T-Ball Tips

This is my first season coaching the itty-bitties. I've played my entire life and I've coached 16U and 18U. NEVER the babies! I really need tips on keeping them engaged in practices. We have some that just turned 4 within the last few weeks and they do nothing but throw their gloves at the other girls or push them into playing with them instead of paying attention during practice. I need to figure out a way to get them to actually practice.

Are you getting their parents involved in practice?

I've done tball twice now. Arrange for a one hour practice. Spend ten minuets showing them how to hit and run to first, have each Girl practice swinging and run to first. They move one base t a time as next girl sings. Water break, line them up 20 feet from home plate, place ball on tee. One at a time have them try to knock ball off tee throwing it. Allows you to work on form and play a game. Water break. Next do two lines of 4, slow roll ball to them and they throw back. After that one group goes hit, other group takes infield position. After each girl hits they rotate left. Pitcher goes on deck, third to SS, ss to 2nd etc.. Good luck and have fun with it.

I coached two years of t-ball and they were the funniest years ever (not most fun, but hilarious). Get as much (good) help as you can. Twelve kids can go in 40 different directions at once so it helps to have multiple stations. Play kick ball with them to teach them how to run the bases. They can try the Barney toss, throwing the ball at a stuffed animal sitting on a bucket. When batting, don't worry about form, if they hit the ball it's fantastic!

Coaching tball is as much about getting the parents engaged and teaching the parents along with the kids.... It does you no good to teach the kids well for an hour to have the parents teach them wrong for the rest of the week. Get at least 4 parents to help you coach.. The more the better... 2 to 3 girls in a station for 5 to 10 minutes is about the max attention span you will get...at this level is all about fundamentals but coaches tend to underestimate kids ability to learn and dumb it down....

There is no need to dumb it down but there has to be a lot of show with very little tell... It must absolutely stay fun .. You have a much bigger responsability as a coach than many believe as it is the experience they have with you that will set the stage for a lifelong love of the sport or not... Key is that it has to remain fun... Make the last event of practice a pickle, scrimmage, hit the bucket, or something they see as fun ( they tend to remember the last thing more that the first)

Expectations on execution should be low ( they may not hit hard or at all, throws may stink, and running will just be plain silly) but you should push for proper form even if the execution isnt there... I.e. No sidearm throws just because she can throw further that way, no casting the bat just because she hits harder that way, - it will be a struggle with some parents to teach them that no elbow up facing the backstop with left foot raised to your chest isnt the right swing for her

At this age i prefer to teach them to go to 1 on every play regardless of outs or whos on base... So situational drills are at a minimum with a lot more drills just focusing on fundamental catch, throw, run...

Oh and its a great age to enforce a "you must wear a facemask" on my team no matter what position you play... You will get the dad that says "my daughter can catch she doesnt need the face crap" which will usually mean their kid will be the first to miss a ball and end up with bloody nose

Few more:
1. Have them take a knee when you talk to them
2. Have them run to fence and back if they dont hear you after the third time you called their name
3. Be kind and generous on praise ... Effort alone should be rewarded... Execution is irrelevant - are they trying ?if so praise them
4. Call out girls who have shown focus for special attention
5. Parents tend to be overprotective at this age... susie will usually have more abilities, resilience, and will then their parents think they have... If you can help susie show this to their parents you will have parents sold and addicted to the sport
6. Kids have more ability, resilience, and will then they realize specially at this age... If you as a coach can help them gain even a glimpse of their own abilities you will have a kid sold on the sport for life...

And remember anything you teach will be forgotten by the next time you see them (Or Dad will know how to do it better and re-teach)

Teach them the same fundamentals as you would the older girls and they will improve as they get stronger.

Getting 6Us to stay focused and perform drills is about the same as...


Good luck!

Seriously, I would approach this group with the same goals I approach all rec teams...1) Have fun, and 2) Help them become better ballplayers. Make the focus #1, and #2 will happen on it's own.

Sleepwalker's TBall coaching experience

Age group coached 3 1/2 to 5 year olds.

Practice time 5:00 p.m. "Duck, Duck, GOOSE!" game starts promptly at 5:00 p.m.

5:10 p.m. Coach Sleepwalker explains and shows a skill or a drill. (Kids look at old man and probably think -"When I'm that old, I will be able to throw a ball like that" Coach Sleepwalker brings out dd who is 4 yrs old to demonstrate skill. Little tikes probably think "If that girl who is my age can do that, then I can do that.") Supervised drills by coach Sleepwalker

5:20 water break

5:25 Freeze tag

5:35 Baserunning, rules, hitting or whatever is on the list. Demonstrated by coach Sleepwalker, redemonstrated by 4 yr old dd. Drill supervision and encouragement by coach sleepwalker.

5:45 Redlight - Greenlight

5:55 water break

6:00 drill and demonstration by coach sleepwalker and dd (lil sleepwadler) Drill supervision and encouragement by coach sleepwalker.

6:10 practice over

When I coached TBall, I realized that I could only hold the attention span of a 3 to 5 year old for 10 minutes. Games added excitement and interest because they were games that didn't need skills to play. I was the only adult on the field because I realized that if the parents were accessible, the little tikes would throw fits. (Only girl throwing fits or seeking attention was my dd, if you don't believe me let other parents on the field and watch which kids throw fits)

Before I started coaching TBall, I had played with my dd catching and throwing, rolling balls, etc. I tried to explain to her how to do things and tried to show her things but at that age it didn't register. I used to play outside and the neighborhood kids would ask if they could play also. So I would show the older kids in the neighborhood (5,6 and 7 yr olds) how to throw and catch and when my dd saw them attain a skill, she thought that if that little kid could catch a ball then so could she.

On game day, Duck, Duck, Goose started 20 minutes before the game. No one was ever late to a game( Duck, Duck, Goose). When I would walk around the field when kids were picking flowers, grass, or what have you, I would say, hey lets get the ball. If we don't pay attention attention at the game then we wouldn't play Duck, Duck, Goose at practice. My little tikes learned a little TBall while playing Duck, Duck, Goose.

Pizza party at the end of the year is a must. One parent and TBaller flew home from Hawaii two days early to attend the Pizza party, but that is a different post.

softball sized nerf balls

I have coached the Pee-wees for 3 years and ended up the league Commish for the little tykes
we used alot of the softball sized Nerf balls for pop-ups ect

One fun drill I still use with my U8 travel team is 4 lines of girls (No Gloves)

have 4 coaches or parents line up opposite of them...

Throw pop-ups to them and the object is to have the player run under the ball and have it hit off thier face or upper body and they recieve a point

play to 10

also we started them out with ground balls this way