Fellow coaches,
I coach a 14-year old USSSA travel team and have faced some teams that do two things effectively, which I have a hard time stopping.

1) Delayed steals. Often catching our 1B off guard not saying anything because his secondary lead is very aggressive. And when he does go the 1B is focused on the hitter.

2) False breaks. Or fake steals, often causing a disturbance to the communication and confidence of the 1B. Catcher also often pops up looking to throw down to 2B with no one going.

Any ideas on how to shut this down?

Delayed steals... shortstop should check the runner after EVERY pitch. Often it's the shortstop or catcher that teams are keying on when they decide to delayed steal.

Delay Steal
You need to make sure your shortstop and 2nd baseman are scissoring on every play. If they are doing this they will be at the bag. I use a delay steal quite a bit and hardly ever get thrown out because I am looking for middle infielders who do not scissor. Your catcher needs to also be always ready to throw.

Fake Break
Your first baseman needs to learn to use his ears....Normally when a fake break is made the runner takes 3 steps. Your first baseman needs to focus his ears on the runner and not yell anything until after the 3rd step. Also as a coach become aware of the counts that this takes place in and coach your players to understand what is taking place.

If your infielders are always talking about the potential of a delay before it happens...you are in good shape. When the 3B Coach hears the defense constantly taking about delays and other situations, it tells him that this is the wrong team to delay against. TALK, TALK, TALK and you won't have to react to it.

As for the fake steal...pick behind! If that runner is taking steps to fake a break, ge will not get back to 1B as quickly. Nothing shuts the running game down better than picks.

If you are playing a team that likes to delay steal or take large secondary leads you can lull the runner into a pickoff and discourage the large secondary lead, even if your catcher doesn't have a good enough arm to pick.

Setup: when returning the ball to the pitcher the catcher takes two steps in front of plate and casually tosses ball back to pitcher w/o looking at runner. Catcher looks like he's not paying attention to the runner.

Pick off: catcher takes two steps in front of plate not looking at runner except his second step is towards first accompanied by a throw to first.

Your catcher does not need a strong arm to make it work, as the coach and runner are not expecting a throw and may never even see it coming. I have seen this one work on very aggresive base running teams in a close game.

This is not a little league play, it was taught to my son by a pro catching instructor/scout.

You can only use this one once for an out! So use it when it counts.