Rounding 2nd base.

Taking a turn around 2nd base is a poorly taught concept. So many times I have seen young players come around the bag with a big turn. I suppose this is a result of poor outfield arms in youth baseball. I also suppose it's a result of tempting the outfielders to make an ill-advised throw to a base.

However, 2nd base is not the base too get cute with. You do not round 2nd base and take a big turn like it's 1B.

2B is the base where you coast into the bag after a double or you make your mind up about 15 feet prior to the bag and stretch it into a triple.

Now, hopefully the runner coming around 2B is making up his own mind. Hopefully, he isn't expected or trained to pick up the 3B coach to help him make his decision. Even as early as the 13/14 yr. old level the decision should be the runners. It makes things extremely difficult when the 3B coach has the burden of assisting.

Anyway, runners need to be taught to coast into the bag or make a decision about 15-20 ft. prior to the 2B bag on going to 3B.

Furthermore, when defenses are technically sound, a 1B often times trails the runner coming around 2B. In sure doubles/possible triples this makes a return throw a probability of a the base runner that rounds the bag too much.

The concept of rounding 2B is one of the many misinformed pieces of information that gets disseminated incorrectly by many youth coaches.