TeeBall Parent Guide Blog

The Tee Ball Parent Blog features daily posts and updates that provide tball parents with free teeball articles, tee ball drills, and t-ball coaching tips. Our daily posts and archives include hundreds of interesting and informative teeball coaching blogs. Make sure to bookmark or save this site to your favorites so that you can visit us often to gain valuable insight and tips for helping your teeball player learn the game of baseball and improve his skills.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Baseball Training Techniques and the T-Ball Game

Baseball Training Techniques and the T-Ball Game
By guest author: Chris Moheno

The ball is placed on an adjustable "tee" that is in the player's personal strike range, and they swing at the ball on the tee, instead of having a ball pitched to them.

This game is often played by young school age boys to learn the baseball training, such as batting positions, how to swing and the rest of the rules of baseball. The primary advantage of playing tee-ball is that the ball is automatically in the player's personal "strike zone", so they don't have to learn the hand-eye coordination that is necessary with a live pitcher. Other than that, the rules of T-ball are the same and it is primarily helpful for teaching baseball hitting skills.

If is not unusual for the young boy's tee-ball or T-ball leagues to allow the game to be played with wiffle balls and bats for safety reasons and because they are lighter. Actual T-balls are slightly larger than a baseball and softer, and there are actual bats and gloves that are used.

As the boys get older, they can learn to play with real baseballs and bats, which help them in baseball training as they enter the correct age to start learning to hit a live pitch. On some of the leagues, coaches will have them practice hitting a few live pitches to start developing the baseball training they will need later.

Because of this, the players that play tee ball or T-ball are typically between 4 and 8 years of age. There is a minimum of 12 players on each team and no more than 20, although it should be limited to 15 players. The reason for this is that each inning allows every player on each team to bat, and the inning is over after each team has allowed every player a time at bat. Games are four innings and scoring is not always used since it is to develop baseball hitting skills and learn other baseball training.

There are no strike-outs or walks and the ball must travel more than ten feet or it is a foul. Batters can't steal bases- the ball has to be hit for them to move around the bases. It teaches the players the skills necessary to play baseball and it allows all players a chance to bat and play the field.

The whole idea of T-ball is to teach the young players baseball hitting techniques and the other baseball training they will need as they graduate into playing the more difficult game of baseball. It is believed that the younger the players start, the easier it will be for them to master the game. T-ball or tee ball lets them learn baseball techniques at a slower and more enjoyable game that is not as competitive.

Many children also make the decision that they want to move into playing baseball fairly easily and on their own, as their confidence level increases and they become bored with playing tee ball. This allows the child to move easily into baseball training, which can be much more challenging and competitive. Most of the T-ball players make this transition very easily and have already mastered the hardest part of baseball hitting skills and understand the challenges they will face when they move from T-ball into baseball training.

It makes it easier for the coaches to enhance T-ball practices by throwing a few pitches for practices and the players can gradually work into this important part of judging when a live pitcher has thrown a ball in the strike zone, or out of it. Because their eyes have been trained to look for the ball in the "tee zone", it gives them an advantage over the players that have not played T-ball and decide to start playing baseball.

T-ball or tee ball, can teach young players the baseball hitting techniques they will need to know and it can also teach other baseball training, such as catching fly-balls, grounders and pop-up flies. It teaches them how to throw to base, throw to home and what the rules are as their T-ball play becomes more advanced. It is a great way for a child to transition easily into a great baseball player, when the time comes.

Chris Moheno kindly invites you to visit this comprehensive baseball training website where you will find baseball scholarship tips and answers to your general questions about baseball training and strength training, as well as a free newsletter with baseball training tips and advice.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Moheno

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Monday, June 20, 2011

Tee Ball Fielding Drill - Don't Swarm Drill

Tee Ball Fielding Drill - Don't Swarm Drill



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Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Why I Love to Coach Tee Ball

Why I Love to Coach Tee Ball
By guest author: Alex Dumas

Coaching tee ball runs in my family. My dad coached me and my brothers and our friends. My uncle coached in their place. My other uncle coached at their town's local pre-school. My grandfather coached my dad and uncles how to play tee ball. And to top it all, my mom has always been supportive with what I do. She has never failed to encourage me and my friends to boost our morale up. I played for four years and though I may be that young, the memories are still as fresh as dewdrops on a spring morning. I grew up in the world of baseball but I never focused on making a career out of baseball. There were a lot of things that I learned while playing baseball and most of it helped develop my personality.

28 years had passed and I have my own family now. My wife and I are blessed with an energetic boy. We live in the suburbs just outside the city. Our neighborhood is mostly composed of young parents and I've seen several toddlers and kids around. My son is turning four this year and I wanted to introduce him to youth sports, so I took out my tee ball equipment and set it up at our backyard one Saturday morning. Billy, our seven-year old neighbor, saw me teaching my son to swing his bat and asked if he could join. I agreed and he called his five-year old brother too. This became a weekly thing with one or two kids joining every week. After two months, I had about 16 kids knocking at my door every Saturday morning for tee ball. We had to move to the park because my backyard was not enough.

Teaching kids to play tee ball is a moral booster for me because I always know that I was able to contribute to a child's development. I was a coach and a second parent to them. Other parents joined and we were like one big happy family. Our relationships extended beyond tee ball and the support for one another is awesome. We contributed to form our own team. We practiced and dealt with the joys and pains of a growing child. We have yet to win a championship but that has not been our main goal. All the parents and I have agreed that our main priority was to ensure that our kids have the best times of their childhood while playing tee ball. That for me, is a goal far more better than a tee ball championship trophy.

For more tips and information about coaching tee ball, check out http://www.weplay.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alex_Dumas

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Thursday, June 2, 2011

Coaching T-Ball - Choosing the Right Equipment

Coaching T-Ball - Choosing the Right Equipment
By guest author: David Comora


Spring is well underway, which means its T-Ball season. One of the most common questions that parents and coaches of new players have concerns purchasing equipment for their teams and for their children. We thought it was time to address many of those questions, in order to give you some guidance on how to go about selecting the right equipment for your players.

For those of you who are new coaches and are wondering what kind of equipment you can expect to receive for your team, typically, your league's equipment manager will contact you and they will give you instructions on where and when to pick up your team's equipment. You will normally receive an equipment bag with a tee, a box of tee-balls for practices and games,3 to 4 helmets with chin straps, and a tee-ball bat or two. Actual number of items will vary based upon your leagues discretion.

One piece of safety equipment to be aware of is a heart guard. This piece of protective gear, when worn properly, will prevent a player from receiving serious injury if hit with a batted tee-ball in chest around the heart area. If the league requires a heart guard be worn, each parent or coach must abide by this rule. However, eve If the league does not require a heart guard, I would make sure the parents of your players are aware of it so they can decide if they want their children to wear one.

Glove sizes range from a size 8 to 11 in ½ increments depending on the size of your child's hand. The size is normally indicated on each glove. A good bench mark is to have your child try on the glove and ask them to squeeze it. If they are having trouble closing the glove, it is probably too big. The glove should also adequately cover the lower portion of the palm at the beginning of the wrist. Glove manufacturers have made great improvements over the years in which most gloves do not require a tremendous amount of "breaking in". "Breaking in" a glove is opening and closing the glove to remove some of its initial stiffness. There is nothing like the feeling of a broken-in glove. Its always good to keep a baseball or tee-ball in the glove at all times when not in use. The beauty of glove leather is it has a memory and by placing a ball in the glove when not in use, the glove pocket will take the shape of the ball.

Most tee-ball leagues will provide one tee-ball bat, so if parents would like to purchase their own bat, I would recommend doing so. Tee-ball bats range in length and weight. To find the right size bat for your child, have your child pick out a bat they like and hold the bat in their power hand (the left hand for right handed batters and the right hand for left handed batters) with the arm and bat fully extended and parallel to the ground. The child should hold this position for 30 seconds and if the arm and bat do not sag and lose their parallel position with the ground, the size is correct for your child. In general, we always have our players err on the lighter side.

Coaches and parents should check their league's national and local rules to determine if there are any restrictions on bats, as some national and local league rules only allow official tee-ball bats. Other leagues have no restrictions, therefore, youth league bats are permissible. Parents should read the verbiage on the bat to determine if the bat is a tee-ball bat or a youth league bat. Youth league bats are a bit longer and heavier than tee-ball bats and these bats are usually intended for older children in tee-ball or in coach pitch levels. Youth league bats are measured by a length to weight difference (e.g., a -14.5 youth league bat can be 28-1/2 inches in length and weighs 14 ounces). Weight and length can vary in each bat.

We tell our parents that batting gloves are optional. We really would not recommend them at this age because we feel the player should just use his or her bare hands to get the feel of the batted ball . The player can experiment with batting gloves when he or she moves up to coach pitch level where the impact of the batted ball and caught ball come more into play.

Rubber-cleated baseball shoes (never metal-spiked baseball shoes) should be used in lieu of sneakers to assist in getting a good firm grip on the field when running, batting, and fielding. We want the children to have confidence when they are running and making plays and a wet field without cleated shoes can lead to slips and falls.

I would also suggest ALL tee-ball players wear a protective cup. There are protective cups for both boys and girls, each a bit dimensionally different. Players should get used to wearing protective cups as they will be required or recommended at the next playing level also. Check your local and national league rules for information on this protective gear.

Some parents buy batting helmets for their children for sanitary reasons (potential sources of hair lice). We recommend a batting helmet that can be adjusted to fit players of different ages and head sizes. Batting helmets for girls usually have a curved-diamond-shaped hole at the back of the helmet for their pony tails. Many leagues require helmets to include chin straps. As a child reaches the next two levels of play, coach-pitch and kid-pitch, a wire face guard is available for installation on the helmet model you purchase. Fasteners and plastic/metal anchors are supplied with the wire face guard for easy installation. Some leagues require this wire face guard when you reach these levels. Check your national and local league rules.

Finally we recommend that you purchase a small equipment bag to store and transport your player's equipment. Please be sure to write each player's name in indelible marker on the player's glove, bat, helmet, and batting gloves. Equipment Identification makes it easy for players to claim loose equipment after practices and games.

We hope you found this article helpful and we wish you and your children the best T-Ball experience possible!

If you have other questions, we invite you to visit our Coaching Forum at http://www.tballu.com and one of our coaches will be glad to offer you some T-ball tips.
David Comora
T-Ball University
David Comora has coached Tee Ball and Youth Baseball for over 10 years. Steve Polansky developed the T-Ball University system of coaching to help new parent coaches learn to quickly master the skills of coaching. Their program includes video drills, coaching forms, practice plans, lesson notes and more. Free coaching videos are also available at http://www.teeballuniversity.com .

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Comora




Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/2069756

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