Sliding head-first or feet-first: the safest option
Josh Hamilton definitely got it right when he said that sliding into the home-plate was a stupid play. For the particular stupid play, Hamilton is now suffering from a fractured bone in his right arm which could potentially take 12 or more weeks to recover
from.
In his own words Hamilton wasn’t too comfortable with the idea of tagging up on the play, so he threw his third base Coach, Dave Anderson under the bus by saying that he did it only because of the pressure he was facing from Anderson. He later apologised
for saying that but at the end of the day Anderson didn’t physically push Hamilton. He chose to run on his own.
If Hamilton didn’t like the idea of tagging up, then he should’ve chosen not to run since he had the option to stay put where he was. Hamilton’s injury isn’t the only incident caused by sliding head first. Just a day before he got injured, Rafael Furcal
of the Los Angeles Dodgers broke a bone in his right hand as he was doing the same and is now going to be out for a good six weeks.
Coaches have always lectured their players against sliding head-first, but there are a lot of players who choose to go against what they’ve been told and do it still. Why? Because it supposedly it gets you to base faster. Is that really true? Hamilton said
he slid head-first because he believes that it is the best way to avoid a tag. Is that true? Many people agree and likewise many disagree.
In the 2003 issue of Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine it was said that there was "no significant difference" in the speed of the players if he slides head-first or feet-first.
A different study in the American Journal of Sports Medicine revealed that there is "no statistically significant difference" in trying to judge whether a player can reach the base at a quicker speed with a head-first as compared to a feet-first.
Professor David Peters has a different opinion though. He believes that going in head first is quicker due to the player’s centre of gravity being thrust in the forward direction.
Hamilton was probably more concerned about getting a lower target for Victor Martinez, the catchers sweep tag. By sliding in with his head first, his entire body was low on the ground. This is very different from the classic feet first slide in which the
player’s upper body sticks up significantly.
There is another option of sliding which is that a player can slide wide of the plate and extend his toes as he sweeps by. This is considered a safer option compared to the other two.
Time has been proof of the fact that head-first slides are an open invitation for injuries. In today’s Major League Baseball players are programmed to believe that sliding head-first is a quicker and more effective alternate to sliding feet-first. Despite
the rise in concerns about increased injury risks the head-first slide is more popular than ever before. Just before Hamilton was injured, he had slid into the third base head-first and had completed a triple.
Despite warnings, it is not easy for the coaches to train their players not to slide head-first. More than often instinct takes over. There is a school of thought within the managers that believe forcing a player to slide feet-first without him being completely
willing to do so may also invite injuries.
However, with the injuries mounting up, sliding feet-first seems like the safer option out of the two.
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