Outfield signs

We always taught our OF'ers to look into the dugout between pitches and hitters. You can use a single hand to the left for a step left and then count off 3 suttle hand waves for 3 steps and so on. For back, just put up 2 hand palms and simulate pushing toward the outfielder. For coming in, place the back of your hand facing the field, near your chest and chop until you're satisifed with his positioning. Its simple, but if you practice anything, you can make it work gametime.

Thanks for the response. To add to the question, do you normally have set plays and signals for outfielding shifting? Another words say you shift left or right for a particular hitter or left/right hand batter. Maybe also to shift the field deep or shallow for a known long ball hitter or ground ball hitter.

Thanks again.

Thats some of it Nets. But you may want to look at situations as well. Things like the hitter, and how you are pitching him. If you're pitching away to a rh hitter, you'll want to shift to where you're pitching. Any runners on? Are they fast? How high is the grass? What kind of arms do you have? An old one thats never taught anymore is, which direction is the wind blowing and how hard? Your fielders can pull a few blades of grass and throw them up to check direction and speed of wind. They can then elect to shade one way or another. Is your pitcher a very hard thrower? Will batters be late swinging? Slower pitcher, hitters may pull more often. As a coach, there is no time to rest and enjoy the game. You must consider all situations, all the time.

Nets,

That comes with scouting. If you KNOW someone is a dead pull hitter, hoepfully the OF will shift on their own.

I have found as you move up the ranks, OF's get better, smarter, etc. and do this on their own.

Thanks for all the replies. It's been a very interesting road tyring to get a team prepared and coached on all aspects of the game. It seems so much time is spent on in-fielding situations, hitting and other aspects of the game. When it comes to the outfield it seems to be lacking. The old adage of an error in the infield will give up a run but an error in the outfield may cost you the game. In the younger ages I find it so hard to motivate kids trying to get them to understand how important the outfield is. When they get older there is so much to learn about what is going on that it seems they are behind the eight ball because so much emphasis has been placed on the infield.

Great conversation and so much to learn on coaching the outfield, a place where games are won and lost in a single at bat.

thanks,
netspazz

netspazz,,

We signal our outfielders, different ways. When we want them to play back, we signal with our hand over the top of the hat, like a salute except missing the hat. We then tell them nothing over your head. When we want them to play in, the signal is the back of the open hand working like a shovel in a downward motion. Standard side to side alignment is, bases extended in right and left. When we want side to side adjustments, we do just like the traffic cop, one hand up for any depth adjustments, and the other hand will dictate direction we want positioning to.

However, as Coachric stated, the more you know about your opponent and your pitching staff will help your alignment as much as any signs.

We did something a little different, kind of hard to explain so bear with me....

Each outfielder basically pictures themselves as standing on a giant phone keypad. You are standing on the middle button(5). In front of you is a 2, behind you is an 8. In and towards right field is 1, in and towards left is 3, so on and so on. When the batter came to the plate, a sequence is called out....something like 5,8,8. This meant the left fielder stayed put, and the center fielder and right fielder both moved straight back. Left fielder is the first number called, then center, then right. Strange, but it was quick and seemed to work OK.

At my junior college we did something a little different. The outfielder would picture themselves as the center of a clock. so 12 being straight in, 3 to the right, 6 back, 9 to the left. The coach would call out two numbers, the first one being the direction on to where the fielder should move and the second one would be how many steps. so for example 34 would be take for steps to your right. Hope this helps

I have seen that doen as well mikelib19 and seems to be a pretty simple thing to do once you know how big the grid is.

I always kept it simple with my team. We would stand up in front of the dugout and yell their name and then impersonate the guy with orange coned flashlights you see moving planes.

Do any of you make adjustments from pitch to pitch with your outfielders (hopefully without tipping the pitch)? The reason I ask is that if you dont and you play an average hitter to go oppo with an above average fastball then when the changeup comes even the average hitter might be a pull hitter and without adjustment your outfielders would be out of position.

If you do adjust, then how is that accomplished?