Tag up like a sprinter

People often ask how I come up with ideas for all my posts.  Most of them come from watching

 

games.  Sometimes they originate from seeing photographs.  This post is one of those that came from seeing the photo at right.

The runner tagging up in the photo is making two mistakes:

1. His shoulders are not squared up to the next bag
2. His body is in the upright position.

To see how a runner should be positioned, let’s go straight to the experts … Olympic sprinters at the starting blocks (bottom photo).

1. All the runners’ shoulders are squared to the finish line from the very start
2. All the runners’ bodies are at a 45 degree angle at their first couple steps.

If the baseball runner is not doing these two things, he will have to waste time getting into those

 

two positions before starting to third base.  Lining up at the bag as a sprinter would prior to the ball being caught saves the runner valuable time.

It probably will not matter so much for the baseball runner shown in the top photo because the outfielder is moving away from the next bag.  The runner will probably move up easily because of that.  However, bad habits can form quickly if runners fail to do it right every time.