The Importance of First & Third Base Coaches

Baseball is a sport played with a bat and a ball. In baseball, there are two teams of nine players each, and the goal of is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged ninety feet apart at the corners of a diamond. Offensive players take turns hitting while the defense tries to stop them from scoring runs by getting hitters out in a number of different ways. A player on offense can stop at any of the bases and try to score on a teammate's hit ball. The teams switch between offense and defense whenever the team on defense records three outs. One turn on offense for each team makes an inning, and nine innings make up a professional game. The team with the most runs at the end of the game is the winner.

In baseball, it can become difficult for an offensive player to follow what's happening in the field when they're running full-speed on the base paths. With this in mind, each team will employ a base coach to stand in foul territory, just outside of first and third bases, in order to instruct the runners. In this free video series, a baseball player will teach you how to coach first and third base, as well as what responsibilities they have and what decisions they have to make. You'll learn how to communicate with runners, how to scout the other team's fielders, and how to help a runner avoid getting picked off. With these coaching tips, you'll be well on your way to making good decisions when it's time to play.

"Hello, my name is Adrian Arceo and now we're going to get into some first and third base coaching. Now, don't think that just because you're not between those two white lines that you're not an important part of the offense, because even the smartest base runners, needs help getting around the bases. Now, as a first base coach or a third base coach you have to be smart, you have to have a lot of experience, you have to make split second decisions and know the capabilities of not only the players on your team, but the players on the other team. Now, between the first and third base coaches, there's actually a lot of communication going on, but each individual coach has different responsibilities. Usually the first base coach is responsible for the runner between home and first base. As soon as the runner starts heading out to second base, the responsibility gets handed onto the third base coach. Now as a base coach you have to respond to differences in outs, counts, innings, players, situations and game intensity. So there's a lot to go into when it comes to coaching third and first base. And, just as in a game, when an umpire makes a bad call, it can change the entire outcome of the game. A bad decision or a bad call by the first or third base coaches can actually change the entire game completely. So don't be fooled, being a first and third base coach is actually very important!"