If you’re the coach of a Little League team, of course the most important thing is for you to make sure that the kids are happy and doing their best. One of the most important processes will be teaching the kids different baseball signs. As seen in the professional games, baseball signs are used so that players on a team can communicate with each other but without the other team knowing what they’re talking about. After all, the most important thing is that these kids are going to have fun and not have to spend the whole game racking their brains trying to figure out what their teammates are trying to say to them.
A baseball sign could refer to anything from a touch of the hat to a slide of the foot. It’s up to you as the coach to create the different baseball signs and then pass them on to the players of the team. Sure with adult baseball players one sign could be to touch your hat on the left then right, touch your shirt, wipe your shoe on the ground in a circular motion and cluck like a chicken. To a child this is not only going to be confusing but ridiculous.
You want to make sure that things are really basic and that you’re not going to be confusing the little ones. You should also have different baseball signs for certain players, as this will keep the opposing team guessing even more. They will never know what hit them and have no chance of figuring out what pitch will be thrown in that last inning after you give the sign. You should always work with the children until they have made progress and can remember all of the different baseball signs.
To get the kids started learning their baseball signs, one of the most effective ways to go about it is to make it like homework. Even if they spend just ten or twenty minutes a night going over the different signs they will find it much easier to remember them and use them appropriately in the next game. A lot of kids like to keep the most commonly used signs on a piece of paper so they can review them right before each game. Kids are used to studying so they’ll take to this quite easily.
There may be a few kids who are struggling a bit with learning the different signs. When you have effective baseball signs and the players on the team know how to use and understand them properly, you are going to start winning games. Little League is a lot of fun and the kids are going to be happiest when they’re working together successfully and winning. These are a few great ideas on how to get your team coming together and learning the signs that can help them to win games.
