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How to slide with metal cleats in baseball?

I heard it's dangerous to slide with metal cleats in baseball. How is it different and what is the right way to slide? I already know how to slide with rubber cleats.

Public Comments

1. Head First Edit I've bin hit by both and they fell the same. It only hurt if you get hit in the knee or shin. If you are Ty Cobb and sharpen your cleats every night than it is going to hurt.
2. it's only dangerous in the sense that you could take someone out intentionally i've slid with both rubber and metal cleats and it's about the same. the only thing you have to be careful about is digging the metal into your leg if you slide in a 4 position
3. The right way to slide is to aim for the second baseman's crotch.
4. I thought they banned the use of metal cleats at all levels of baseball?
5. Slide the same way you do with rubber cleats. Ideally, try and slide with your lead leg up about 6 inches so you hit the base with the shin of your back leg.
6. just dont be a pussy and slide hard and for the first couple weeks keep your foot up a little to prevent u from digging into the dirt and spraining an ankle of something stupid like that...but u will get used to it after awhile..its not that big of a deal tho to go from rubbers to metals..guys in the big leagues still wear rubber
7. The difference is if you end up spiking someone with metal cleats you have a very good possibility of injuring them badly. Or if you end up sliding incorrectly, for instance if you're bottom leg gets caught under you when sliding, you could seriously twist/sprain an ankle. The same goes if you go into a slide too hard and try and stop too fast by digging your top foot into the dirt hard and causing it to roll over. Metal cleats when dug into dirt will "stick" much more than a rubber one causing your ankle to stop while the rest of you keeps going.
8. A kid should know how to slide safely long before he wears metal cleats. It should not be an issue.
9. Although I am a high school fastpitch softball player, I am allowed to use metal cleats, and chose to take advantage of that. I use under armor metal cleats, and I have noticed that there is little difference, I get much more traction with metals than with rubber cleats, but sliding is the same.... There wasn't any difference with running sliding, or anything, the metals didn't affect my game at all. The only bad thing, which can (and I emphasize can) is when you slide into a base, and cleat the baseman, sometimes the baseman gets cut, or brused, and they complain a little.... That's just about it.... There really isn't much more..... Just play ball =D