Is it cheating, or not ? What do you think ?

[GunnerShotgun]

Even at 12u it doesn't really matter. I joked with coaches we should hold up signs for bunting, stealing, and pitches.

Even if the opposing team knows you are stealing, either you can stop it or you can't.

Just my observations...

 

[JAD]

I have a little moral dilemma, need your help. I'm an assistant coach on my daughters 10u softball team. I generally can figure out opposing coaches pitch signs (besides the obvious 1 for fastball 2 for changeup), steal signs, etc. Do you consider it cheating if I give a code to my girls If I know what pitch is coming ? I'm back and forth with this issue. Is it just strategy ? I'd love your opinion thanks !

I would not consider it cheating, but bad sportsmanship. You are also giving your hitters a "crutch" that will not always be there. Let them learn how to recognize the different pitches and make the adjustments now, otherwise they will struggle at 12U, 14U, 16U....I can just imagine one of your former players talking to her new coach about why she cannot hit a change up now, "my former coach always told me when it was coming".....

 

[Coach JV]

OMG Its 10U!!! Enough said.

 

[RubberBiscuit]

Alright - let me check your thoughts on a 16U "act" I was involved with:

Pitcher looked at her grip before almost every riseball. I relayed this to the team and I believe it was marginally beneficial for us as we did automatically just watch most of the rb's that did get called almost all the time Balls. But wow was it a surprise the 1% of the time she didn't look into her glove....

I think the other coach was starting to think we were reading his signs but I don't get into that business.

Thoughts on this?

 

[DD11]

I'm not sure why we're scoffing at 10 YOs throwing breaking balls.. ?

 

[sluggers]

I'm not sure why we're scoffing at 10 YOs throwing breaking balls.. ?

I saw a great pitcher for Utah Unicorns throwing great breaking stuff at the "Jackalope 10U Invitational".

 

[GOINGDEEP]

I think if you are stealing signs to relay to the batter in the box, that's not right. With that said, I love to steal signs, but I'm looking for patterns. Most coaches have no clue that they are infact pretty predictable after __ # of pitches. So we will talk about the "patterns" to the batters before they start the new half inning.

What we do is to teach the girls to pick up signals. Runner on second should always be eyeing the catcher's signal to relay the call to the batter with body language.

The biggest thing we teach early on is picking up the offensive signals. We work really hard on the entire infield being able to decode.......the bunt, swing and run, straight steal, delayed, etc. Finding the primer or indicators was always fun for the whole dugout, it was a "group" game we all enjoyed playing. We had a couple that by 15, they could decode faster than us grownups.

Please don't come to the ballpark with a set of Walmart brand signals, and then complain when someone steals them. Having an elaborate set of signals is not that hard to learn.

 

[RubberBiscuit]

Please don't come to the ballpark with a set of Walmart brand signals, and then complain when someone steals them. Having an elaborate set of signals is not that hard to learn.

I.E. = the wristbands....

 

[mosftballdad]

I would rather the girls learn how to recognize the pitch. This takes a lot of time and lots of practice. They need to see the spin and know what the spin means. This will benefit them way more than coaches telling them what is coming...which as some have already said...is wrong most of the time.

We played up in 16U this weekend and one of the coaches would "guess" when a change up was coming. Even when we did throw it they never hit it. It would benefit them more in the long run to learn to recognize spin, signs etc than to rely on a coach to tell them...imho

 

[Coach JV]

At 10U I prayed pitchers could throw strikes. Breaking ball or not, its nice when they hit the strike zone at this level