Seeking advice on productive indoor winter training t-ball

[mennitti]

Seeking coaching advice for my indoor winter training program. I have 20 t-ball kids ages 6-8. We meet once a week for an hour and a half. I want to keep them busy and productive instead of chaotic.

For 7 weeks we have followed this format but it is still a chore to keep the kids occupied.

Loosen up. Lots of running drills. For about 10 min

A competition drill. Winners choose if they want to do hitting or fielding first.

Gym is half offense, half defense. 3 stations set up for both. Different drills each week.

Switch offense group with defense group.

Final half hour is spent doing 2 high energy fielding drills all together as a team. Usually fast paced, high repetition.

Each practice has been a progression building off of skills from the previous week.

Any advice on how to better control/occupy/teach this age group? I'm used to high school kids.

 

[vcackerman]

How many coaches/helpers do you have? Do you feel that they know how to coach?

I did sessions last year with our teeballers and mixed up large group and small group work.

 

[mennitti]

It varies but last night I had 5.

 

[vcackerman]

So in my clinics for Tball aged kids, here is a 'from memory' practice plan for some of the sessions:

Started out with standard warmups. At this age, it's good to teach them a warm up but their bodies are so flexible and resilient that a big detailed warmup is likely not needed - just more preparing them for the future.

Then we would work on some throwing and catching. Depending on their abilities, we started with barehand catching using tennis balls and showing them the fundamentals of throwing. (shoulder, step, follow through, etc) We would line them in up in small groups with a coach and the coach would throw them the tennis ball and the girls would throw back. After doing this a handful of times, we would switch to the softee and do the same drill without the glove. Once gone through that a few times, we put the gloves on and proceeded through more.

Next we would work fielding fundamentals and do a progression on those, start with the coach rolling the ball straight to them, then rolling it to them left and right to get them to move their feet and then have the ball hit to them.

We would incorporate games as well into these drill stations - so we might have had 4 teams and did first team to 20 properly fielded groundballs won a prize (candy cane for example). Or later they would throw at a stuffed animal on a chair and let them try for points (hit the bunny on a fly - 2 pts, hit bunny on bounce 1 pt) and race for that.

Make sure you teach baserunning as well. Simple activity but also very important to know go when ball is hit etc.

Hitting is often tough with larger groups. Keep it simple at that age. Most important thing I taught with hitting is making sure girls had the right sized bat. You'll see a 5 year old walk in with a bat that my 9 year old wouldn't be able to swing. Show the parents how to tell if the bat is the right size (I use the write your name at the side of your body). Also, remember you will likely teach them some hitting basics and dad will take them home and teach them a baseball swing when you are not looking.

 

[mennitti]

Sounds good. Is this age group just a challenge to keep on task?

 

[vcackerman]

Sounds good. Is this age group just a challenge to keep on task?

Short answer. Yes.

They probably don't spend 2 hours doing one activity anywhere. School probably has 20-30 minute sections. Also, you have to keep it fun and interesting. While I hate it now, at that age, the idea of 'alligator' to field a groundball is appealing to kids. They can laugh about it. Having a silly relay where they have to shoot a basket or throw a ball at a stuffed animal is fun. And they don't know they are working right now. They won't sit for long. You can typically teach one thing at a time or they get confused.

Some will be at your clinic because mom or dad thinks they want to play softball or that they want them to play softball.

You can probably already see at 6-8 years old who will rise to travel ranks and who won't. I'm not trying to say there wont be late bloomers but there is an ability and want to that they start to see early on. (I know from my experience just starting a 10U squad with mostly 9's, the 3 girls I had in teeball that I could see wanted it are at the core of my team)

 

[shelbysdad]

Also, remember you will likely teach them some hitting basics and dad will take them home and teach them a baseball swing when you are not looking. [/QUOTE

Omg this is so true. I spent 20min on the tee with one girl last Thurs. Had her cleaned up and killing it for an 8 yr old. Throw her in a cage soft toss and she is killing it, everybody there is talking her up how good she's swinging. Dad pulls her out the cage and starts showing her the high elbows, bat strait up thing. I lost it.

 

[softballphreak]

Seeking coaching advice for my indoor winter training program. I have 20 t-ball kids ages 6-8. We meet once a week for an hour and a half. I want to keep them busy and productive instead of chaotic.

For 7 weeks we have followed this format but it is still a chore to keep the kids occupied.

Loosen up. Lots of running drills. For about 10 min

A competition drill. Winners choose if they want to do hitting or fielding first.

Gym is half offense, half defense. 3 stations set up for both. Different drills each week.

Switch offense group with defense group.

Final half hour is spent doing 2 high energy fielding drills all together as a team. Usually fast paced, high repetition.

Each practice has been a progression building off of skills from the previous week.

Any advice on how to better control/occupy/teach this age group? I'm used to high school kids.

I would spend about half the time actually playing a real game. Only I would use one of those red rubber balls about the size of a tennis ball. Tennis balls are too hard and too bouncy for a gym for this purpose. Set everything up just like a game. You don't need a tee because you won't be using bats. They will be hitting the ball with their hands. Defense can use either gloves or bare hands.

I know this sounds a little silly but they will learn a lot about the rules and where to throw, etc., and have a whole lot of fun. Guaranteed they won't be bored.

With a little imagination you can have them place-hitting the ball to left or right field, say. And the very nature of hitting with the hands helps teach them to let the ball get in deep.

We do this drill sometimes when we have to be inside. Sometimes we even use an 18" bat and swing with the top hand only, using real balls and real speed. The ball usually doesn't go much past the infielders that often. This is HS teams, also.