Hand Signaling

Hand signaling allows you to communicate silently within line of sight.

Signaling is quieter and often more reliable than whispering into a radio mike. Sometimes movement is more dangerous than sound and radio is appropriate, sometimes you need to be quiet but can move and signaling is best.

Maintaining Line Of Sight

Hand signaling breaks down when you get cut off from line-of-sight, so you must stay visible and alert to signal effectively.

When on the move, shoot an eye towards your team members every ten or fifteen seconds in case they’re trying to signal you.

Repeat Signals

Get in the habit of passing the signals on: when one member of the team uses a hand and arm signal, everyone who sees it should repeat it. That will let the signaler know that his sign is acknowledged and increases the chance that the intended recipient (who may be looking away at any given moment) will get the message.

American Sign Language

Although hand signals are normally just a small set of specialized gestures, signals can be combined with American Sign Language to enable much richer communications.

Who Uses Hand Signaling

Signaling is an important aspect of tactical group activities like hunting, law enforcement and military operations.

Memorizing Signals

Signals are no good unless you memorize them properly. Make sure everyone in a group understands the same signals. You should have a standardized set for your team.

Common Signal Sets

Each team should have standarrdized sets of signals. There are a number of context-specific signal sets that are widely used.

Motorcycling Signals

http://www.ama-cycle.org/roadride/groupRideSignals.asp

Numbers

Most people know how to signal up to five but there are also one-handed signals up to 10. If you forget 6-10, flash five, close fingers and flash the extra, such as 5-3 for 8.

Tactical Signals

A few common signals used by military and SWAT teams are shown below. You can use them as is, modify them for your purposes, or make up your own from scratch. But in any event, have a set that everyone in the team knows and recognizes. Then use them. Source: http://www.airsoftgent.be/dbase/hands.htm

A common scenario for combining tactical signals goes like this:

The point man hears voices ahead and signals "stop" "I hear" "pointing northeast" "quiet". He advances a little further and spots movement in two directions, counts 2 on the left and 1 on the right. He crouches and signals "crouch" "I see" "2" "points northeast fingers walking south" "1" "points east fingers walking south".

You	Me	Come	Listen or I Hear
Watch or I See	Hurry Up	Stop	Freeze
Cover This Area	Go Here or Move Up	Enemy	Hostage
Sniper	obstacle	Cell Leader	Column Formation
File Formation	Line Abreast Formation	Wedge Formation	Rally Point
Pistol	Rifle	Shotgun	Ammunition
Vehicle	I Understand	I Don't Understand	Crouch or Go Prone
	Door	Window	Point of Entry

Silly Hand Signals

http://www.petebevin.com/archives/signals.html