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Gareth Jones, Monday, 22 March 2010 The Rams philosophy on bunting to date and an explanation. Bunting in the Little League and U14 age groups.For quite some time now the QLD Rams program has held the philosophy that bunting will not be taught within the program until the U16 level. Kids will always experiment and we do not stop them from experimenting with bunting in their own time, we just don't teach it to them at practice. This is also discussed at all Level 1 Coach Accreditation Courses in Queensland. I have attended numerous meetings where this has been discussed at length by various coaching staffs. These discussions have largely revolved around whether the program needs a shift in philosophy from the long term development of athletes to chasing victories and short term gains in the form of winning National Championships at the U14 level. Whilst winning can remain the objective for any junior in sport and we can encourage them to be competitive, the adults in the situation need to keep the bigger picture in mind. This bigger picture and the benefits of the program long term, always won out in these group discussions. If there are any older Rams Coaches out there who remember these discussions or would like to share their opinion on this please feel free to contact me and I will add your comments to this page.
Some of the arguments put forth in these dicussions are what I would like to share. I would also like to share some of the information that has gone into the philosophies behind the Rams program. Please see the attached documents - "Baseball Queensland Age Level Key Area Progression and Priorities", "Long Term Athlete Development; Implications for coaches at each level". Whether you decide to buy in or not remains each individual coach's and each club/program's decision.
Consider why we bunt. We bunt to get on base, bunt to score a run or more commonly, bunt to move runners. We bunt because we know, when it is done correctly in the right situation we increase our chances of scoring runs and winning any given game. So a simplified premise is that we bunt to put ourselves in a position to win. As the coach of a junior club team I would suggest there are a number of things on our list of season objectives that come well before winning. Things such as the wellbeing of our players, the degree to which players improve under our guidance, the enjoyment players derive from participating in baseball, the long term development of players, the friendships players develop while participating in sport, the life lessons players can derive from participating; then somewhere closer to the bottom of the list is winning. Coaches should be more concerned with teaching the game correctly and letting the players worry about winning. The Grand Final for the coach of a junior team should be measured in the outcomes for players at the completion of their junior sport career, any game played on that path is simply a milestone. This is not to take away from any player's efforts and desires to win week to week, rather an attempt to express the importance of quality leadership in pressure situations. When coaches get in these "Big Game" situations it can be easy to forget the big picture or end goal. Until you derive your main source of income from coaching, winning is not a priority for the coach. It feels good to win but junior sport is not about you (the coach).
Bunting does not fit in the Player Development Pathway for LL/U14 age groups. Kids in these age groups fit into the train to train stage of the ABF's player pathway. In the train to train stage players are "prepared" for tactical play. Things such as providing infielder's with three basic positionings such as "Back" or "Regulation" (no-one on or 2 out), "Double play depth" (runner on 1B less than 2 out), and "In" (runner on third that you need to keep from scoring, less than two out) fit within this preparation. It is our philosophy that complex Bunt D plays do not fall into this level of development. The Train to Train age is about teaching players key values such as good sportsmanship. The train to train stage is about teaching using drills to facilitate acquisition of the requisite muscle memory responses to sport specific visual stimulus. (These drills need to be supported with modified "game sense" games that teach the players how to apply the skills acquired through repitition). Winning is not listed as a priority for this point in the player pathway. The kids can be and should be encouraged to be competitive within the spirit of the game. The player pathway carries implication that are to be delivered by coaches in order to provide outcomes other than winning for the participants. In other words in this level of the pathway, let the kids worry about winning and the coaches worry meeting the developmental needs of the players. Coaches should view junior games as an extension of practice - just another learning experience for the players.
One of the earliest arguments I was exposed to for holding off teaching bunting until U16 is that bunting is one of the easiest things to do in Baseball. Successfully driving the ball on a consistent basis is one of the more difficult things in Baseball. Given the simple concept that it is going to take longer for a player to learn to drive the ball consistently to ALL FIELDS than it is to learn to bunt the ball consistently, the argument then comes down to what is more important in the larger majority of game situations? Driving the ball or bunting? Generally most coaches would consider a hitter that can consistently drive the ball to all fields to be more valuable than a player that can bunt. Let's consider why we bunt. Granted it is normally a tight situation when a coach calls for a bunt and so it may be important for a win (short term success). Normally trying to move runner(s) into scoring position or squeeze a runner in to score a go ahead run. This is a small percentage of the total time any player plays the game. ie most at bats you want to see them drive the ball. Given this and the years it may take a player to develop the ability to drive the ball consistently to all fields, we would rather see players learn to drive the ball first, then learn how to bunt at a later stage. The difficulty most people associate with bunting normally stems from the fact they are only asked to do it in pressure situations. When you think of the actual skill involved it is not as complex as hitting through the ball.
Another argument that normally goes with this discussion is that the complexity of executing bunt defense plays beyond the "Regular" bunt defense play may be beyond most kids in this age group. Practicing these complex plays can take up a lot of prescious practice time that could be spent teaching the fundamental skills (which is what should be happening in this age group). These same fundamental skills are the ones that are required in order to consistently execute the more complex bunt D plays. If you are going to teach bunting it makes sense that you should be prepared to defend against a bunt. In order to effectively combat bunt offense, you would ideally like your players conversant with the "Regular", "Flash", "Crash" and "Pick" Bunt D plays as well as the 5 series. To execute these plays in game situation to a high degree of success requires the players to posses a high level of competency in the fundamentals of throwing and catching plus an in depth knowledge of their role on each play and what they can expect from the offense and an approriate response to same. This means teaching Bunt D plays to Little league and U14 players is putting the horse before the cart to a certain extent. That is, we expect them to be able to execute complex plays before they master the fundamental skills required to do so. Of course we have all seen kids at the Little League World Series who can pull off these plays but realistically, based on the amount of time we (Aus) have at practice each week with players and with our team (normally four hours tops), there are more important things we could be working on; like being able to execute the basic routine plays routinely. If we head down this path of bunting in this age group I would speculate that we will have numerous club coaches wanting to spend copious amounts of valuable practice time teaching bunt D plays in order to have an adequate defense. I would also speculate that we would end up with a myriad of wierd and wonderful interpretations (similar to the situation we find with pick off plays currently) of the standard bunt D and 5 Series plays as adopted by the State and National programs. All adding up to less practice time spent on age appropriate fundamentals and more on complex defensive plays to combat bunt offense.
It is a fact of life for Little League and U14 coaches that you are going to come up against teams that are going to take advantage of the situation in order to secure short term rewards. The situation being, most Little League and U14 coaches teach inline with the program as it is explained to them at the level 1 Coach Course. This means teams in QLD are probably not prepared for their opposition to bunt on them as they have not spent valuable practice time teaching bunt D in place of more important age appropriate skills. In this case it turns out to be a successful ploy to get runners on, over or in. Given this situation, it is often looked upon as "not in the spirit of the game" as it is an exploitation of a situation resulting from a program directive. A directive that is generally adopted by coaches in QLD.
To help your team prepare for this, here are some simple things you can do to possibly defend against teams that want to bunt. They won't eat up hours of practice either as they are skills you should already have taught or be teaching to U14 teams and some to the Little Leaguers. (Eg. Little Leaguers don't need to learn pick off moves as the runners remain on the bases).
You should already have taught your infield at least three basic positionings. These positionings are normally used to identify priority runners. The positionings are as set out above - back, double play and in. If you have your infield play "in" or "corners in" in bunt situations it can put a little more pressure on the hitter to make a "good" bunt instead of just get it on the ground away from the pitcher. A corners in defense also makes it easier for your middle infielders to turn a double play. The Infield In or Corners in positioning also makes getting at least one out in any bunt situation achievable, given all your players will have already been practicing slow roller plays, they should be able to make the out at 1B most of the time. Remember the first rule for any team on defense in a bunt situation is to get at least one out. The offense are prepared to give up an out to move/score a runner so you have to get at least one of them out. If it cannot be the lead runner it is good enough to get the hitter/runner. If you can make the out at first this will give you runners at 2B and/or 3B with one out. If your team can make the regulation outs and your pitchers can throw strikes and stay ahead in the count (execute fundamental skills) you should be able to get out of the inning with only one run scoring (ideal situation). This is a great inning on defense especially for kids in this age group.
Another method to address teams bunting on you is the inside/kick around pick off move to second base (applies to U14 only). This simple pick off play can often catch runners cheating and get them caught in a run down if not pick them off outright. It is also useful to identify whether a team intends to bunt or not because the hitter will normally square to bunt when the pitcher lifts their leg to load.
Your catcher(s) can get in on the action too. Your catchers should already be practicing throwing to all bases. Any time an opposition hitter bunts through the ball have your catcher throw behind a runner (obviously a coordinated approach as someone needs to be at the base to catch the ball, but less complex than your Bunt D plays). This can lead to runners that survive the initial pick off attempt being less aggressive on the base paths.If they throw the ball away, they throw it away as long as they are attempting to do something positive you should not be concerned or display negative emotions.
All of the above issues are based on bunt plays other than the squeeze play. The suicide squeeze play is considered to have more inherent risk to the baserunner and therefore we consider it too dangerous to be conducted in most junior levels of play. There are a number of signals that must be given and more importantly received in order for this play to be executed smoothly and therefore too great a risk of error and miscommunication. The safety squeeze is even considered to increase the runners chances of being hit by a ball hit hard at them, therfore it is still important for some form of recognition signs and not recommended for use in junior play.
There are no RULES, BQ or otherwise to stop anyone from bunting. We recommend to coaches that go through our courses, that bunting is not a priority fundamental for participants until they reach the U16 age group. U14 players in the program are encouraged to drive the ball to all fields and work on getting the ball to carry. This is taught all the way through the program indicating how often it needs to be practiced and how long it takes to develop the skill to the point where it can be executed consistently. Bunting is normally picked up farily quickly by comparison. Bunting also requires practice but we place a greater priority on driving the ball and producing players that can do so.
The Athlete Development Program (pages 77 - 86), also available from the Coach's Assoc website, includes a checklist of "Curriculum" fundamentals for players in these Little League and U14 age group. It is far more important to address each of the checklist items and ensure your team members have had a chance to tick all these boxes before you begin to teach them to bunt or allow them to bunt in game situation. This is because these fundamentals set a solid platform for the introduction of more complex skills and strategies for when the children move on to older age groups.
This is all part of a big picture philosophy and whether your club, team or program subscribe to it is up to you; but consider the situation where coaches that are trying to teach in-line with the State Program are confronted by teams managed by coaches who want to operate outside the philosophies held by the wider community in club ball in Queensland and the Rams program. ie one team enters the game in the belief that bunting will not be part of the game at that level. The other team enters the same game with every intention to exploit the fact that the majority of coaches in that league have not prepared their players to run bunt D because they want to teach in line with the Rams program and see the merit behind doing so. Now imagine that the same situation occurs in a game in a finals series and consider the emotions that might surface. Is this a situation we want for our junior sport? Is this in the spirit of the game?
I would suggest that a common approach is needed to avoid conflict situations. To me the starting point for a common approach is what falls in line with the player pathway; what falls in line with a long term plan (such as the Rams program) to develop quality players from todays juniors; to priorities meaningful long term outcomes for the players over fleeting short term benefits and victories. Of course we need to encourage the players to remain competitive but it befalls the adults in the situation to keep control of their emotions and keep their eyes on the long term prize. "The race is long and does not necessarily go to the swift, but to those that endure".
Any questions or comments can be directed to the Development Manager, Baseball Queensland
do@baseballqld.asn.au
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