coachjwb
Love this game!
Jeff, I'd be interested in your thoughts on how using he bands teaches game strategy. Thanks in advance.
Darrell
Darrell ... I missed the fact that this post was under the "catching" section and was intended more around pitch-calling. While I do some pitch-calling systems for teams, I see pros and cons of using a wristband system for this especially at the youth level, partially because I'm not a big fan of youth pitchers having to look at a wristband to know what pitch to throw ... concerned about their rhythm or slowing things down too much. Some teams get by this by having the catcher get the sign from the coach, check her wristband, and then "translate" it to a traditional sign for the pitcher.
I do think that a wristband system can introduce (and therefore "teach") more strategy into the game for hitting and baserunning, as well as defensive plays though. While some coaches are great at giving traditional body signs for their teams, many aren't as good at it and either make it so simple that other teams can easily steal the signs or so complicated that their own team misses them. Many coaches won't call decoy signs because of fear of confusing their own team, which of course reduces the effectiveness of signs when something actually is on. I argue (and have had at least a few coaches agree) that by utilizing more decoys, and using a 3 digit system with multiple random combinations for the same sign which tells both the hitter and the baserunners what to do that one's own team will better understand game strategy, and it will definitely keep the other team guessing as to whether something is on or not. It also eliminates excuses from one's own team that they missed or didn't remember a sign in the traditional body sign.