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Bunt Young, Bunt Often

Marty Schupak Though he received a Bachelor's degree from Boston University in 1975, and in 1978 received a Masters degree in Physical Education from Arizona State University. he first got involved in youth sports by coaching both of his sons' youth baseball teams.
In addition to coaching baseball he has coached children in basketball and soccer. In the past 14 years Coach Marty has managed or coached over 1,200 kids in youth athletics.
Marty takes a proactive approach to coaching youth sports by observing as many practices as he can on the youth level all the way up to high school kids. He is an active member of the American Baseball Coaches Association and the New York Alliance For Youth Sports. He is of course also the well-known producer of the best selling baseball video 'The 59 Minute Baseball Practice' and is president of the Youth Sports Club. We thank Marty for granting us for permission to reprint a collection of his essays from the Youth Sports Club. (Click to close.)

- by Marty Schupak

Bunting is a very big part of the game of baseball. And when a bunt is laid down the right way, it is very difficult to defend. I have always been big on bunting and feel it can be taught at a young age.

There are basically two types of bunts: the square bunt and the pivot bunt. My preference is the pivot bunt because the players just pivot and do not have to lift their feet. Once in a playoff game I had a player square bunt and he put down a perfect bunt and beat it out we all thought. The only problem was when he lifted his leg and put it down in a different position, it was right on home plate and he was called out.

The best way to teach bunting for the first time is to practice with a soft covered ball or a rag ball [Ed.note: described in The 59 Minute Baseball Practice video]. With the rag balls or a soft covered ball, there is very little danger of getting hurt and the players can actually pitch to each other. Once they seem confident, move on to a hard ball with the coach pitching.

There are many bunting strategies that can be used in a game. My favorite is with less than two out and a runner on third, bunt to the third baseman with the base runner bouncing toward home. when the third baseman releases the ball, the man on third runs home and he must slide. If it is a good bunt and the base runner breaks to home when he should, this is almost unstoppable. Remember that youth baseball players can practice bunting at a very young age. Seek out your high school coach to teach the proper technique. Also make sure your best bunters get a chance to swing away.

Reader Commentary: 1 response | WebBall members are invited to comment.

NLVR says:
Jul 16, 2007 at 8:04 AM

Where I come from (The Netherlands) to much weight has been put on bunting, making it a stressful activity for young players. I try to let my players bunt as much as possible. And it works, my players seem to have less problems bunting than their opponents. A good practice for me was: make them bunt thrown tennis balls (or similar) and combine it with duck balls thrown at them. They lose their fear of getting hit and can lay down a good bunt whenever they want.