Putting pressure on the defense is one of the best ways to force long innings.  Long, drawn out innings have a way to crush the opponents resolve.  I’ve outlined one way to achieve this end result of added pressure while on offense.  Understanding the psychology of an opposing defense and exploiting their concerns are valuable for any good coach to insert into his baseball drills with his team.  So… 

Run, run, and run some more!

Now if you’re slow as a snail, don't skip the rest of this article because you think you can’t contribute on the base paths.  The good news for you is that you don’t need any speed to understand and utilize this concept.  If you are blessed with some speed, then this tip could add another valuable dimension to your game.  You see, the more offensive movement is created on the base paths, the more potential there is for the defense to panic and make mistakes. You’ll want to create movement on the base paths the following ways:

1.      Take bigger leads on first and second bases.  Most youth baseball players are scared to get too far off the base, especially at first base.  The goal of any runner should be to split the focus and concentration of a defense.  A poor lead at first base allows the pitcher and remaining defensive positions to keep most concentration on the hitter.  So what is a good lead?  You’ll want to be able to rotate your body and dive (body fully extended) back to the bag in time.  If you are paying attention to the right movements from the pitcher, this should not be a risky move at all.

Getting yourself an aggressive lead will do two things for you.  First, and most importantly, it will force the pitcher to split his concentration between you and your buddy up to bat.  Not only will this help you on the base paths, but it will help out your hitter as his pitch location will likely improve if the pitcher pays too much attention to you.  Secondly, the more you can get the pitcher to toss over to first base, the more likely he’ll shoot one wide of first and you’ll end up on second base because of the wild throw.

2.      Take aggressive turns on the bases.  Many younger players after hitting a baseball will trot down to first base content with their base hit through a hole between two infielders.  This unfortunately puts zero pressure on the defense.  While an outfielder is unlikely to make a fielding error on a routine base hit ground ball hit at him, he’s more likely to throw the ball wide of second base if he sees you taking a hard turn at first.  Your first goal on any hit to the outfield is to reach second base.  The mentality that everything you hit is a double will help fuel your base path aggressiveness.  I'm in no way advocating running bases wildly; I'm simply promoting adding some extra heat on the defense to provoke some mistakes.