What Your Coach Really Means
A guide to help you translate your coach's confusing, conflicting, and sometimes downright wrong terminology
"Freeze on a Line Drive"
Sentence – The phrase is the sentence.
How you may interpret – This one is pretty self-explanatory. When you are on base and a line drive is hit, you need to freeze until you see that the ball is for sure going to land and it is not going to be caught by an infielder.
What your coach is trying to say – Based on what base you are on and where the ball is hit to, “freezing” might not be enough. You may actually need to take a step back to the base in order to prevent be doubled off. For instance, if you are on second base and there is a line drive to the shortstop, your secondary lead will take you far enough off the base and if you just freeze, you will be forced out at 2nd. However, if you take a step back on a line drive, you should be able to make it back.
Note – This only applies to you if you are playing at a level where you can take leads and secondary leads. If you are playing little league then if you freeze you are still on the base.
Watch the runners on 2nd and 3rd (Joey Loperfido and Ernie Clement) take a step back toward the bag after the ball is hit on a line. If this ball gets caught, neither player is going to be doubled off.
7/28/25 Blue Jays @ Orioles - Runners on 2nd and 3rd, 1 out
Loperfido has to retreat all the way to the bag because it doesn't roll far enough away, but watch Clement at 33 second mark of the video. They show a close up of him taking just one step back to the bag, realizing the ball kicked away, and then going to score.
Getting doubled off on a line drive is an absolute rally killer that lets the other team off the ropes. Bad baserunning can throw the other team a lifeline when they are drowning. Taking a step back on a line drive will prevent this from happening and give you a chance to continue the inning.
