Controlling the Running Game: Vary Your Timing to the Plate

Stolen bases are an attack on the pitcher, not the catcher. By the time a catcher receives the ball, a good jump is already a good jump — most steals at the amateur level are won before the pitch arrives. That means the single biggest lever a pitcher controls is the one most ignore in practice: timing. Not just being fast to the plate, but being unpredictable, so a runner can never get a clean read on when to break. This guide makes the case for tempo over raw speed; the vary-the-hold stopwatch times-to-plate drill builds it.

Why predictability is the real enemy

A runner times your move. If you do the same thing every pitch, you have done the timing for them. Elite Baseball Performance frames the fix directly:

"If you just come set and hold it for a count of 3 every time before the pitch, you make it real easy for the runner to time your move the plate." — Elite Baseball Performance (source)

The antidote is variety: vary the hold count at the set, vary how many times you look at the runner, vary when you step off, and mix in the occasional slide step. The runner has to respect every possibility, so no single jump is safe.

Quick matters — but less than you think

There is a number worth knowing. From first move to mitt, around 1.3 seconds is a solid amateur time to the plate; 1.5 and up gives runners a free pass. But chasing an ever-faster number has sharply diminishing returns. As Dan Blewett notes:

"Being ultra fast to the plate is going to only reduce catcher pop time by an additional 0.2 seconds, and at the amateur level, most stolen bases are going to be stolen long before the catcher even receives the pitch." — Dan Blewett (source)

Translation: get into the reasonable range, then stop trading pitch quality for tenths of a second. A located strike with a 1.3 is worth far more than a ball in the dirt with a 1.2. This is why the drill caps the emphasis on speed and spends most of its energy on unpredictability and command.

The slide step: one tool, not the whole toolbox

The slide step shaves time by replacing a high leg kick with a quick lift-and-go, but it is a tool, not a religion. Over-relying on it has two costs. First, it can rush the delivery and scatter command. Second, and more subtly, it points the pitcher's attention at the runner instead of the hitter. Elite Baseball Performance is blunt about that trade for young arms:

"And this is why I don't like the slide step for young pitchers. Because you're placing the emphasis (and the pitcher's attention) on the baserunner, not the batter." — Elite Baseball Performance (source)

So the drill treats the slide step as one option among several — used selectively, mixed with varied holds and looks — rather than a default that turns every pitch into a rushed sprint.

How the drill works

A partner puts a real stopwatch on you, starting on your first move and stopping when the ball hits the mitt, so quick stops being a vibe and becomes a number. Then they secretly assign a hold count — one, two, or three seconds — before each pitch, and you execute that exact hold with a clean, identical delivery. You mix the number of looks at the runner, and on some reps you slide-step or step off. You track two things every rep: your time to the plate and whether you held the assigned count. Both have to be true. Full setup, cues, and progressions, including live-runner pressure, are on the drill page.

Common mistakes

The headline mistake is sameness: same hold, same looks, same tempo, every pitch. Watch also for the athlete who over-corrects into pure speed and starts spraying the ball — quick and wild loses more than slow and located. A pitcher who leans entirely on the slide step becomes predictable in a different way and rushes their stuff. And the quiet killer is attention: when a pitcher's focus drifts to the runner, the hitter gets a better pitch to hit, which is a worse outcome than the stolen base you were worried about.

Age-appropriateness

This is a low-load, no-extra-stress drill — it is timing and decision work layered onto pitches you are already throwing, so there is no age floor beyond being able to pitch from the stretch. For younger pitchers, lean away from the slide step and toward varied holds and looks, exactly as the sources advise, so their attention stays on the hitter while they still learn to be unpredictable. The same logic applies in softball, where leadoffs start at release but timing the pitcher's rhythm still drives jumps.

The takeaway

You cannot out-throw a great jump, but you can make a great jump impossible to plan. Get into a reasonable time to the plate, then spend your reps becoming unpredictable — varied holds, varied looks, the slide step as a changeup, not a fastball — all while keeping the ball on the plate. Do that and the running game quietly dries up, without you ever taking your eyes off the only person who can actually beat you: the hitter.

Sources

• Controlling the Running Game: Should Young Pitchers Slide Step? — Elite Baseball Performance on varied timing and the cost of over-relying on the slide step.
• Slide Step Pitching Mechanics — Dan Blewett on times to the plate and the diminishing returns of being ultra-fast.
• The Slide Step — Baseball By The Yard on when and how to use the slide step.
• Controlling the Running Game: Should Pitchers Slide Step — BetterPitching.com on varying looks, pauses, and throw-overs to hold runners.
• Pitchers: Control the Running Game — The Full Windup on disrupting a runner's timing.