“Don’t look at the ball! Just run!” is bad advice

We’ve all heard a coach or parent yell the title of this post to a player who is so busy watching the ball that he does not run hard around the bases.  The problem with that statement is that it is really bad advice for the developing player.

The game gets faster at each level which means that players will need to make more decisions on their own as opposed to waiting for their coach to tell them what to do all the time.  To do this, players have to watch the play develop and make decisions on the run.  Of course, you have to be looking at where the ball is on the field to do so.

Even at young ages, players can be taught through practice and drill work the following principles of good base running.

• Proper running mechanics with their eyes up and alert.
• Running at full speed while looking left and right.
• Looking down at the bag when it needs to be tagged and peaking at the next base immediately after.
• Deciding on your own when to stretch a single into a double.
• Deciding on your own when to go 1st to 3rd.
• Deciding when to move up a base on some over-throws.

Base coaches can certainly help a runner in all these cases but good base runners make a lot of these decisions on their own on the fly.  As stated earlier, this can only work if the runner periodically has his eyes on the ball while running.