Coaching Signals
KEYS TO GIVING SIGNALS:
- Keep Them Simple! They are for your team to understand, not for the other team to keep from picking up.
- Give at a pace slow enough for your players to get.
- Give all signals at the same pace – both the real ones and the fake ones.
- Make sure your players watch you through your entire signal – instead of turning away once they get the signal. This will make it harder for the other team to pick them up.
1. BODY PARTS
Designate a certain body part to represent the action you want:
(examples…)
- 1 leg = steal
- both legs = hit and run
- 1 arm = sacrifice bunt
- both arms = bunt and run
2. NUMBER SYSTEM
The number of touches or claps becomes the signal.
(examples…)
- 1 = Bunt
- 2 = Steal
- 3 = Hit & Run
- 4 = Bunt & Run
- 5 = Take
3. ROVING INDICATOR SYSTEM
The first body part you touch becomes the key, so nothing means anything until you touch that body part again. The indicator is then followed by whatever type of signal you wanted to give. (This system is often used by Major League Baseball teams who are trying to keep their opponents from detecting their signals.)
4. LIVE AND DEAD INDICATORS:
Designate one body part to be “live” and the other to be dead. For instance, the left ear is “live” and becomes the indicator, the right ear is nothing. If you touch the dead ear, or body part, nothing’s on, but if you touch the “live” body part it then becomes the indicator and the signal then follows. |
