Running baserunning drills

[Osric]

When you do base-running drills, how do you set them up? Do you have all the girls (or a station of girls) run the drill at the same time? Do you practice with the infield set and then extra players doing the base-running drill? What are the steps you take to work on these skills?

I ask because after a post season analysis of the scorebook, I've come to the conclusion that our team's base running needs a lot of work. What base running "work" that has generally been done in practice is usually centered around infield practice and base running is secondary. For example: infield is set and someone not practicing in the infield at that time becomes a base runner starting at home plate. Coach hits ball, base runner runs and if safe at first, then stays at first. Now coach hits ball again and runner will attempt to advance to 2nd. If safe at 2nd, then will proceed to 3rd and so on.

This type of practice is really for the infield and in my opinion does not really teach the base running skills. I'm thinking something more along the lines of doing the same play over and over until some muscle memory is formed.

So, does your team work on baserunning as a specific skill and if so how do you approach it?

 

[James Smith]

Whistle drill:

Have a pitcher or coach do a full pitch and someone blows a whistle when the ball leaves their hand, another person blows a whistle when the runner’s foot leaves the base. The whistles should be blown at the same time or the runners whistle slightly sooner.

This one I am not going to describe well but is easy to do once everyone gets the hang of it.

1 coach pitching, 1 coach hitting the ball(doesn’t need to be the pitched ball), doesn’t matter where. 1 coach in the 3rd base coaching box throwing the ball to the left fielder.

Runner at home run thru 1st base when the ball is hit.
Runner at 1st is stealing 2nd so should be off with the release of the ball.
Runner on 2nd is getting a lead then running on contact.
Runner on 3rd is either tagging up or running home depending on where the coach throws the ball. LF just throws the ball back to the coach.


It took DD a while be she is getting the hang of baserunning, it is not practiced enough on any of her Teams.

 

[Sliced Bread]

Read and React drill for stealing second:

This is a station drill with 2 base runners alternating at 1st base, 1 coach pitching, 1 catcher, 1 1st baseman and 1 ss. (5) players

Runner starts at first and leads off with the pitch.
Catcher catches the ball and tries to pick off the runner diving or running back to 1st depending on the lead or
Catcher plays the ball off the back of her closed glove, which puts the ball to ground. Base runner must read and react to the simulated dropped ball and steal second. Catcher fields the ball and attempts to pick off runner at 2nd. (the catcher decides when to catch or drop the pitch)
We use the roll over slide almost exclusively on steals, so this is our chance to work on these as well.

This drill can also be done from 2nd to 3rd. Depending on the age group, you may want to perfect the 1st to 2nd drill, as the 2nd to 3rd needs a bigger lead and quicker read and react time.
For the purposes of this drill, you will need to rotate infielders to unfamiliar positions to ensure that everyone gets to be a base runner.

 

[RetiredCoach]

Assuming that your team isn't running bases perfectly, yet, I have found working on base running to be
one of the most productive areas to increase your runs scored. This is what I do. I prepare for the
first base running drill by setting up a parallel first base in foul territory. This allows me to start two girls
at the same time. The one on the regular baseline will run all the way around the bases. The girl in foul
territory will run only to first base. I start a set of girls about every ten seconds which allows me to quickly
get the whole team through these drills. I usually have each girl run each drill twice. Of course, the coaches
are ensuring that the bases are being run as correctly as possible.

For the second drill I will line up two extra bases behind each of first, second and third base. All the girls
congregate at first base and go three at a time. A coach will simulate a pitcher and the girls will the first time
just get a good lead. The second time they will steal the next base. Then three more girls will start at first base
and, potentially, I can have 9 girls executing this drill at the same time.

I have found this method to be very time efficient. Also, the competition of having the girls do it at the same time
will encourage a slow starter to work hard to be faster.

 

[FrozenRope]

Ahhh...my favorite topic, Baseruning. It's not unusual for me to spend an entire practice centered around baserunning......from the offensive, and defensive perspective. In my opinion, it's one of, if not THE most underdeveloped skill on the softball field. You score runs by advancing bases, and you prevent runs by limiting extra bases. I could write a 10,000 word dissertation on aggressive baserunning.

Here’s a basic example:
Teach the leads. Practice the leads. The lead from each base is different. Sounds pretty elementary, but gaining those split seconds is the difference between out and safe on a close play. It’s not just the leads, but also how to react from the lead position.

Here’s how we do it:
Use one of your pitchers and catchers so they have a live pitcher to time. (This is your pitching and catching workouts for the day as well) One coach oversees this, working with the pitcher on her pitches and the catcher on her receiving/blocking. Everyone else is working on the bases. If you’re working with a young team, you would be surprised how many girls don’t really know how to take a proper lead.

After a few rotations through the bases, we add a 3B and SS and work on steals and throwdowns.

After a few rotations through steals and throw downs, we add 3 outfielders and the 2 infielders move to one on each side of the diamond. A coach in the batter’s box hits fungo into the field on the pitch. Runners practice reactions to the hit ball... how far to go on a fly ball hit to various parts of the outfield. Taking off on a ground ball. Advancing on the throw to first in a non-force situation from second or third. Getting back on a line drive, etc. Rotate the fielders runners, pitcher, and catcher and repeat.

We also go over specific scenarios. One of my favorites is having a runner intentionally draw the snap throw to first from the catcher and having the runner take off for second. At the 12U level, if you choose wisely when to do this (good speed on 1st) it's about as close to a guaranteed base as you can get, but you have to practice it. Hesitation = an out. This also gives your defense a chance to work on it.

We practice rundowns. Split the team and have one group work on it between 1st and 2nd and the others from 3rd to home. This is a defensive and baserunning drill.

When you play against a team that eats you up on the bases... you can be certain they spent time on it.