Baserunning

Smart, aggressive baserunning will change a game, a series, and even a season. It sets the philosophy and mind-set of the coaches, trainers, and players. It becomes instinctual and contagious. It translates to pressure and, most important, wins.

Baserunning is the most complete and authoritative guide on this critical yet often-overlooked offensive skill. You’ll go inside today’s game to learn the techniques and strategies for ruling the basepaths. Discover the secrets to leading off, detecting pick-off attempts, improving first-step speed, avoiding tags, and determining the best counts and situations for success in stealing bases.

But the art of baserunning is more than just speed and swiping bags—it is effortlessly and efficiently rounding the bases, taking the extra base, tagging up, reading defensive positioning, scouting strengths and weakness, forcing errors, and ultimately scoring runs. Only Baserunning covers it all.

With major league advice, skill assessment, the best player and team drills, expert instruction, detailed photo sequences, and proven exercises and routines for speed, agility, and quickness, Baserunning is a must-have for every coach, player, and student of the game.

Mike Roberts is the business development manager at Athletes' Performance, where he directs baseball athlete relations and the sales of major league and minor league training programs. He is also the director of education for SmartKage Sports, a technology system that quantitatively measures athletic performance. A lifelong baseball coach, he is currently the head coach of the Cotuit Kettleers in the Cape Cod Collegiate Summer Baseball League. Roberts played professional baseball in the Kansas City Royals minor league system.

Roberts spent 23 seasons as head baseball coach at the University of North Carolina. Under his guidance, the team played in two College World Series championship series in Omaha and won five Atlantic Coast Conference Championships. Of his athletes, 14 have gone on to play in the major leagues, including two all-stars, B.J. Surhoff and Brian Roberts, one of the most successful base stealers in the majors. Additionally, five of his former players serve as head baseball coaches of Division I schools.

Tim Bishop owns and operates PerformFit Sports Experience, a sport performance and fitness facility, in Cockeysville, Maryland. He also creates strength and conditioning programs for Ripken Baseball’s summer camps and clinics. Bishop served as the strength and conditioning coach for the Baltimore Orioles for 14 years. He also played professional baseball for the New York Yankees and, as a two-sport star, took part in the NFL training camp in St. Louis.

Bishop has appeared on numerous television and radio stations to promote health, fitness, and sport performance training. He is a frequent contributor to Men’s Health, Maximum Fitness, and Men’s Fitness magazines. His training advice has appeared in New York Times, USA Today, and NSCA Journal. He has lectured on a variety of topics for the Professional Baseball Athletic Trainers Society, National Strength and Conditioning Association, M-F Athletics, and various colleges and universities. In addition, he is author of Stronger Legs and Lower Body (Human Kinetics, 2012) and coauthor of the Power for Sports DVD (Human Kinetics, 2006).

Bishop has a bachelor’s degree in human movement and sport studies and a master’s degree in exercise science. He is a certified strength and conditioning specialist and a registered strength and conditioning coach through the National Strength and Conditioning Association.

“No one knows baserunning, and teaches baserunning, better than Mike Roberts. Even I got faster after reading his book.”

Tim Kurkjian-- Major League Baseball Analyst on ESPN’s Baseball Tonight and SportsCenter