Kevin Graber M.Ed.

@Coach_KGraber • 7,537 subscribers

Admissions + Baseball - @MastersAcadIntl // Manager - @LowellSpinners // Former MiLB Manager/Coordinator - Chicago @Cubs // New York State Baseball HOF Inductee

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Kevin Graber M.Ed.

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In my humble opinion, base coaches should at least jog to their assigned coaching box. No walking! One of many reasons Steve Sabins and WVU Baseball are on my Mt. Rushmore of college baseball programs today.

Watch the arms. Most common mechanical flaw I see in baseball runners, arms pumping E to W, shoulders twisting, force bleeding side to side in zig-zag pattern. Sprinters drive arms N to S to cancel rotation from legs (no zig-zag). Arms cross midline, and you fight your own body.

Videos

Watch Anya Live

Reading a lefty, from Eduardo Pérez — passed down from Lou Brock: Key on his left foot, the one on the rubber. Toes lift at the start? He's coming to first. Toes stay down? He's going home. Eduardo's advice? One foot tells you everything.⚾

1/5: Which foot should hit the inside corner of the bag? Three schools of thought.

Watch Rickey's last step before the headfirst dive. Every stride lands under his hips — except this one, planted wide. It's a takeoff step, right out of long-jump science: the plant lowers his center of mass and launches him. A sprint, turned into a dive.

Watch Bobby Witt Jr. tilt his whole body into this turn. His lean isn't style — it's physics. Centripetal force = mv²/r. Faster speed, tighter turn, more lean. That's what keeps you from drifting wide (Judson et al., 2020, Journal of Biomechanics).

The path is a straight line. The head is not. Watch Rickey Henderson and Asafa Powell run at the camera — the head swings across the centerline on every step, arms and trunk countering the legs. Straight-line speed, built from little turns. 👇

BY POPULAR DEMAND: Anatomy of a Rickey Henderson steal, segment by segment — steal break to headfirst slide. The hands, the push, the drop step, the lean, the shin angle, the ankles, the arm swing, the slide. What 1,406 stolen bases looks like.

Which foot do you hit the base with? Most say right. Some say left. But watch: left foot at second, right at third, both on the inside corner. The foot follows the stride. Force a foot and you chop your stride to brake. Hit the inside corner, lean, and push.

BY POPULAR DEMAND: Anatomy of a delay steal off a one-way lead vs. a left-handed pitcher.

Managing the Lowell Spinners this summer. We're running delay steals at a crazy clip — and not getting thrown out. It's not luck. We know the technique that works and we're systematic about when to use it. Shout outs Ryan Caulfield and Anthony Sanchez for great work with our runners.

1/3: Rickey Henderson slid later than others. Not a coincidence — physics. The moment you hit the dirt, friction kills speed. Staying on your feet longer keeps you at full speed deeper toward the bag. Watch Rickey's slide point vs. others'.

Managing the Lowell Spinners this summer. Here's a sample of the momentum steals we've racked up thus far. Every kid on the roster is in on it. When the whole org. buys in -- from GM to staff to players -- it's a weapon.

Head-first or feet-first — which is faster? The research says it's a wash. Two studies found no significant difference. But here's the kicker: 68% of players perceived head-first as faster. The stopwatch disagreed.

Technique first, then timing, distance, and anticipation.

Best baserunning play you've never heard of. Top 9, Gm. 7, 1960 World Series. Bases loaded, 1 out. Berra grounds to Nelson, who steps on bag at 1B. Most runners advance. Mantle dives back. Once Nelson touched 1B the force was off — he had to tag Mantle. Tying run scores.

BY POPULAR DEMAND: Does diving into 1B get you there faster? Statcast timed Brett Gardner, who swore by it, and every run-through beat the dive. Research agrees: Haag (2020) found running beats sliding + that hand injuries are an issue. Sprint through the bag!

(1/5) What's the perfect path around first base? Nobody has the answer. Math models give us a theoretical ideal. A new GPS study gives us segment-by-segment speed data. But no one's mapped it with real runners on real dirt — cleat traction, body types, bag placement. Still open.

The head-first pop-up slide exists and nobody's teaching it. No one even seems to have recognized it. It just evolved — runners figured it out on their own. Feel vs. real, on the dirt.

Wanna see a wizard at work? Bradlee Beesley, the pride of Cal Poly / Cubs org. 2020-24.

1/7 Elly De La Cruz might be the most electric baserunner in the game. His steal-break arm action also looks nothing like the way it's traditionally taught. Watch his arms vs. the field. 🧵