know you’ve experienced this: Your partner on the bases is chirping at the defense: "Let’s hustle out. Nobody walks but the pitcher. C’mon, c’mon." Then, B1 walks on four pitches, and your partner walks to Position B. That’s ugly — coyote ugly.
Unless it’s the second game of the double-header in 100-degree heat with a blazing sun overhead, you should be trotting (at least) to your positions. Run from A to B. Hurry from B to C. Hustle back to the plate when you’ve covered third. Jog briskly into right field between half innings. Jog behind the batter-runner on his way to first (nobody on). You may walk toward the mound while the skipper chats with his pitcher, but don’t take all day to get there.
The point: You expect the players to hustle. Your supervisor expects you to do the same.
This is another idea that may help you get more plays right.
The way some clinicians teach it, that is nothing more than the second R in P2R: Read the play. (The others are "pause" and "react.")
Continued...
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