Most youth players slide with their feet. When learning how to perform a baseball slide correctly, it’s highly advised not to use a base bag because the bag is immovable. For safety reasons, start out using a cone, a place mat or a baseball glove. Stay on the safe side until you’ve developed an effective sliding technique and have control of your legs.
A slide generally begins about 5 to 7 feet away from the base, depending on whether you play on a turf or grass infield. A player who is right or left handed will have a preference for which leg he is most comfortable sliding with. Righties generally prefer sliding with their right foot, and lefties will slide with their left.
Sliding in the 4 Position Drill
This drill is in two steps. Players beginning to learn to slide should sit on grass for the drill.
Assume the “4” position that in this drill. It duplicates the position players will slide in during real game situations. Coaches can instruct their teams as follows.
Step 1
- Players all sit on the grass.
- Sitting up, right handed players extend their right leg out all the way. Left handed players extend their left.
- Right handed player bends his left leg and places his ankle and foot under his extended right leg. (Left handed players do the opposite).
- Their position should resemble the number “4.”
- As they slide into the base (a baseball glove should act as a base bag), they fully extend both arms straight up into the air.
Players should be told that when they make their actual slide, their rear end should be on the ground. Beginner sliders should be advised not to slide sideways, as this will cause cuts and bruises to the sides of their legs. They should slide straight with the full weight of their bodies on their butt.
Step 2
Players in this part of the drill will do an actual slide into a baseball glove. This drill should be performed on natural grass whenever possible.
Line up players in a line. Using a whistle, the coach blows into it, signaling the first player in line to run. To slide into the glove:
- Take three running steps towards the glove.
- As you take your fourth step, righties extend their right leg fully as they did in step 1.
- Player lowers his body to fall on his butt.
- As he descends, he tucks his left foot under his extended right leg.
- He raises his arms fully.
- He slides on his rear end until his extended right leg touches the baseball glove.
- Player gets up and runs to the back of the line.
Make sure to slide with the cleat of the extended leg raised all the way up so that the slide is on the heel.
Coaches should keep it brisk. As soon as the slider gets up and clears the way, blow the whistle to get the next runner moving and sliding. Have each player on the team slide 3 times, going to the end of the line after their slide to wait their next turn.
Head First Slide Drill
This slide drill should only be performed by older, more experienced players. Sliding head first increases the risk of injury to the head and arms. Some teams are phasing out head first slides because of the built in dangers and the physical harm it can cause from the action of defenders on the field.
Head first is considered the quickest way to slide into a base. When you slide with your head instead of your feet, your forward momentum is maintained so you reach the bag more quickly.
When you slide head first, the hands touch the bag instead of the feet. You’re better able to avoid being tagged by moving your hands as you slide in.
There are situations during the game when a runner should never slide head first.
- Sliding into home plate. The catcher wearing his equipment can cause real damage to your fingers or shoulders.
- The rules of baseball make sliding head first to disrupt a double play illegal. If this happens, both the base runner and the hitter will be called out.
- A fielder can accidentally jump on the sliding runner’s fingers during a slide. Fingers could break along with the possibility of shoulder injuries.
To slide into a base to a runner’s best advantage, and also to avoid injury, as the runner picks up speed on the way to the bag, he should start to lean forward. This keeps the forward momentum going. Begin extending the body forward.
- Keep forearms and hands out in front, and not away from the body.
- Pull back on both wrists.
- When sliding into the bag, the palms of the hands will make contact, not the fingers. This helps prevent finger injuries.
Hook Slide Drill
The hook slide is a variation of the feet first slide (4 position slide). The main difference is that instead of making contact with the base with your foot, you will slide feet first but to one side of the base or the other, and make contact with the bag with your hands.
The hook slide is very useful at home plate, when the catcher tries to tag runners out. When you move your body, you give the catcher less to tag by sliding away from the catcher’s mitt. When hook sliding into home you can hit the back corner of the plate with a real quick hand movement that can be difficult to tag.
The hook slide can be used at other bases as well. When a throw made to the infielder takes him to one or the other side of the bag, the runner can slide to the opposite side of the infielder and reach out to touch the bag before he has time to tag you out. The runner reaches out and tags the bag.
The difference between performing a hook slide and a feet first slide is that the runner will hook slide to either his left or his right side depending upon the action in the game, and whichever side is the most beneficial to him reaching the bag and avoiding the tag.
Note that baseball rules have changed regarding slides to avoid double plays. Players can now only use the hook slide when attempting to avoid a tag. The runner will be called out if he uses the hook slide when he tries to break up a play.
Take three running steps towards the bag.
- As you take your fourth step, righties extend their right leg fully as they did in step 1.
- Player lowers his body to slide on his butt.
- As he descends, he tucks his left foot under his extended right leg.
- He raises his arms fully.
- He slides on his rear end and turns his body to the right, or to the left.
- As he slides, his body passes to the side of the bag as he extends his arms out to touch the bag with one of his hands.
- Practice sliding to both the left and right sides of the bag.
- Coaches line up their plays and calls out “left” for his players to slide to the left of the bag, then “right” to slide to the other side.
A great addition to this drill is for coaches to have a player at first base and one at second base playing defense. Players line up at first base and slide to second. The first baseman throws the ball to second and the runner tries to touch the base before the second baseman tags him out.
The first baseman can throw to the right of second base first. This forces the runner to hook slide into the left side of the base. Then in reverse, the first baseman throws to the left side of the base, forcing a hook slide to the right.
This drill can even be performed at home plate, but always be aware of safety issues. The runner will attempt a hook slide into home, with a third baseman throwing softly to the catcher wearing his gear. The runner attempts to touch the plate with his hands before the catcher tags him out.
Game Situations when Runners Slide into a Base
When your team has runners on base, there are two main objectives.
- Moving runners up into scoring position
- Scoring runs at home
Getting runners from first to second and from second to third requires the runner to be fast in order to avoid being called out on base. Bases are 90 feet apart from each other. In Major League Baseball, the average running time for pro players is clocked at about 4.3 seconds for right handed hitters and 4.2 seconds for left handed players.
Sliding into a base will be more than 1 second faster for two reasons. In the first place, major league ballplayers take approximately 10 to 12 feet off the bag. The distance from first base to second is 90 feet. If the runner takes a 10 foot lead, the distance is now 80 feet away. It takes a major league player running from base to base an average of 3.3 seconds, almost a full second faster than running from home to first.
Now, if this same major league ballplayer slides into second base feet first, his body gets there about a half second faster. This half second is crucial, because throws from one infield player to another are very fast. The average throwing speed between infield players is 85 miles per hour. The extremely fast throws of pro baseball infielders makes it important for base runners to save time running anywhere possible. Even fractions of seconds saved are critical to his success reaching the bag before the throw.
In real game situations, runners slide for the following reasons.
Avoid Being Tagged Out
When a player slides into a base, it is harder for an infielder to tag him out, because the base runner is now a low profile target. Also, time is required for the fielder to bend down at the lower target base runner to touch him with his glove. The chances of being called out when sliding are reduced significantly.
Avoiding Overrunning a Base
Runners are faced with a dilemma as the careen towards a base. They want to get to the base as quickly as possible, yet when hurtling forward they run the risk of ending up past the base. Sliding into base reduces the runner’s forward momentum, yet get him to the base as quickly as possible.
The only situation when a runner usually runs past the bag after his foot makes contact is when the run is from home plate to first base. If he were to remain standing and running from first to second, and unable to run to third, his forward momentum will likely make him run further than the bag, and he will be tagged out when a ball is thrown to the base. This is what makes sliding critical.
Sliding allows the runner to run as fast as he can, with the knowledge that he won’t pass the base and still be able to tag with his foot. The immovable bag also serves to hinder forward momentum.
Take out Slide
In a second base to first base double play situations, the ball is thrown to the infielder covering the second base bag (shortstop or second baseman). The infielder covering has to tap the bag with his cleat and then throw quickly and accurately to first base.
In this scenario, the runner moving from first to second doesn’t make it to the base on time to be called safe. This is the moment when he can disrupt the double play. Instead of sliding directly into the second base bag, the runner can slide in the direction of the fielder. The fielder trying to throw to first to complete the double play circuit will have a much harder time throwing to first accurately, because he needs to jump over the runner sliding into him to make the throw.
Also, the fielder trying to throw to first is hampered in his attempt because he knows the slider is quickly advancing toward him. Now the thrower’s focus is affected, he knows the runner is sliding into him, even before contact is made. It happens often that the fielder becomes fearful of imminent contact. This is one of the ways to “take out” the fielder.
There are limits to the runner performing the Take out Slide, and the final judgment rests with the umpire. For example, imagine the shortstop is making the throw to first for the double play conversion. He is preparing to throw from the left side of the bag. His body is situated two feet away.
If the runner sliding goes out of his way for the purpose of intentionally sliding into the shortstop, umpires will call illegal interference. As a general rule, if the sliding base runner is clearly sliding towards the defensive player and away from the base, if some part of his body is still able to make contact with the base while still interfering with the defensive player’s throw, the slide will be ruled as legal.
Sliding runners should be aware of this when trying the Take out Slide. It has to visually appear that your slide is in the direction of the bag, and not towards the defensive player. Always slide in such a way that you can touch the bag. Keep this in mind when making a hook slide.
Avoiding Injury
There are instances, particularly for younger players, when sliding into a base will be safer than running to the base. If a defender is having difficulty fielding a ball, he may stand in the base line. The runner who is advancing may not have time to get out of the way before colliding into the fielder. In these instance, sliding may be the best option to avoid injury to himself or to the fielder.
For this reason, almost all little league coaches now teach their players how to perform feet first slides.
Sliding into First Base
There are certain situations when it may be to the runner’s advantage to slide into first base. It occurs rarely, but sliding can make the difference between making it safely to first or being called out. One instance is when a bad throw to the first baseman pulls him off the base. Sliding into first saves runners, on average, seven tenths of a second.
Rules have been established if a runner decide to slide into first base.
- The runner must stay in the base path. Sliding into first is usually head first, but the rules for sliding are the same as running. An out will be called if the runner deviates from the base path.
- Sliding through first base is permitted, just as it is legal for a runner to run past first due to his momentum. However, after the runner slides through the base, he cannot attempt to move towards second unless he thinks he will make the bag in time. An example of this is when the ball is overthrown. He should be aware that if an attempt to run to second is made, he’s considered a live runner who can be tagged out.
- Diving to first is the same as sliding to first. Runners leading off first base often dive back to avoid being picked off. Whether sliding or diving, the same rules apply. The runner sliding must still stay within the base path, and he’s not allowed to make contact with the first baseman.
If the umpire determines the runner sliding has done anything to interfere with a fielder, he will be called out.
