I just found out I am being sacrificed as t-ball coach for my 7 year 
old's t-ball team.  This is going to be interesting for a number of 
reasons.  Logistics -- I don't know what times we can have practices, 
and if it's too early, I don't know if I'll be able to arrange the time 
off from work.  Personality -- I love baseball, but I was a terrible 
camp counselor for kids when I tried doing that in high school.  These 
are minor things; I can always get fired and go on unemployment for the 
season, and I can get lobotomized or something.

However, I have no experience coaching.  None.  Zippo.  Not anything, at 
any level.  Worse, I am a knowledgeable baseball *fan*, but like Ernie 
Harwell, I never played the game.  That's where you can help.

Have you got any advice?  Was there a book you read when you first 
coached your kids in something, that really helped?  What kind of 
baseball fundamentals do you teach 6 and 7 year old kids, beyond "That's 
first base, run there if you hit the ball, and then *stop*!"

How do you remember the names of all those kids?  I am fortunate to be 
able to tell the boys from the girls.

I can use anything.  Really I can.  Help!

16 responses total.

Make it fair!  Be involved!  Be prepared!  Think ahead!  Actually, league
rules usually stipulate that every kid must play an equal amount of time, and
usually at the "glory" positions, which in T-ball are first base, and pitching
mound (because so many dribblers are hit there to field & throw to 1st).

To be honest, your *#1 job* all season will be - in games, mainly, but also
in practices - to constantly look over your players in the field, and call
out to those that are bored, looking around, playing with pebbles, watching
trains or airplanes go by, etc.  That and screaming "get the ball!" and "Throw
the ball!"  :-)  Good luck!

The league lets all players on a team play at once (I saw a game last 
year with about 16 fielders -- 3 2nd basemen, etc. (-:  ) and has each 
team bat around in each inning.

I am certainly not going to be the kind of coach who puts winning above 
anything else.  The game is supposed to be fun for the kids, who don't 
know or care what a "score" is -- or what an "out" is, for that matter. 
They care about getting hits, and not about defense, I expect.

I guess I'd like to know what to do about problem parents.  When a 
parent starts yelling about how his hall of fame 6 year old son got 
robbed of a double, do you hit the parent in the head with a bat, or do 
you hit him in the knee with a bat?

No, no... I know, you fantasize about it, though...

No, really, what I want to know is, what do you do for practice?  
Batting practice, of course, but do you do fielding drills?  What 
kind of drills?  Have the kids play catch?  Teach them the rules of the 
game?

  How about the ever classic game of 500? You hit pop flies to the kids, and
assign points for the difficulty of the catch, no penalties for dropped balls,
of course. Couldn't expose the little darlings to the concept of losing, not
with those rules.  
  Seriously, 500 is a good game and it should keep the kids attention.

  When I was playing baseball as a kid, we had outs and all that good stuff.
I was usually stuck in right field and averaged 1 ball caught per game.
Perhaps this is the reason I detest baseball. 
  Let the kids play a sandlot game without coaching. Let them find out how
the outs and strikes work on thier own. Only then will they come to love the
game or hate it. There is no middle ground when it comes to baseball.

I was the right-fielder when I was a kid, who played only what the 
league required, and otherwise sat the bench.  I quit playing because of 
it.  I wouldn't let it happen on my team, but the league rules seem well 
defined to avoid anything of the sort anyway.

500 is good... thanks!  I forgot about that.

You'll be very lucky to find many 6-year-olds that can catch a batted ball
out of the air!  Start practice with warm-up, starting with calisthenics, then
partner throw and catch.  Practice running the bases.  Let kids run the bases
situationally, while another kid practices batting.  Have the fielders
practice throwing to the right base, at the same time.  Keep the kids busy,
involved, and avoid boredom.  Get 2 or 3 assistant coaches to help out, you'll
need 'em.

I sincerely hope that you won't encounter any GI-type parents for
6-year-olds.  If you do, ignore 'em, humor 'em, but don't let 'em affect how
you run things.  If they don't like it, they can find another team, or better
yet *league*!

Good advice, Kevin.  Thanks!

What kind of stretching exercises should I use for 6-7 year olds?

Jumping jacks, head-shoulders-knees-and-toes (knees-and-toes! :-), trunk
twisters, circles with arms.  Skip the push-ups & sit-ups, we're talking
cal's here, not conditioning.  Make it fun!  As long as you can rein 'em in
again, a bit of silliness is well-loved by that age group.  :-)

Yep, making it fun is the important part.  I have that much of the 
concept down!

Thanks for the ideas!  Keep them coming.  Can't have too many ideas.  
I'm starting to feel like I have some idea of what's going on!  (-:

That part about assistant coaches is right on. Get those other parents 
involved, too. They'll have more fun as well. The main reason you need 
assistant coaches, is that if you are doing some drill and you say 
"do x", almost every kid on the team is going to have to be told more 
than once. Assistants can really help watch for the kids who aren't 
listening or didn't get it, and reinforce whatever it was you said.

Also you may find assistant coaches with some good ideas you can use.

Yeah, some assistant coach might know how to coach.  (-:

I had intended to sign up as an assistant, myself.

I haven't really had experience with problem parents (I ref Ice Hockey 
(real little kids))  They told me in our training sessions that if a 
player, parent, or coach physically assaults us, we should file a police 
report.  I don't think this helps

I'd forgotten I entered this item, until I saw #11.

The only really big problem I had was the first day of practice, when I 
had no idea at all what I was doing.  I didn't have the keys and 
combinations to get to the equipment.  Another coach had suggested that 
his team and mine practice together, but then really had in mind that 
his team would practice by themselves.  (That was a mess.)  Worst of 
all, I didn't know the kids, and am not good at remembering names 
anyway.

What I should have done is had a separate practice for just us, made 
sure I had the equipment I needed, and a ballfield to play on.  We 
should have had a few calisthenics, a run around the field, then played 
a little catch for just a few minutes, and then proceeded to just play 
ball, with one kid batting, and the rest fielding.  It was not important 
at that level, whether they knew how to hit or field, or even run around 
the bases.  They needed to just jump in and start playing.

The parents did help out a lot that first day, and all the other 
practices and games, too.  Without them it would have been a completely 
miserable experience.  If anyone else here gets themself into a 
first-time coaching experience, recruit the parents.  (Anyone who's ever 
coached will already know this.)

Base running for 6 and 7 year olds is a mystery.  They didn't know what 
direction to run, or how many bases there were, or when to stop running.  
(That's okay in general, as fielding is even more of a mystery.  There 
were no outs recorded in the scorebooks for our season, nor should there 
have been very many.  (-: )  Baserunning is a coaching chore.  

Here's how a play works at this level:  The coach pitches until the kid 
hits the ball.  If the kid gets discouraged, or if he just isn't going 
to hit it that day, the coach puts the ball on the T.  Somehow, the kid 
hits it.  Then the coaches and parents yell for him to run to first 
base.

Meanwhile, the opposing parents and coaches yell for the fielding team 
to catch the ball, or wait until it stops and then pick it up, and then 
throw it to first base (or at least the nearest base).  Hopefully the 
first baseman catches the ball thrown to him.  That's pretty  unlikely; 
it is not likely that an all-star major league fielder could catch the 
ball, as it could be thrown anywhere.  Home plate, 3rd base, the 
outfield, or just down onto the ground.  If the ball does approach first 
base, the first baseman will probably be hit by it, or else duck out of 
the way.  

Even if the play is properly executed, the batter stands on first base 
and is told he got a 'hit'.  The fielders are told by their coaches that 
they made a good play, and that it was possibly even an out.  Everyone 
has a good time, and that's the whole point of the game.

Score is not kept.

I had a great time, once I knew something of what I was doing.  I look 
forward to being a baseball coach again next year.  (Moving up from 
t-ball to baseball, where the kids pitch, and where they're expected to 
make plays.)

> Here's how a play works at this level:  The coach pitches until the kid
> hits the ball.  If the kid gets discouraged, or if he just isn't going
> to hit it that day, the coach puts the ball on the T.

That sounds like some form of "coach pitch with t-ball fallback".  IMO, the
first year or so should be strictly t-ball.  Don't make the kids try to hit
a moving target while trying to learn to run the bases, the rules, etc.
After t-ball can come coach pitch, as kids won't have enough control to
offer enough hitable pitches.  When the kids are old enough, *then* you can
have 'em be the pitchers.  Then prepare for a parade of walkers to first
based and whiffers back to the dougout!  :-)

Well, I was just a coach, not the organizer of the league.  6 and 7 year 
olds play t-ball, but the coaches have (or at least take) the discretion 
to pitch to kids if they want to.  They all wanted to.

Next year, my kid will be 8, and will be playing "real" baseball in the 
8-9 year old league.  We call it "Minor Leagues" in Clinton.  Kids 
pitch, kids have to make plays, score is kept.  I've seen, very briefly, 
the games at that level, and found it completely amazing that half the 
kids I coached in 1998 will be doing those things next year.

I'm going to coach again.  I find it downright terrifying that I'm going 
to be coaching kids to do those things next year.  (-:

Actually, I'm looking forward to it, very much.  I have some definite 
philosophies, such as: 

Parents who are mean to teenagers umpiring games will get a 
confrontational discussion with the coach.  (I umpired when I was a 
teenager.  It's *hard*.)

Kids will get a chance to play at any position they want.  If every kid 
on my team wants to pitch, then every kid will do so at some point.  

No one is going to play more or less because of ability.  If a kid wants 
to play, he will play.

I can only say one thing. You're a brave one. Working with 6-7 year olds isn't
the greatest thing in the world. Couldja tell me how it is you tolerated 'em?

I wouldn't say I "tolerated" them.  They did at least as much tolerating 
as I did.  One of the kids was my 7 year old.  Watching and helping him, 
and the others, learn the game, was a remarkable experience.  

As I said, I'm looking forward to doing it again next year.  It will be 
a different league.  The kids will pitch; I won't pitch to them.  
They'll be playing much closer to what I learned as "baseball".  I'm 
very interested in baseball as a game, so that's part of why I'm looking 
forward to it.

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