less. If you have a guy getting the catcher the ball in 1.5, 6, 7 or 8, you might as well go to the drugstore and buy a bottle of Dramamine because you’ll be feeling like your on a merry-go-round by time the nights over!

So we are back to what happens the most often and what will affect the pitchers performance the most and it clearly is not base stealing or throwing runners out and it’s not blocking a pitch. It’s what we work constantly on in the off-season, in pre-season and during the games…STEALING PITCHES.

So if you're looking for the smoothest thief in da joint, here's a hint, he’s squatting behind the plate!

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Catchers, Steal Pitches for Your Pitcher

OK. We spoke of the three critical elements of development for becoming a solid defensive catcher. Not only does it bear repeating, but it is important to get the message across to that young catcher enough so that he can recite the mantra in his sleep; “STEAL STRIKES, BLOCK PITCHES, THROW PEOPLE OUT!” Lets start with the first, and what we believe to be the most important, skill of all and that is to STEAL PITCHES.

While we have actually had a select few parents complain the term, “STEAL PITCHES” as being too negative a connotation (being PC is not what catching is about folks) the fact of the matter is we do need to understand that learning how to “steal” pitches is a subtle skill that comes with a ton of practice and concentration. There are some umpires that are in tuned to what the catcher is trying to do, and if he’s been in and around the game long enough, he would call exactly what he sees, and recognize that “stealing strikes” isn’t about showing him up, but in fact it’s about helping the umpire see what actually happened. We have had one umpire tell our catcher that there would be “NO FRAMEING ALLOWED!” in the game. Obviously he’s not one of the better umpires in a one square block area, let alone in our region. There is always the danger that after spending countless hours learning how to “steal strikes” this particular umpire would actually “punish” the pitcher for what is recognized as good fundamental catcher receiving skills at every level of baseball. Needless to say we have all levels of skilled players and all levels of skilled umpires. That’s what makes the game so interesting.

So what does it take to steal a strike? Well the first technique serves two (2) purposes; the first and most important thing is to receive the ball as close to the plate (without incurring catchers interference), thereby “sticking” the pitch as close to the corners, knees and arm pits as possible before it travels outside the critical one ball width wide, and one ball width high strike zone and steal that strike from being called a ball. We try to get our catchers to understand that one ball high and one ball wide strike zones are probably the most that you could steal consistently for strikes for your pitcher, and given the trend that many umpires have taken from major league baseball, seeing strikes being called three (3) to four (4) ball widths outside “the black”, isn’t unreasonable. When we start getting two ball widths outside that zone the probability for stealing strikes drops significantly. What generally happens here is that a two-ball width or more pitch requires more than a slight “cupping of the outside part of the ball on the corners, the top of the ball on the upper strike zone and the top of the ball on the low pitch. It more than likely will require a drastic movement of the shoulder on the catching hand side, toward the plate and a “slide” with our hand and elbow parallel to the ground in a 3-o’clock and 9-o’clock position on the throwing hand side. Those two actions are enough to set the umpire off when he knows what he is doing, let alone the one like we have - that doesn’t!

What must be learned in this case is that we need to get as close to the plate as we can and not cause catchers interference. We must not “reach” with the glove to give the pitcher a strong target. The end result of that set up brings on three probable results; the first is catcher’s interference which we should be able to control, the second is hands of stone due to our “locked-out elbow” and third, and very important one, is we would have move our feet back one half of whatever our arm length may be thereby “creating” more pitches needing to be blocked than necessary. We “try” to get our catchers to get their glove hand just slightly in front of their knees, almost creating letter “V” at a 45-degree angle. This position will be very critical to two other skills that we must have, balance to throw and short, quick movement to get to our knees to block pitches. We’ll deal with more of that technique when we talk about blocking and throwing.

With our glove just slightly in front of our knees and our pointing finger at 12 O’clock and our palm facing the pitcher as the pitcher winds up to throw, our forearm is in a very muscle-tight position and of course that will create muscle fatigue if held there for a long period of time. Fortunately we don’t have to do that for very long. As the pitcher is about to release the ball, we will ¼ turn our glove so that the forearm rotates to a flat position and our forearm muscles relax and become capable of making a ¼ turn to block a ball in the dirt or to catch any other pitch around the plate. So lets move “around the clock” for a moment to try to visualize a ball caught in various positions across the plate.

Lets think of an analog clock resting directly in front of your catcher as he is squatting down. Now lets draw an imaginary vertical line and horizontal through the circle. As we “see” these two lines, we also see four (4) quadrants – Quad 1- upper left, Quad 2- upper right, Quad 3- lower left and last, Quad 4- lower right. This analogy works well with very young catchers and helps them respond to their end result of catching every pitch either in practice or in the game.

If the ball is caught in the upper left quad, or Quad 1, we want to emphasis the need to catch the “outside of the ball” with our pointing finger at 12 O’clock and our elbow at 6 O’clock and as with ALL pitches, we should hold that catch solidly for a one second count, and not take the ball out of the strike zone immediately. Why the hold? Well there are some umpires that will call the pitch in their mind BEFORE the ball crosses the plate, some as it crosses the plate and there are many that give themselves time to have the pitch, the path of the ball and the final catch register before they call it and that one second hold helps confirm the call in the umps mind, one way or the other. One note here; it’s important to emphasis this hand position in this quad because one of the most damaging injuries a young catcher can get is a jammed thumb that results in catching the ball in that quad with a 3 O’clock – 9 O’clock, thumb pointing down position. Once that thumb joint is bruised, no amount of padding can relieve the anticipated pain on every hard thrown fastball our young man has to receive.

Quad 2 is an area that we work on constantly because the most common fault we find with all young catchers is that in this quad, whether the pitch is a fast ball or a slider or a curve, the catcher wants to catch the “front” of the ball, instead of the outside, or the right side of the ball. Invariably when catching the front of the ball the arm will slide on the 3 O’clock – 9 O’clock position and the force of the pitch will carry both the pitch and the glove outside the black and cost our pitcher a strike. We work constantly on verbal and visual clues that register in our players mind on “cutting off” the travel or the path of the pitch, by “digging to the corner at a 45 degree angle and catching the outside of the ball. This type of reinforcement works most of the time, but finding that verbal and mental clue that sticks with the player and gets the message of the method across is different from player to player, so never quit talking!

Quad 3 is a tough one because it gets our glove and our knees wrapped up in a battle of which one is in the way of the other. The most often seen method of catching the pitch in Quad 3 with a young catcher is to throw his left knee far to the left and to catch with his thumb in the 6 O’clock position. That means his elbow is generally locked in between his legs and he is severely off balance and the possibility of a bruised thumb is greatly increased. We try to verbally direct our catchers to catch the pitch in Quad 3 with the nose of the glove (or the fingers of our hand) pointing down to 6 O’clock and our elbow on the outside of the left leg, forcing us to “turn” our left knee in slightly and to keep our weight forward on the balls of our feet instead of on our heels. This is a great time to use a consistent pitching machine for repetitive pitch location and receiving of the baseball in this Quad. Between Quad 3 and 4, (which we talk about last) is that pitch that we beg our pitchers to throw at all the time and more often than not is where our catchers tend to lose strikes for our pitchers; the pitch knee high or just a ball width low. This pitch need to be softly drawn up into the strike zone by catching the top part of the ball with our arm in the 3 O’clock – 9O’clock position and to keeping the umpire from seeing the ball at all by rolling the glove. Here is where the umpires will be influenced by our guy’s actions by rolling the glove to catch this ball. Rolling the glove must say that the pitch is low and out of the strike zone, correct? Otherwise why roll the glove? Here you have to, once again, catch the top part of the ball and softly draw the ball in to the very bottom of the strike zone.

Quad 4 position is very similar to Quad 2 except for the fact that more often than not this pitch may be severely low and away to a righty and by catching the outside of the ball and digging in on the ball at a 45 degree angle, we will shorten the distance the ball is traveling and once again catching the ball closer to the plate and stealing the strike for our pitcher once again. The general position of or arm is that of the pointing finger at 4 or 5 O’clock and our elbow at 10 or 11 O’clock but always trying to catch the outside of the ball to avoid taking the pitch out of the strike zone by catching the front part of the ball.

So what does all of this do for our pitcher? Well it’s what it does for the team more than anything. We always try to make our catchers the focal point of what it takes to win as a team. We never ignore the role everyone else plays, but the playing of this position effects the outcome of the game in some not-so-subtle ways, especially stealing strikes. For instance, the difference between stealing strikes and not stealing strikes gets our pitcher deeper into the game with less pitches and a stronger finish. Stealing a strike and turning a 1-1 count into a 1-2 count instead of a 2-1 count creates an entirely different position and pitch selection for the pitcher. We are able to control the batters comfort level much better and place the advantage in our teams favor. The fewer pitches our guy has to throw today the faster he can “come back” for his next start. If we have been losing strikes, and the results of that poor catching job creates very high pitch counts early in the game, we have now forced the situation to the bullpen. Forcing us to the bullpen early now has put the team at a disadvantage for the next game or two as well.

We have to remember that we want to control the most frequently executed things that happen every game. For example, we need to control the successful completion of catching and throwing out runners on routine hit ground balls to our infielders because there are far more routine ground balls than there are ESPN highlight plays! Routine fly ball must be caught because there are far more routine fly balls than there are ESPN highlight plays! And from our standpoint we believe that we can have a profound effect on our team’s success when we are ready to catch the ONLY thing that happens 100% of the time in the game…a thrown pitch by our guy on the mound. We have to steal that borderline strike by hook or crook, so we can that big dog in that dugout with the fewest number of pitches thrown as possible!

Next we’ll discuss blocking of pitches. Make sure you put your cup on!

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