Questions about signs

Moderators, please do not delete my post. I thought I had taken the Bible verse off. My signature has been changed and your request.

Your post is all good.

1. What I do is look at the runner I want to steal and it's on for him. If it's a double steal then I make eye contact with both of them. This is something you have to be prepared for because one of the best underutilized (from what I've seen) is the throw to second on the double steal to nail the trail runner.

2. I have both bunts with separate signs

3. I do number of touches with an indicator(s). I might go any touch of skin as indicator or certain body part or whatever. Sometimes I will have two active indicators that I way I can touch either one to help hide signs. Once they see the indicator touched / activated then they count touches and whatever number they count is the play that's on. I also have wipe offs and that's usually me taking my hat off and wipe my head (I usually do that when I mess up the number of touches - I hate counting and numbers).

quote:

Originally posted by Nicholas25:
I have some questions about giving signs.

1. If I have two runners on and I give the steal sign should it automatically be a double steal? I know often it could be, and it would simplify the signs, but many times you may want a fast runner to steal 3B, but want a slow footed runner to stay on 1B.

2. Do you have suicide and safety squeeze in your plays?

3. How many plays/signs do most of you have and do you have an indicator and wipe off? Thanks.

I have a sign for suicide. It requires a confirmation sign back from the batter. If I get it, I whisper or mouth the words "suicide is on" to R3. If I don't get a confirmation sign back from the batter, I get eye-contact with R3 and let him know verbally that there's no play on (in case he saw me flash the suicide, but R3's usually don't).

I don't have a separate bunt sign for safety squeeze. When we go over our signs (daily), our players are reminded that when they get the bunt sign with a runner at third, it's automatically a safety squeeze play (only bunt strikes, and push the bunt, don't pull it--the object being: DON'T bunt back to the pitcher).

Signs in general:
We have an indicator and a wipe.
Also,
Must-steal
Green-light-to-steal
Delayed-steal
Bunt (if bases are empty, this bunt ALWAYS goes up third base on my team) (unless I've got a left-handed drag-bunter, which is very rare).
Suicide bunt
Fake bunt
Hit and run
Take

Offensive first-and-thirds: For R1, we've also got a leave-early steal (sometimes called forced-balk) as well as a steal where R1 is supposed to break hard for 2B after the pitcher commits, but hit the brakes 10 ft. from 2B and get in a pickle if the C throws through. For these two options, we expect the 1B coach to receive the sign and explain it verbally to R1 by whispering into the ear-hole of his helmet. My baserunners are not taught these two signs. It's too much to remember, and anyways I wouldn't be confident running these plays without the 1B coach making sure verbally.

My system is the normal indicator followed by a sign system. The one unique sign that I use is a "fake"....in my case it was two hands to the brim of the cap. So if I wanted fake bunt, I went indicator+fakesign+buntsign. If I wanted a fake steal, I used the fake sign with steal. Tight situation, I could run fake suicide to see what the defense does. It came in very handy.

The other one I use quite often is a "repeat" sign, so if my first sign was to remove my cap, the "repeat" was on even if I gave additional signs. Very handy after a pick-off play, or a missed hit and run.

Lsst but not least was an occassional confirmation sign. If I thought the other team had picked the signs (or they had one of my former players), I would add the "double fist tap" as a confirmation. In that scenario, if I finish with anything other than a double fist tap, it is nothing. But finish with the double fist tap, the play is on! Fairly easy for the kids to remember in a pinch.

I have gone to using wrist bands the last couple of years. I am a traditionalist, but the players like it better and it seems to work….so I guess we will use them again this year.

We have separate signs for suicide squeeze and safety squeeze. We also have the following signs that can be used in any combination.

Steal
Delay Steal
Steal home
Hit/Run
Bunt/Run
Slash
Fake bunt
Sac. Bunt
Bunt
Take
Green light steal

I like the "fake" idea to mix in the system.

d8-how do you use the wrist bands for signs?

We have used the old Thomas Baker High School system where your torso is a quadrant for TBHS, or Take, Bunt, HitnRun, or Steal, after an indicator, and sometimes a closing indicator.

The players prefer when you refer to it as the Totally Bulls&*t Hitting System.

Good discussion on double steal approaches.

What do you all do in the case of freddy77s hit the brakes approach to R1 on the 1st n 3rd situation in a tie game late in the game?

We use the wristband system and it has been full proof, i don't understand how kids don't get touches to an area or indicator but you can put a grid in front of them that looks like coordinates off a computer and they get it, i am also a traditionalist but i have evolved. It gives us more room to do more possibilities. As far as R1/R3 if we bunt it is a saftey squeeze unless i tell the runner at 3b it is suicide by a indicator that i give him and him only, the hitter still does his job and so does the runner at 1b. We also use early break, and delay steal and straight steal off this situation with fake bunt, slash and many other possibilities that now work becuase of a wristband and it doesn't take 5 minutes to get the sign in. As far as the hit the brakes we teach our runners that you steal the base, but we teach the runner to be smart enough that if he is going to be out stop and create the pickle, if the pitch is taken we teach the 3b runner to read it and reacte. Yes this gives players freedom but also makes them more responsible in the game (good coach teaches the situations and allows players to do). If you want to do things properly and not slow the game down with the wristband: you know what you are going to call before the pitch happens if it is a strike and if it is a ball, have to keep hitter and runners in rythm and must make sure everyone has previously worked on reading the cards and knows what the heck all the letters mean.

By the way we use the own the zone product and it has yet to be picked and the kids miss only roughly 15-20 signs in a season, which is better than 2 or 3 a game based on old ways of giving signs.

On a suicide,doesn't R3 watch the battter for the confirmation sign? He goes if he sees the confirmation and doesn't if he doesn't see the confirmation sign.Do other coaches verbally call off the suicide as well?I guess it would be safer.

A couple of summers ago I called for a suicide. The batter confirmed with our confirm sign-- hitching up his belt. Then, he swung away (no one got hurt). After the inning, I find out that he missed the sign, but tugged on his belt because it's sometimes part of his routine.

I changed my confirm sign, after conferring with all my batters.

quote:

Originally posted by Sugi:
On a suicide,doesn't R3 watch the battter for the confirmation sign? He goes if he sees the confirmation and doesn't if he doesn't see the confirmation sign.Do other coaches verbally call off the suicide as well?I guess it would be safer.

On suicides, you gotta respect Murphy's Law. A blown suicide can be a momentum changer, and can get somebody hurt also.

We keep it pretty simple on calling the plays. We use a 6X6 grid. I did this so I could signal plays with one hand if I needed to (ex. R1 could not hear all the way across the field).... For all of you smart A's that will say you dont have six fingers on one hand....we use 0 as the 6th digit.

We use a series of numbers and any two of the numbers could be "hot" to get to the correct box on the grid. We also have the rows color coded and can call plays by a color/number combo.