need help teaching baserunning

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May 6, 2015
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10u LL/rec coach here, mostly 8s and 9s, few 7s, and couple leftover 10s from 12u division.

team is 3-1 so far this season, last night lost 10-7 (but will go in standings as win, was glorified scrimmage, other team only showed up with 6), swear with better baserunning we win. had each situation happen last night, take those two outs off (both times with Bases loaded), and am certain we could have squeaked out another three runs in those two innings.

pitching coming along OK, defense better than I expected, some mistakes, all mental, because of inexperience, but we have also made our fair share of outs in field. mistakes are kind that are very teachable, and I use them to calmly teach whole team immediately after coming in from field before we bat (want to do this while it is fresh in everyone's head).

team is hitting the ball decently (we have rule mods so no runs are walked, no stealing of home allowed yet, so girls must hit the ball to score, we have scored about 25 runs in our 4 games, one game we only scored one, pitcher was pretty fast, only put like 3 balls in play, did BP next practice with pitching machine cranked to about 38 mph, just to show them they could hit fast pitching).

Biggest problem area is baserunning. one player (first year player, but has natural ability) overruns 2B and 3B every time, tagged out twice so far, once last night, other girls do it occasionally as well. another has played a couple of years of coach pitch, but twice has been doubled up when fly ball caught, was at next base when she finally heard us yelling to go back (to be fair, all the runners left, she happened to be on closest base to fielder who caught ball each time). my own DD last night, sharp hit ball that found RF, overan first, but turned ever so slightly into fair territory, luckily other team did not try and throw her out.

early on we really focused on running hard through first, looking over shoulder for the ball (like on overthrow, previous years saw several outs because throw beat runner because runner slowed down so as to stop right at first), but it seems they are taking this to 2B and 3B in their minds.

Anyone got some good drills/games/voodoo (jk ;)) to help them learn better baserunning, focusing on the basics (holding with less than 2 outs when in air, not overrunning 2B or 3B but still run hard through 1B, sliding)

thinking of telling the ones overrunning I want them sliding into every base except 1B, regardless of situation. might cost us some extra bases/runs, but I think the outs we will prevent will more than makeup for it.

also, gonna try mnemonic (sic) of WOW (Where are the runners, how many Outs are there, what do I do if ....) mostly use this on defense (for each defensive player to run through their mind before every pitch), but I think it might work for baserunning as well.

any ideas DFP community? last night lost 10-7 (but will go in standings as win, was glorified scrimmage, other team only showed up with 6), swear with better baserunning we win. had each situations described above happen once last night, take those two outs off (both times with Bases loaded), and am certain we could have squeaked out another three runs in those two innings.
 
Oct 11, 2010
8,337
113
Chicago, IL
I will try to explain a more complex drill or try a video latter.

A couple thoughts.

We would have all the players lineup and yell 1 out or 2 outs and throw the ball up in the air. During games we just said the outs, did not tell them to stay or go unless the asked. With 2 outs they only needed to run abut 30 feet.

2nd base the player was on thier own.

3rd base they were either going home or had to slide.

Seemed like a good mixture of letting them make their own decisions and listening to the coach.
 
Sep 29, 2014
2,421
113
Just need to work on it in practice at 2B and 3B you should be standing up if there is no play (no such thing as going past the base), if it might be close slide. Only other option would be rounding the bag going to the next base.
 
Oct 11, 2010
8,337
113
Chicago, IL
1st you seem to have down,

What we did was put a cone a few feet past the bag and they were not allowed to slow down before the cone.

We asked them to turn right and run back to the bag then find the ball. If when they turned right and saw the ball on the ground off they go.

Older DD does more like what you are teaching but we did not teach at this age.
 
Oct 11, 2010
8,337
113
Chicago, IL
Could not find a video.

You can have an IF if you want, extra players in LF.
Coach by 3rd and probably another pitching.

Ball is pitched and 3rd base foul person throws a fly into LF.

Batter is noo allowed to hit the ball, when the ball goes by her off she goes to 1st.
Runner on 1st is stealing on the P.
Runner on 2nd takes a leadoff and then goes to 3rd when fielder touches the ball. (Assumption is it dropped)
Runner on 3rd tags up. Leads off on pitch then goes back to the base and leaves when fielder touches the ball.

Clear as mud probably. ☺
 
May 6, 2015
2,397
113
Could not find a video.

You can have an IF if you want, extra players in LF.
Coach by 3rd and probably another pitching.

Ball is pitched and 3rd base foul person throws a fly into LF.

Batter is noo allowed to hit the ball, when the ball goes by her off she goes to 1st.
Runner on 1st is stealing on the P.
Runner on 2nd takes a leadoff and then goes to 3rd when fielder touches the ball. (Assumption is it dropped)
Runner on 3rd tags up. Leads off on pitch then goes back to the base and leaves when fielder touches the ball.

Clear as mud probably. ☺

took a few reads, sounds worthwhile probably, but might be a bit much for my girls right now. so far this year not a single fly ball has reached outfield (offense or defense) so I might have just IF, maybe a LF as well. tag ups might be a little much right now, maybe later in year, just really need to teach them to read grounder or fly ball, and hold on latter if <2 outs. If we can eliminate silly outs, we can improve offense by 3-5 runs a game I'd say.

we cannot leave in our division until pitch crosses the plate. girls are generally good about leads (teaching them to bounce out and then read), need a little more work on taking off on past balls (we have 3 steal limit per inning, generally use two steals to get first baserunner to 3B, and last to get next baserunner to 2B, to try and remove some forceouts, but inevitably with sparse pitching, we end up with bases loaded, and offensive coach comes in to pitch on 4 ball counts with bases loaded).

I also told my AC that we both need to do better instructing girls on outs, etc. before pitch, we both tend to get wrapped up watching P/batter (I generally take base by our dugout to reign herd on girls in dugout, he takes other base). need to talk to him to to make it clear I was not harping on him, I am just as much if not mostly responsible for us not doing enough base coaching, just want to make ceertain he did not take it wrong.

might also just do a 4 v 4 game, no P or C, me hitting, 4 batters/baserunners, I will hit variety of balls to different spots, and have both fielders and BR react to each hit, will not stop until one IF walks ball to circle (since we will have no P). 3 outs change sides, team who scores most runs "wins" (maybe will do small prize). If I have enough girls, this will probably be about 30-45 min next practice.

big practice issue I have is rarely more than 8 or 9 at practice. tough to do anything situational with less than say 7 or 8. have had practices with only 3, they get lots of individual work if they are there those days! especially hard, since now that games are started, I only have Sat AM for practice (only time I can get field, and at this age two weeknights a week is enough I think, and we generally have 2 games a week, all at night).
 
Oct 11, 2010
8,337
113
Chicago, IL
Work on the player's catching fly balls in the OF even if it does not happen in games yet.

8 at practice is fine, like you said a ton of reps.
 
May 6, 2015
2,397
113
will get to baserunners reading outfield popflys as we go, like to do things incrementally, lot of beginners, average age of my team is 8-1/2 years old, gotta think KISS for everything (and I am the last S in KISS, not my girls!). still might hit some to OF, just have them tag when it hits ground (reasonable at our level, most coaches try to hide girls in OF, very few caught fly balls, in coach pitch i generally sent them on pretty much any fly ball to OF, figured catch, and timely on target throw to correct base was about a 10-1 at that level).

my ideal practice would be 12 players. I could have a P and C working deep in LF, girl on tee or soft toss, and girl in cage (I do have a cage as well as field Sat AMs), and still 8 doing BR/defense, rotating periodically as needed. of course I would need 3 (preferably 4) ACs who are pretty good. what I have is, one AC nearly always there, knows the game (his older DD plays high level TB), and one AC who is there about 50% of time, good with girls, knows infinitely more about game than I do, but is having trouble taking back seat (he is HC of a travel team, his neice plays for me and this TB team, so he cannot be HC of this team because of schedule conflicts). had a couple of dads indicate they would help out, but one got promotin at work, so has to put in extra time right now, and the other I have not seen. neither even did the volunteer form that I can tell (required for LL).
 
Oct 11, 2010
8,337
113
Chicago, IL
I meant fielding more then base running for the OF.

All the infielders get couch together at some point and playing the OF is a good skill to have.
 
May 6, 2015
2,397
113
Oh, we practice pop flies every practice, not specific to IF or OF (although we do it in RF), just to get under it, glove pointed up, catch it (hopefully), squeeze and cover with throwing hand, and then get it in quickly to 2B. not done as part of larger team drill, just a line of 3-4 girls (while I have 3-4 normally working in IF on grounders/throwing to 1B, after about 10 minutes they switch).

but situational coaching is what the girls need now, and bigger group is needed, so we can work on Off (baserunning) and Def simultaneously, make it more game like.
 

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