Coaching T Ball

Anyone ever done it? They needed coaches for Devon and Sam's league so I said I'd help out if they were desperate. I coached soccer last year which was a blast! But I do know a lot about soccer and was able to teach the kids some skills. T Ball/baseball is another story. I'm sure I'll have fun with the kids, but I don't know much about it. Any advice?

oh lordy where to start. LOL

First of all, you tell the parents that YOU are the coach. YOU will make up the batting order, YOU will decide where little johnny plays AND no hollering from the stands on how to stand, how to bat, etc. IF they are that interested they can get their lazy butts on the field.

second. Practice them CATCHING the ball. have them throw it to each other for as much time as you can. hitting off a tee will come natural, and running is easy. BUT to catch the ball is hard.

I dont know the acutal rules about T ball. My kids never played it. But find out if they have to get the ball back to the pitcher before play stops. if thats the case teach them that. first and foremost.

Teach them to throw the ball at the kids chest. not to the kids side. mean as it sounds the philosophy of 'try to hit them wiht the ball, they will catch it or get hit' actually works with 85% of kids. the other 5 % will try to catch it but never will and 10 % will run like the wind anytime a spherical object heads their way.

You will have to spend a little time wiht batting. but catching and throwing is the MOST important. try to make them catch fly balls with the glove above their head palms facing out. NOT infront of them palms facing up. This will end up hurting their wrists when they get hurt and is a bad habit to get into.

and make them practice alot with grounders. a fun exercise with kids that age is to put them in a squatting position, butt a few inches off the ground and send ground ball after ground ball at them. Make them dive for them.

They are short enough at this age to not have a problem hitting the ground and bouncing back up.

thats all my sage advise.


OH and next time, drop the kids off and go back later to pick them up. and DONT let anyone corner you! LOL

Good info -- thanks a lot!

OH and next time, drop the kids off and go back later to pick them up. and DONT let anyone corner you! LOL

Once/week would have been fine and kind of fun, but I just found out that T Ball is twice/week! That's it, I'm going to try to get another parent or two to help out once/week!

We do swim team, and it's every weekday. They're on the school team (in the fall and early winter) and the local community team (in the spring and all summer), so it's all year long. Summers are worst because it's 2 hr pracitces at 8 am all summer, and meets at least twice a week. Meets last at least 4 hours and often more, depending on the number of swimmers. But, they also stay quite fit and before we did swim team they hadly ever got exercise. They're lazy by nature.

Everything Chelle said, and I would also add:
1. Teach them where the play is, for example, if noone is on base, the play is at first. If the bases are loaded, and the ball is hit, the play is at home etc.

2. Train them to get out of the batters box between "pitches", someone may steal home.

3. teach them to catch the ball with their palms pointing OUT, not facing up, and under their chin. The ball will roll up and out 99% of the time, and whack them in the face.

I coach DD's softball team, and enjoy it immensely. They have fun, win or lose, and they practice hard and play even harder. I have a VERY competitive group of 8-10 yo girls, and they take softball seriously. There are 3 on the team that I see with scholarships in their future. DD is moving to ASA/Select after this season, so we are going to get alot busier since it is travel ball.
You SHOULD get another parent to help, there are 5 coaches for our team, 1 head(me) and 4 asst( the guys...lol), oh and a team mom...she is responsible for making sure everyone has Gatorade/water.

What age is your Tball? Our is 3-4, then at 5 they go to coach pitch and machine pitch. We start kid pitch at 6, and fastpitch at 8.

Devon is 5 and Sam is 4. They're on the same team.

Edbson, I am glad you clarified the hand thing. I realized when I reread this I shouldnt midnight coach. LOL

Our teams are
4-6 T bal
7-8 pitching machine
9-10 and on up kid pitch.

or for softball its
T ball
7-8 coach pitch
9-and up kid pitch.

OH, and teach them to RUN through 1st. And turn OUT to the dugout. They are safe as long as they stay on THAT side of the bag. if they run through (which is VERy important, the running through the base) and turn to the inside (onto the field) then they are capable of being taggged out unless they are ON the bag.

is your t ball 3 outs?/ or is it lineup till done?

Like I said, my kids never played. They cant even stand pitching machine. LOL

Our tball is 3 outs, noone wins. The girlies play tball....they like sliding into home.

I am working on my line up right now, late game tonite. I am going with 3 batters that WILL get walked, and then DD as cleanup, then the rest 3 walks, one bomb hitter. We have a 5 run rule, so can only score so many points.

I'm not sure if it's 3 outs or not... I think it's full line up. The team isn't really that big. I missed the coach's meeting because of having to take Odin to obedience that night so I really don't know. The obedience class went well though! LOL!