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Showing posts with label coaching tee ball tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label coaching tee ball tips. Show all posts
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.
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 .
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.
Baseball Tips for Rookie Coaches - So You're The New Baseball Coach? by Guest Author John Peter
So you're the new coach. Ok, now what?
Coaching a team sure seemed like a good idea, maybe even easy...until you started thinking and getting into it deeper. All those players, parents, the draft, practices...and those game decisions...ugh. Maybe coaching 3rd base might not be so easy... What were you thinking?
SOLUTIONS:
Rule #1 - Relax, It will work out!
You'll probably even turn out to be good at it. How do I know? Why would I think this?
Well, first you are searching for information. Websites like ours with articles like this are sure signs you are at the very least trying, instead of sitting on your hands, ducking your head and relying on your Little League experiences from long ago. And because of...
Rule #2 - You will be organized...
And yes, you will have the time to do it. As a matter of fact, there is an article that I strongly urge you to read. It is about how to organize your team and yourself and is titled, "Plan To Succeed."
Please finish this article before you jump there (I'll include the link at the end of this article).
Rule #3 - You will have fun!
Look, the more fun you have, the more fun your kids will have...and yes, the opposite is true.
Personally, I think that some of the best things about youth baseball are the adults! I also think they are some of the worst things about youth baseball. I mean this because as we get older...we tend to forget how to have fun and play games. Life just does that to us. Here we are trying to solve problems on a baseball field like we do at work...UGH! We get tight, our kids play tight. We say ugly things in the dugout...well, you get the picture... Let's move on (This lesson either hits the mark or it doesn't).
One final thought (from someone who is privileged to be in baseball for 350 days each year)... IT'S JUST BASEBALL! BASEBALL IS JUST A GAME! (It just happens to be the best game ever!)
Rule #4 - You are here for every player!
If you are in this game for any reason other than those kids... every one of them... GET OUT NOW! (This was paraphrased and stolen from a speech given by a friend, Gordie Gillespie, the winningest coach in college baseball history! He is absolutely correct!)
You will get more joy with that attitude than you can imagine!
Every player who doesn't share your last name is not here for the entertainment and support of you and your son! (You have probably seen it happen). Coaching your own child is a trick indeed. I hope you will truly enjoy it (though it can test your mettle). But, I can assure you that embracing an entire team of kids can really give you an idea of how good a coach and person you might be or can be! Personally, I can tell you that the early influences of my youth coaches are indelibly stamped on me...That's how important you are.
Rule #5 - Winning is important...It is just not everything.
I determined something many years ago. Take this for what it's worth...
Few 10 year olds have a grasp of the concept of winning! Half of the 11 year olds have a grasp of the concept of winning! Almost all 12 year olds have a grasp of the concept of winning!
Every? All? No. I guess I wouldn't include all players on some hot team of 9 year olds who travel the country vying for the many "World Series" out there (how many worlds are there anyway). Those teams and families have adopted a lifestyle. It's a language spoken at the dinner table. They are probably more the exception than the rule anyway.
You simply need to have a strong grasp of the competitive nature of your league and your team.
Rule #6 - You will be the boredom police.
Looking for a great way to turn a perfectly good baseball player into a soccer player? (God forbid)... BORE HIM!
A young boy begins his day by opening his eyes with a first thought of..."HEY, WHAT'S FUN TODAY!" And we dare to bore them? Remember my comment on how we tend to want to solve problems in baseball as we do in the office? They are kids. It's a game...and games are fun... It's fun OR THEY FIND A GAME THAT IS MORE FUN!
Rule #7 - Ask for help from other parents. Women are right...Men do not ask for directions. We need to be rock steady and have all the answers...yada, yada!
Personally, I have never had a coach come up to me after a game and ask me anything on how or why I played a situation the way I did! I MEAN NEVER!
WHY? Because this is baseball...and we are guys. We played Little League (20 TO 30 YEARS AGO). We watch Pro Baseball on TV...UGH. What a bad idea to try and teach a group of kids to play the same way the greatest players in the game do. So, we don't ask...and that cheats our kids.
SOLUTIONS:
Aside from reaching for information such as reading articles such as this and finding videos, books, etc (did you check out our video and book library?)... Why not incorporate and embrace some of the parents. Have a parents-only meeting for 10 minutes after one of your very first practices. Let them know who you are and how you envision the season (in general).
A team mom is worth her weight in the dozen roses you had better buy her at the end of the season.
Make note of the dad(s), hopefully plural, who hang around the fence during practices. Many really want you to ask for their help. They don't want to horn in so it's up to you to ask because they may not!
Some parents are better served as your scorebook keeper instead of your BP (batting practice) pitcher. Another may be most comfortable helping you set up the dugout and raking and lining the field before games.
Yet others really want to be on the field hitting fungoes or infield.
The bottom line is that I believe that adults play better when they work together...and as a byproduct, you will all be richer for actually developing relationships with your new-found friends.
WARNING: There is one rule I highly recommend... You are the coach, they are the team's parents. One guy has the final say so. You, the coach! This is a no lobbying area, disputes are handled away from the kids and the action and decisions of management (you) are final. There are no politics, just honest decisions made by you...the coach!
Note: Baseball is the greatest game in the world to second-guess!
One Last Important Suggestion Regarding Communication:
Get all of your parent's email addresses and use them for two things:
Communicate - Communicate - Communicate. Not necessarily lengthy, just frequent.
Subscribe all your player's parents (and maybe players, if they are a bit older) to our Baseball Tips Newsletter. It is a quick read 2 times each month. We do not rent or sell their names and just want to supply our 14,680 (at last count) baseball families with some added knowledge and fun. Of course, they can delete us easily if they so choose. (You can add them individually. The sign-up box is just below our logo on the http://www.baseballtips.com home page).
Rule #8 -Good Teams Practice Well!
Every league is different. Some restrict practice times. Others have limited fields. Some coaches have limited time as well. HAVE A PLAN! Plan tomorrow's practice today. Plan next week, this week. Planning is the operative word. I don't think that any drill should take longer than 20 minutes! (OK, excluding BP - more on that later).
TIME ANYTHING & EVERYTHING!
If you will keep a watch, you can get their blood flowing even more. More as in, "OK guys, 10 more minutes, let's do it right. Pick up the pace...Ok, 5 more minutes...Keep it going"...you get the idea. And it becomes more fun! The blood is pumping, the kids are focusing. Just be sure to tailor it to your player's age and skill level.
SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW!
Teach something new each practice. As importantly, review and drill a particular skill taught in a previous practice using one of your 20 minute segments.
Quality repetitions are vital and incredibly important! Too many coaches teach a skill and then next season, they teach it again; once a year...need it or not! If you think about how counter-productive this is, you will never do it...or do it again.
ARMS - ARMS - ARMS!
There are more throwing errors than fielding errors! It may not sound correct and it is not my opinion...It is a fact! Teach proper throwing and work on arms every practice.
Have them constantly throwing to or at a target. (The exception will be when teaching one of your pitchers a new pitch.) You begin by throwing to a tarp, net or fence. The reasoning is that accuracy will not be great until a skill like a new pitch is learned. Accuracy will follow proper mechanics and you can avoid unnecessary shakes in confidence.
THE LAST 10 MINUTES OF PRACTICE IS JUST FUN! Preferably doing something that requires players to use oxygen. Leave them with their tongues hanging out. I learned this many years after I began coaching.
Many players think baseball is boring...and that is why they leave the sport too soon. They are kids...and kids want to run, play games, have contests, run races, hit balls, etc. You know...fun stuff.
Well, drills can get boring if that's all there is to a practice. But drills are really important, vital lifelines to improvement and success of both player and team...or not!
But let's not forget the fun aspect and the prime reason most kids play. (It is play ball, not work ball, right?)
Get creative! Here are some of my ideas. (Do not limit yourself to these, got it?)
Relay Races - ½ of team at home plate and ½ at 2nd base with hats on backwards. 1 simple relay race. Then 1 race backwards, then 1 final race for all the marbles, running sideways (or heel to heel side-kicks like basketball teams do....you may have some better variations).
Ball In The Trash Can - Find a trash barrel from the dugout or near the practice field and place it on home plate on its side. Now take your team to a distance where most all players can throw to the target at least on a bounce or two.
Now toss them a short fly ball where they can make like they are the centerfielder throwing the runner out at home. They ooh, aah and cheer on close throws (there are always a bunch of these). I have no idea why but they really like to do this...Go Figure!
Home Run Derby - Find a spot where about ½ or more of the team can hit one over the fence and soft toss 3 per each player (soft toss, also known as flip drills, is the drill our automated Wheeler Dealer machine does automatically. It can be seen on our training aids page if you are still unsure how to do this.) Have a second round, then have a finals. Maybe the player who comes in 2nd gets to go after all the homers. Watch 'em cheer for each other.
Basketball Game - If there's a court or a hoop nearby, simply produce a hidden basketball AFTER dividing them up into teams. Announce a 10 minute game. Watch 'em go. Totally unexpected...and a lot of fun
Water Balloon Toss - Pick a hot day and have a supply of filled baseball-sized water balloons (make sure they are small balloons to begin with so they remain taut). Partner them off in lines (like you do when warming up their arms) with players about 6 to 8 feet apart and with a partner on one row having the balloon.
USE 2 HANDS!
Express to players that in baseball, every ball you can catch with 2 hands should be caught with 2 hands. Also, display how the pinkie fingers of both hands should be near and parallel to each other with hands being parallel and held below the waist.
SOFT HANDS
Explain that all infielders must have soft hands. This begins when both arms are outstretched (elbows are not locked) and then cradled toward the body as the underhand toss comes toward you. Water balloons will require special focus on soft hands to keep from breaking.
READY...GO!
On coaches command... Player underhand tosses to his partner who catches and holds the balloon. His partner then tosses it back to his partner.
After 2-4 rounds, teams with a full balloon step 2 feet further apart. Repeat. Then 2 steps further apart! Keep going until you have a winner.
Once you have a winner, coaches produce as many extra full balloons as there are coaches and the winning team gets to "blast the coaches." Yes, turn around coach...and do use typical precautions as boys will be boys. (Now you tell me that 10 or 20 years from now those players won't remind you of how much fun that was?!)
It's not all about baseball...but it is all about fun!
Baseball tips & youth baseball equipment, training aids & instruction! It's all here for baseball coaching of pitchers & hitters, little league to high school.
Baseball Pitching Drills for Kids Posted on YouTube by CoachBuford
http://www.YouthBaseballVideo.com - The one-knee follow through drill will train young baseball pitchers to develop a safe, fluid pitching motion. It will also improve accuracy and speed.
Like a lot of other things in life you tend to get better at those which you do regularly. It is the same with baseball game and you can get perfect with baseball hitting. Therefore the best baseball hitting advice for kids or anyone can be practice and keep practicing. It is said that Mickey Mantle the professional baseball player is said to swing the bat nearly 100 times in a day left handed and the same when right handed. However, there are some modern day professionals who swing the bat nearly 500 to 1000 times in a day. This is a basic strategy that works for lot of professionals and can also work for you.
There are some tips for helping your kids achieve great baseball hitting techniques. If your child wants to learn and play baseball but they are not the best hitters then you can follow these simple instructions and tips to help your child swing the bat like a professional. The first step to take for a great swing is your stance. This means that you should strain to the player that the stance should be something that is comfortable and not something that looks best for the player of team.
There are some basic things that you should always remember when you teach your kids the basics in baseball hitting.
1. Keeping the feet shoulder width separately regardless if the child has a closed or open stance. This means the feet should always be apart from shoulder width
2. Place the bat back with your hand where it should be nearly 6 inches away from the ears and make sure you keep your elbows upright so that you can easily handle the high heaters.
3. When you stride away with your front foot make sure it is 5 to 6 inches away, you must also keep your back foot firm in the ground as it helps in gathering power to get a strong a straight swing.
4. When you are striding, you need to keep your eyes entirely focused on the ball all through its way in the box. Then firmly twist your legs and hips when also taking the bat to directly snap into the ball. Make sure you snap the bat consistently when the ball is in the box and also ensure that your child does not up cut the swing over the ball when hitting.
As always keep in the mind that practice makes perfect.
For more information visit Sportscapers University at houston youth baseball - You can also find more information and online training videos to help you improve your skills at katy youth baseball.
