2 fundamental baserunning questions

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OK, i suppose these are easy questions but i see enough people do them differently that makes me want to ask this community:

1. when rounding bases, which foot do you have your girls touch the inside of the base, left or right? i'm an physicist by degree and can tell you the shorter distance is using the right foot, not the left. why would you teach left?

2. how do you have your girls position themselves on the base prior to leadoff, i.e. track star (trail foot on the bag) or rocker style (lead foot on the bag). again, simple physics tells me you are closer to the next base if you leadoff with your trail foot on the base yet i see both ways used regularly. i'm guessing some will say the 'rocker' method (lead foot on the base) allows for a better push off. if so, do you have the data to prove this?

thanks!

 

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OK, i suppose these are easy questions but i see enough people do them differently that makes me want to ask this community:

1. when rounding bases, which foot do you have your girls touch the inside of the base, left or right? i'm an physicist by degree and can tell you the shorter distance is using the right foot, not the left. why would you teach left?

2. how do you have your girls position themselves on the base prior to leadoff, i.e. track star (trail foot on the bag) or rocker style (lead foot on the bag). again, simple physics tells me you are closer to the next base if you leadoff with your trail foot on the base yet i see both ways used regularly. i'm guessing some will say the 'rocker' method (lead foot on the base) allows for a better push off. if so, do you have the data to prove this?

thanks!

1. Same as you.. round with right foot.

2. Lead foot on the bag.. As the pitcher reaches the top her rotation, the player then starts to go pushing off with the lead foot. As the ball leaves her hand the foot leaves the bag. Gives the runner a much better jump.

 

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i think momentum is the difference from track star to lead foot on bag to answer the lead off position question. track star starts similar to the track meet... they can begin to run at a precise moment like when the gun sounds and when the pitcher releases the ball they start running. Lead foot on the bag allows the runner to get momentum before the release of the ball by starting with the rearor back foot and timing it so your entire body is moving at the time of the release and the lead foot comes off the bag at the same time the track star would just begin starting her momentum. If you tried that in a track meet it would be a false start... lol so i guess how much does time does "starting momentum sooner" save compared to a dead start track star? hmmmm... oh-almost forgot, we teach lead foot on bag method. Rounding bag, i like to talk about getting a small " ? " approach to the bag and usually show right foot on bag contact but if they use left i don't thinks it a huge deal but would rather see the right foot and definitely a good approach.

OK, i suppose these are easy questions but i see enough people do them differently that makes me want to ask this community:

1. when rounding bases, which foot do you have your girls touch the inside of the base, left or right? i'm an physicist by degree and can tell you the shorter distance is using the right foot, not the left. why would you teach left?

2. how do you have your girls position themselves on the base prior to leadoff, i.e. track star (trail foot on the bag) or rocker style (lead foot on the bag). again, simple physics tells me you are closer to the next base if you leadoff with your trail foot on the base yet i see both ways used regularly. i'm guessing some will say the 'rocker' method (lead foot on the base) allows for a better push off. if so, do you have the data to prove this?

thanks!

 

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OK, i suppose these are easy questions but i see enough people do them differently that makes me want to ask this community:

1. when rounding bases, which foot do you have your girls touch the inside of the base, left or right? i'm an physicist by degree and can tell you the shorter distance is using the right foot, not the left. why would you teach left?

2. how do you have your girls position themselves on the base prior to leadoff, i.e. track star (trail foot on the bag) or rocker style (lead foot on the bag). again, simple physics tells me you are closer to the next base if you leadoff with your trail foot on the base yet i see both ways used regularly. i'm guessing some will say the 'rocker' method (lead foot on the base) allows for a better push off. if so, do you have the data to prove this?

thanks!

1) IMO What foot you hit the inside with is irrelevant, I teach no stutter steps. So the girls become able to hit the inside bag with either foot. You could run from home to 2nd a 100 times and you will be at a different distance to 1st before you'd hit the bag with a specfic foot each time.

2) Rocker style FTW. Nobody will ever convince me a perfectly executed rocker lead off isn't the best leadoff in softball. Many have tried and all have failed lol. #1 gripe about rocker steps is umps calling girls for leaving early, but coach down the kids to offset bad umps. Momentum is a beautiful thing.

 

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1) IMO What foot you hit the inside with is irrelevant, I teach no stutter steps. So the girls become able to hit the inside bag with either foot. You could run from home to 2nd a 100 times and you will be at a different distance to 1st before you'd hit the bag with a specfic foot each time.

2) Rocker style FTW. Nobody will ever convince me a perfectly executed rocker lead off isn't the best leadoff in softball. Many have tried and all have failed lol. #1 gripe about rocker steps is umps calling girls for leaving early, but coach down the kids to offset bad umps. Momentum is a beautiful thing.

Ding Ding Ding. We have a winner in my book on all counts.

To comment on Dan's "?" approach to each bag, I think it depends on the situation. If it's a questionable advancement until you are very close to the bag, I agree. If you know you are going to the next base, take a strait line approach to the widest part of what would be the "?". After all, what is the shortest distance between 2 points.

 

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1) IMO What foot you hit the inside with is irrelevant, I teach no stutter steps. So the girls become able to hit the inside bag with either foot. You could run from home to 2nd a 100 times and you will be at a different distance to 1st before you'd hit the bag with a specfic foot each time.

2) Rocker style FTW. Nobody will ever convince me a perfectly executed rocker lead off isn't the best leadoff in softball. Many have tried and all have failed lol. #1 gripe about rocker steps is umps calling girls for leaving early, but coach down the kids to offset bad umps. Momentum is a beautiful thing.

I agree with #1. On #2, I agree the rocker lead off is best, but I also think it's much harder for umps to call leaving early on it than the sprinter start. The key to the rocker start is that girls get the timing right. It's easy to be too late, at which point it's a terrible method.

 

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I agree with #1. On #2, I agree the rocker lead off is best, but I also think it's much harder for umps to call leaving early on it than the sprinter start. The key to the rocker start is that girls get the timing right. It's easy to be too late, at which point it's a terrible method.

I see many fast girls not get the optimal start & it ends up costing them!
If they have the timing - Greatest.........If not, puts them way behind. And it is a coachable thing, but something that I see certain girls always get bad starts - no matter how much the practice....

 

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#1 not to break stride
#2 I prefer whatever is the best jump per player; however, I dont like for them to watch the arm and instead watch the pitchers feet. The straddle starter will time her rear foot to the pitchers rear foot moving together with her. Much eaiser to time out foot to foot than watching the arm circle. Sprinter stance; I have them leave at pitchers toe touch.

 

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#1 not to break stride
#2 I prefer whatever is the best jump per player; however, I dont like for them to watch the arm and instead watch the pitchers feet. The straddle starter will time her rear foot to the pitchers rear foot moving together with her. Much eaiser to time out foot to foot than watching the arm circle. Sprinter stance; I have them leave at pitchers toe touch.

I also use the pitchers foot as our visual cue and not the arm. Good post

 

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1) IMO What foot you hit the inside with is irrelevant, I teach no stutter steps. So the girls become able to hit the inside bag with either foot. You could run from home to 2nd a 100 times and you will be at a different distance to 1st before you'd hit the bag with a specfic foot each time.

2) Rocker style FTW. Nobody will ever convince me a perfectly executed rocker lead off isn't the best leadoff in softball. Many have tried and all have failed lol. #1 gripe about rocker steps is umps calling girls for leaving early, but coach down the kids to offset bad umps. Momentum is a beautiful thing.

Ding Ding Ding. We have a winner in my book on all counts.

To comment on Dan's "?" approach to each bag, I think it depends on the situation. If it's a questionable advancement until you are very close to the bag, I agree. If you know you are going to the next base, take a strait line approach to the widest part of what would be the "?". After all, what is the shortest distance between 2 points.

ditto!!

 

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On #2.... I see so many players get this wrong, no matter how many coaching events occur, that I think taking a lead like baseball players do is sometimes best. I've watched and watched teams with this in mind and I can't shake that idea.

 

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On #2....I think taking a lead like baseball players do is sometimes best. I've watched and watched teams with this in mind and I can't shake that idea.

Not sure how you can compare this to softball when baseball can lead off and softball can't.

 

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Not sure how you can compare this to softball when baseball can lead off and softball can't.

Yeah, sorry about that, poor wording on my part. I'm more talking about how the baserunner stands at the bag before they get their lead.

Nobody in softball does it that way so there must be a reason.

 

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1. right, but if they hit it with left, they hit it with left. I do NOT want them stutter stepping around the bases or breaking stride just so they can hit the bag with the right foot

2. whichever is FASTEST for them - I personally LOVE the rocker start because I can start gaining forward momentum before I actually leave the bag vs trying to start from a dead stop. HOWEVER, too many softball players were never taught how to properly time that lead so they leave super late and get thrown out when they shouldn't (stealing or thrown out at 2nd on a ground ball). Ever since I saw members of the US National Team doing it different ways, I stopped making all players do it the same. I allow them to use what works best for THEM.

Hope that helps!