One-way lead

[Sultan_1895-1948]

Just curious if anyone on here teaches this to their kids.

We used to do this back in high school, and still do it now. With a lefty on the mound who has a "good move" (foot does not break plain), you get your normal lead, but you come set with your feet closer together (about 20 inches apart), and as the pitcher lifts his leg you take a small step back toward the bag with the left foot (ending at about 32 inches). This way you are not losing any ground because the right foot hasn't moved.

[Whitesoxnut]

Just curious if anyone on here teaches this to their kids.

We used to do this back in high school, and still do it now. With a lefty on the mound who has a "good move" (foot does not break plain), you get your normal lead, but you come set with your feet closer together (about 20 inches apart), and as the pitcher lifts his leg you take a small step back toward the bag with the left foot (ending at about 32 inches). This way you are not losing any ground because the right foot hasn't moved.

No! But I feel you concerning the difficulty in getting young base-runners to learn to read LH pitchers. Actually this difficulty extends way past youth leagues. I'd rather the kid take a shorter lead then start dancing around out there. More often then not a LH'er at that age will show you what hes going to do with his leg kick. If hes throwing home he'll kick higher and more aggressively. The cute ones, and the ones who have been taught well, will mix it up on you and then you have to watch his shoulders and head.

But the real hard part with kids is when they are on the bench waiting to bat, and with the first base-runner on, for the entire team to watch a pitcher intently so they are not surprised by his move when its their turn on base. Also this is the first thing a base coach should be looking for, and notations should be made about individual pitchers for later games.

[BearsCoach13]

We teach it at our high school and legion levels and it is very useful. The purpose of the one-way lead is to let the team and coaches know what kind of pickoff the pitcher has. What kind of move/s to first does he have? We use a one-way lead with the first runner or two of the game. After the pitcher throws over a couple of times we no longer use it and get a normal lead.

Also, we teach our kids to get a larger lead than normal (an extra half step). On first movement from the pitcher they will actually shuffle back a step. You can argue whether this is the best method, but I've seen a few runners/teams in the Majors do this with left handers they haven't seen before.