T-Ball University

Here’s a great way to introduce your coaches and kids to each other at your first few practices, its called the “Name Game”, don’t worry, its not the song. The first practice normally brings a bunch of individual children and their parents together who have never laid eyes on each other before the first practice. I like to start off with a brief introduction of myself and my assistant coach. I then will place each child on the bench together. I will place a base in front of them. I then play a name game with them. I call each child individually up from the bench to stand on the base and call out their first name. Each child then sits back down on the bench. I then call them back up to stand on the base in their previous order and I ask them not to say their name. I ask the team remaining on the bench to call out their teammate’s name. I repeat this process until each team member can remember each teammate’s name. I will then challenge them by calling up team members in random order to determine if each team member can remember each teammate’s name. I will play the name game before each practice until everyone knows each other’s names. Give it a shot, its a great way to break the ice for day one. A video demonstration of this drill is available for those who enroll at www.tballu.com or www.teeballuniversity.com .

Baseball Season is just around the corner, so parents and parent coaches, start stretching! For many communities, children begin their baseball or softball careers playing the lead-up skill, Tee Ball, which is baseball, minus the pitcher. In Tee Ball, children learn the fundamentals of hitting, fielding and base-running. After more than ten years coaching youth baseball, its my experience that, despite the best efforts of parent-coaches, too many children do not learn the basics of hitting and fielding and develop bad habits from the start. As these children progress to coach-pitch and kid-pitch leagues, this results in coaches spending many hours trying to correct problems, which could have been easily avoided at the Tee Ball or Beginner Baseball level. For this reason, we developed a website called www.teeballuniversity.com or www.tballu.com . On the site, you will find several free video lessons. If you like what you see, you can order the full DVD or subscribe to the web site and immediately access over 80 minutes of videos, downloadable coaching forms, lesson notes and practice plans. There is also a section where you can “Ask-The-Coach” and share your success stories. Coaching children, whether your own or children in your community, is one of the most rewarding experiences. Our goal is to provide you with tools that will make you feel more comfortable when you step on the practice field, and will help your children achieve their fullest potential from the start. Have a Great Season!