Teaching Starts & Stops is difficult because of all of the transitions that occur between accelerating and then stopping because these two body positions could not be more different.  In a proper acceleration position, the body is leaned over, the head is looking at the ground, and the shins are at a 45° angle.  When stopping the body has to change to a more vertical posture, the head is looking straight ahead, and the shins are vertical.  To teach the stopping action, coach the athletes to:

  • Pick their chest up
  • Drop their hips to the ground so their knees get to 90° and the stretch reflex will occur.
  • Shins should be much closer to vertical
  • The feet should widen to shoulder width instead of hip width and chop just like they are “closing out” in basketball.
  • They should try to stop in as few steps as possible.  Faster people stop faster than slower people.

Most athletes that cannot perform open-field tackling or blocking skills struggle with proper stopping mechanics.  Some common mistakes are:

  • They keep their chest and shins leaned forward so they cannot move laterally.  If an athlete puts too much weight on the balls of their feet and then try to move laterally, the first movement will end up being diagonally forward.
  • Since their chest is leaned over and their center of mass is too far forward it is almost impossible for them to stop in a couple steps because their center of mass continues to push forward.
  • They keep their feet under their hips so they do not have a wide base

Starts & Stops

Mike Trout Slow Motion Stealing Video

The answer to most stance, start, and transition questions is to get to the 45° acceleration angle.  Always remind the athletes that the head has to be in front of the shoulders, the shoulders in front of the hips, and the hips in front of the feet (head-shoulders-hip-feet).

Shuffle To Sprint In The Same Direction:

While transitioning from shuffling to sprinting, an athlete will push the front shoulder in front of the hips while rotating.  The two movements should occur at the same time but a lot of athletes do the two motions in two separate steps.  If you watch the Mike Trout video above, you see how quickly he gets to the 45° acceleration position.

Shuffle Sideways to Sprint Forward:

This transition happens in the opposite order of the Starts & Stops transition.  With the Starts & Stops, the athletes are in a 45° acceleration position and transition to the Universal Athletic Position.  This time they will start in the Universal Athletic Position and then translate to the 45° acceleration position.  Once again, leaning over and pushing the shoulders forward (without bending over) will create a proficient transition.

Sprint to Directional Shuffle:

This transition combines the “Stars & Stops” with “Shuffle Sideways to Sprint Forward” so I teach those concepts first.  Once they become proficient at both of those skills I can combine them for this drill.  If you teach the previous skills first, this can be taught very quickly.

Sprinting & Looking:

The first thing that I tell my athletes when they turn their head is to concentrate on driving their knees.  When most athletes turn their head sideways or backward their feet slow down.  When we practice sprints while looking for a deep ball, I have them take off sprinting and when once they are out of their acceleration phase I yell “Look!”.  We always practice looking both directions.  If I want to practice accelerating and looking (ex: a baseball player sprinting from Home to 1st after swinging), I yell “Look!” during their acceleration phase.

The second thing that has to be coached is how the head is turned.  Most athletes pick their head up and then turn their head instead of just leaving their head in neutral position and then tipping their chin.  The baseball player below shows how to turn the head without lifting it also.

Backpedal To Sprinting:

While backpedaling, turning, and sprinting, the answer is again to try to get to the 45° acceleration angle as quickly and efficiently as possible.  While rotating the athletes should get the foot turned 180° while leaning over to 45° angle.  Those two actions will again need to occur at the same time and not happen in two distinct events.  If the foot does not get turned the entire 180°, the body will move diagonally first before it tries to get back onto the intended linear path.

The other potential issue is if they do not step 180° and then try to get the next foot on their intended linear path, their legs will get crossed and they will be off-balance.

While rotating it is important to rip the elbow to turn the body and if they do not, the body will rotate in two phases.  Phase one will rotate the lower-body and phase two will rotate the upper-body.  Since the upper and lower are not moving at the same time the body will get off balance and that is why some of your athletes look like they are going to fall down or are transitioning very slowly.  Tell the players their hands should stay next to their anatomically correct hip.  When the lower-body turns without the upper-body both hands will be next to the same hip which shows that the shoulders have not rotated.

Backpedal to Sprint Forward

The transition from backpedalling to sprinting forward should be taught just like a defensive back is taught.  The feet should quickly chop to transition from backwards to forwards.  A common mistake with the feet is a lot of athletes will reach back with one of their feet which causes the body to be unbalanced or the back leg slips behind them.

The great thing about transitioning from backpedaling to sprinting forward is the upper body while backpedaling is already leaned over (since the shoulders should be over the toes) so the feet only have to transition behind the hips to start running forward.

Drop Step to Sprinting

This should be taught exactly the same and the “Backpedal to Sprinting”.   I have seen outfielder coaches do drills that make their players try to rotate more than 180 degrees to get fly-balls that are directly over their heads.   It makes the players overemphasize the turn and it causes them to rotate at least 180 degrees.

Starting From the Ground

On Stomach Facing Forwards

Most athletes will get up, which makes them stand vertical, and then try to lean forward to run.  Once again, this should be one motion instead of two motions.  This is actually pretty easy to teach if you tell them to move forward while getting up.  The body naturally gets into a 45° angle and will only make a mistake if they try to “stay low”.  If they try to “stay low” it will lead them to shrugging their shoulders over instead of having a straight line between their head and their ankles.

On Stomach Facing Backwards

This is a hard transition to coach because it is such a complicated skill.  I have not figured out a perfect way to teach this but I do know what positions I want them to get to.  I know that I want them to get their shins to 45°, and their body leaned over.  I think this movement will be the only transition that always takes two phases.  The first movement will be to get up and turn 90° while getting both shins pointed in the intended direction.  The second movement will be to turn another 90° while getting leaned over.  If anyone has ideas how to coach this well, I would love to hear it because I am still trying to teach it better than I have.

On Stomach Facing Sideways 

Sitting Facing Forwards

Sitting Facing Sideways

The athlete should get up, lean over, and move forward all in one motion.  Once again, the goal is to get to the 45° lean in one motion instead of multiple motions.

Conclusion:

No matter what transition is occurring, use the following universal coaching points for athletic movement and acceleration:

  • Keep the head in neutral position
  • Lean over but do not bend over
  • Lean the shins where they want to go next
  • While turning, get the next step pointed where you want to go
  • When transitioning combine multiple movements at the same time.  For example, when you are turning and accelerating, an athlete should turn and lean at the same time.
  • Remind them to keep their feet moving while turning their head
  • Accelerating positions are different than stopping positions

If you have not already done so, please read my previous articles on the 2 point and 3 point stance and starts and I would also recommend taking my FREE Coach Tube Course on Athletic Movement Principles because it will clarify many of the concepts below.  If you do not want to take the whole course, you can just click on the videos for concepts that require a deeper explanation.

If you are interested in learning more you can go to the resources page on my website (https://exceleratead.com/training-theory) to find my FREE and moderately priced CoachTube Courses, Coaches Choice Videos, and a variety of other training articles and resources.  My contact information is on my website so please feel free to email me with any questions.