Stealing bases & Timing

[GoHeels]

During practices with our 12U group, we utilize a few timing drills to ensure that our girls are timing their exit from the bag in sync with pitcher's release. Several girls continue to struggle with a late jump, which as we are all aware, a fraction of a second is critical in regards to stealing bases. We encourage the girls to err on the side of aggressiveness, than being conservative. While we visibly notice every tournament, rarely do we see umps call a runner out for exiting the bag early.

In reading articles and watching videos, I isolated the NCAA record breaking steal by Alabama's Jennifer Fenton. Without question the kid is fast, however gaining a competitive advantage with a lead as such is significant.

What do others teach in regards to leads, jumps and bag exits. The audible 'whistle drill' seems to work well in practice, however many girls revert to late leads during game times.

 

[Greenmonsters]

Nice iso - that's a huge jump - easy to break the record if they were all that way. An advanced base thief will be aware of umpiring mechanics (i.e., base coverage responsibilities and priorities) and take liberties when they exist. This sometimes can be induced when a coach is barking at the umpires about a pitcher throwing illegally!

As far as practice, a whistle may be effective pinpointing the correct timing the first few times, but as there are no whistles during a game, it doesn't translate well because the same conditions aren't replicated. IMO, best way to practice it is as a group - put a pitcher in place and have all the other players line up near the base and practice breaking (all at the same time so everyone gets a rep) to get the timing perfected. ID the one who is doing it best and put them a little out in front where they can be seen by the others and used as a cue. Repeatedly repeat, kinda like how you get to Carnegie Hall.

 

[PA SB Dad]

I had a pitching coach tell me once to have the runners cue on the landing of the pitcher's front foot, not on the arm circle. For a running getting off late, this helps them get off the bag on time.

 

[42'sdad]

We teach our girls that if the opposing parents and coaches aren't complaining about us leaving early, then they aren't getting off soon enough!!

 

[Chewy_06]

We teach our girls that if the opposing parents and coaches aren't complaining about us leaving early, then they aren't getting off soon enough!!

LOL!

I got a few earloads about "leaving early" / "leadoffs" / and my favourite "disrespecting the game" last season with my 10U team - because we'd taught the kids the rolling start & we stayed on them to be taking three steps (at 1&3) with every single pitch.

Most of the time the complaining was coming from coaches who really didn't seem to know any better anyway. To them, the fact that the kids were moving their back foot before the pitch was delivered & the fact that they were off their bases SO quickly (relative to their kids that generally needed to be prodded to move) was the indicator that we were abusing the rules. I explained the rolling start to one of these coaches, showed her a couple of quick drills to teach it and explained exactly why it was important. Her response, well, I guess you will play the game the way you think it shoudl be and the rest of us will play it in a fun, respectful and fair fashion.

Huh?

Anyway, I didnt bother trying to educate any other coaches after that. Usually just dragged them over to blue with me and made it very clear that if they catch ANY of my kids taking liberties leading off - call them OUT! Smile at the other coach and get back to playing the game.

Anyway... for the U10's - we were teaching that the back foot should be starting it's motion when the pitcher's arm was at 12 o'clock. This worked consistently for all but one (a very quick kid - we modified the start point for her). We used two drills. All kids lined up starting together and the second was having one at each base, where we had a coach stationed watching for late or early leaves & providing feedback.

I guess i'll be surprised when we get to the U12 level if we don't see this called - at our u10 provincials we got nicked once on a leadoff by a base ump (the quick kid no less). I argued it (very gingerly), the pitcher actually stopped her motion completely before finishing (it was like a stutter almost) - the plate ump called the pitch a strike & the base ump nicked the runner. For a brief moment I thought I was in the twilight zone thinking these two guys had both blown related calls.

 

[42'sdad]

LOL!

I got a few earloads about "leaving early" / "leadoffs" / and my favourite "disrespecting the game" last season with my 10U team - because we'd taught the kids the rolling start & we stayed on them to be taking three steps (at 1&3) with every single pitch.

Most of the time the complaining was coming from coaches who really didn't seem to know any better anyway. To them, the fact that the kids were moving their back foot before the pitch was delivered & the fact that they were off their bases SO quickly (relative to their kids that generally needed to be prodded to move) was the indicator that we were abusing the rules. I explained the rolling start to one of these coaches, showed her a couple of quick drills to teach it and explained exactly why it was important. Her response, well, I guess you will play the game the way you think it shoudl be and the rest of us will play it in a fun, respectful and fair fashion.

Huh?

Anyway, I didnt bother trying to educate any other coaches after that. Usually just dragged them over to blue with me and made it very clear that if they catch ANY of my kids taking liberties leading off - call them OUT! Smile at the other coach and get back to playing the game.

Anyway... for the U10's - we were teaching that the back foot should be starting it's motion when the pitcher's arm was at 12 o'clock. This worked consistently for all but one (a very quick kid - we modified the start point for her). We used two drills. All kids lined up starting together and the second was having one at each base, where we had a coach stationed watching for late or early leaves & providing feedback.

I guess i'll be surprised when we get to the U12 level if we don't see this called - at our u10 provincials we got nicked once on a leadoff by a base ump (the quick kid no less). I argued it (very gingerly), the pitcher actually stopped her motion completely before finishing (it was like a stutter almost) - the plate ump called the pitch a strike & the base ump nicked the runner. For a brief moment I thought I was in the twilight zone thinking these two guys had both blown related calls.

I love it when they complain about us leaving early. We had one game where the field ump told the opposing coaches, (after they complained numerous times) that we were in fact not leaving early and maybe you should watch them and learn something.....lol I think the ump was fed up with a lot of the complaining their coaches were doing.

We also teach them to get moving at 12 oclock, and have to have a few quicker girls that have to start later.

A good drill and is kinda fun for the kids, to see how well they are timing their jump is.

Have someone pitch (full speed)
Have a girl on base ready to get her jump.
Have one coach watching the pitcher and clap when the ball leaves the pitchers hand.
Have another coach watching the runner and clap then her foot leaves the base.

If the timing is right the claps should be simultaneous. It's instant feed back for the girls!!

 

[starsnuffer]

That's a great drill, 42. Where the hell do you find assistant coaches who don't miss their hands when they try to clap though?

-W

 

[dropball1]

Sports Science video -- while its about baseball (stealing, the jump and throw downs), it's interesting and relevant: