Where are you looking?
 

Coach with a quick question brought on by watching the Braves implode last night. Michael Bourne attempted to steal 3rd and was tagged out. Don't want to get into call itself but more on where you're looking, and what you're looking for, on a tag play.

I came up with a couple different possibilities:

• See the whole play - don't concentrate on the glove/tag or the runner's contact with the bag, but see the whole play (someone once explained to me that's how piano players read music, they see the whole line of music and not individual notes since they're playing off of two separate staffs).
• Watch the glove make contact - and rely on peripheral to determine if the runner's foot stops forward progress or the knee/leg changes direction.
• Watch the foot/leg make contact with the bag - and rely on peripheral to determine when/if glove makes contact with runner before they reach the base.

Any insight regarding what you're looking for on slide/tags would be appreciated.

If you make the expected call, you don't need to watch anything.

Now that that is out of the way, I choose option B above.

Assuming the ball is in the glove, I go with B. If the ball is in the non-glove hand, of course, I'm looking at the non-glove hand.

This. For tag plays, I'm following the ball.

I watch the ball hand touch the runner and determine if he did so before or after the runner's foot (or hand, or body part) touches the base. I try to get as close to the play as possible and still be able to see the entire play unfold and not get blocked out by anything.