Coaching a Runner on Second Base

Video Transcript

"Hello, my name is Adrian Arceo and now we're going to talk about helping the runner on second base focus. Now, remember as soon as the runner turns past first base and starts heading towards second base, the responsibility of helping him out falls to the third base coach. Now, because the runner on second base is so far from the third base coach, you don't want to really yell too many things out because you might be giving too much away. A lot of times what third base coach's will do is use their hands more to convey information, for example: if they put their hands up like this, it might mean two outs, or one out or not outs. So, it's kind of the degree of carefulness that they have to have. Also, when it comes to the count, he might just want to call it up, you know, three and two, in case the catcher or some other defender forgets what the count is. All these things are important because the more information that you are able to give them, without giving out to the other team, the better prepared he's going to be and the less prepared the defensive team is going to be. Now, let's say for example: that he was up to bat, he got a hit, he got to second base, he's very excited, it's the third base coach's job to remind him of the critical pieces of information that he has to remember, for example: how many outs there are, what the count is, what the score is, and also what inning you're in. You have to kind of calm him down because his job isn't over yet, he still hasn't scored so he has to stay focused on the moment. And, as I mentioned before, the situation changes after every pitch. So, even after he got to second base, his job is far from done. He still hasn't come to third or home. So, remember it's your responsibility as a third base coach to make sure that they man on second base is focused."