The TeeBall Coaching Clinic provides t-ball coaches and parents with free t-ball tips, teeball drills, and tee ball articles for teaching youngsters how to play baseball. You will find simple and easy explanations on how to hit a baseball, how to throw a baseball, and how to teach baseball skills to a child. Use our search feature to type in your desired topic to find articles covering it in our archive.
Showing posts with label youth coaching tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label youth coaching tips. Show all posts
Free Youth Baseball Drills - 3 Great Ways to Improve the Youth! By guest author: KC Andrus
Youth baseball is a deep tradition, certainly in the American culture, and has always filled kids and parents live's with an amazing get away from the redundancy of normal life, as well as a way to channel children's energy (and hopefully wear them out, right parents? *wink* *wink*). But whether you're a parent, coach or player these six simple, free youth baseball drills are sure to get you and you're team going in the right direction, which is having fun, of course...and winning:
1. The first difficult transition in a baseball player's life is making the jump from tee ball to coach pitch (or machine pitch) whatever the case may be. A drill that makes this transition easier is to get a big, nerf soccer ball and have them hit that for a while just to get the feel of hitting a moving ball.
2. Baseball Ready Position Drill- this drill is great to teach kids the value of being in "ready position" when the ball is delivered to the plate. Have the infielder's line up at shortstop for ground ball practice just like normal, but BEFORE you hit them a ground ball make sure they get in a good athletic position so they can get a good jump on the ball.
3. Double Leg Kick Drill- This drill is for when the youngster's start pitching. Have the child stand in the outfield and pitch from the stretch the same as he would off the mound. But when he gets to his leg kick and his leg reaches it's highest point have him pause briefly, and then put his leg back down and leg kick again. This makes sure the pitcher is keeping his weight back and using his momentum toward the plate.
There are so many more great, free youth baseball drills. that will help your children improve and reach their true potential. It is wonderful for children to improve, and it is highly likely that the better they get the more fun they will have. It's just natural. Make sure to gather all the resources you can. The following site is one that I like a lot:
Tee Ball Rules and Regulations - Learn the Game! By Guest Author Adam Niebs
T ball rules and regulations are fun and easy to learn! T-Ball is a sport based on baseball and is as an introduction for kids to develop baseball skills and have a good time. The ball (softer than a regular baseball) is placed on an adjustable tee atop the home plate at the proper height for the batter to strike. Most of the other rules are similar or identical to those of baseball, though the game is played on a smaller field. The positions that see the most action in t ball are the pitcher and first base, followed by the rest of the infield positions.
In most parts of the country, T ball is a sport children play before they progress to coach-pitch baseball. Players learn the basic concepts of the sport of baseball while they play T ball and get their first baseball experience of being part of a team. The t ball rules and regulations are devised to teach kids the principles of baseball before they are coordinated enough to hit and catch.
Games are usually four innings and scoring is not always used since it is to develop baseball hitting skills and learn other baseball training. Everyone participates and every player gets to bat and play in the field. Because everyone gets to hit each inning and everyone gets to play the field each game, the whole process is fair and no one gets left out. Parent participation is highly encouraged at practices and games.
In many leagues, score is not kept and rules are designed to maximize participation. An inning is completed once each child has had a turn at bat and all extra players of the defensive team play in the outfield every inning. It teaches them how to throw to base and throw to home. Ultimately their skills will become more advanced. Parents are encouraged to learn t ball rules and regulations because they are often used as umpires. You can watch your child and have fun coaching at the same time.
Playing T-Ball is a way for your child to keep active and have some fun. Being on a team is an opportunity for children to feel like they belong. The whole idea of T ball is to teach players baseball hitting techniques and the other skills they will need as they advance into playing the more difficult game of baseball.
A great way for your child to learn the t ball rules and regulations is by using the Little Tikes T Ball Set. This all in one kit is the best tool for your little slugger to begin learning. This set is an awesome introductory to the game of T Ball!
Planning an Effective Youth Sports Practice By Guest Author: Scott L. Sanders
It's no coincidence that the most organized coaches are also the most successful with their youth and high school sports teams. Below, you'll find specific strategies for Seasonal, Monthly, Weekly, and Daily practice planning that will help you stay organized and goal-focused throughout the year.
Implementing just a few of these tips will reduce your practice planning stress, give you loads of credibility, and dramatically improve the flow of your practices and the performance of your athletes.
Season Plans
Begin by dividing your year into 4 coaching phases: Off-Season, Pre-Season, Early Season, and Peak Season. Next develop a high-level "at a glance" view of what you want to accomplish during each one of those periods.
Make sure you consider:
Technical, Tactical, Physical Training Skills: What general skills are you wanting your athletes to focus on during different portions of the year? For example, you might want to improve your team's free throw shooting, or work on swimming flip turns, or practice penalty shots, etc.
Team Goals: Is your team looking to develop speed in the off-season? Are you fine-tuning your routines prior to a big cheerleading competition? Are you learning a new offense before the season begins?
Fundraising Goals: How much cash does the team need to raise to cover the costs of the season. When does that money to be raised by? What types of fundraising events
Coaching Emphasis: Are you focused on recruiting during the off-season? Are you focused on improving your coaching knowledge by attending conferences and clinics during pre-season?
Tournaments, Seminars, Clinics: Make note of any upcoming events you or your team will be participating in. Is there an out-of-state tournament that you would like your team to participate in? Is there a coaching clinic about a topic you're interested in?
Workout Schedule: Is your team practicing 6 days a week during the early season? Do you expect your athletes to train 3 days a week during the off-season when there aren't regularly schedules practices?
Monthly Plans
Once your season plan is in place, consider creating a month by month planner on the office bulletin board to serve as a useful reminder about the year's objectives, goals, and events. This is the time to get a little more specific about the objectives you and your team would like to accomplish, and the exact timing for individual events.
For example, what's the date and location for the first tryout? Are you planning a car wash on March 15th that will raise $500 to pay for your summer tournament? When does the first round of the playoffs begin?
Weekly Plans
At the beginning of each week, it's wise to take 10 minutes to plan out a rough outline of your practices. What time does practice start and end? What gym will it be held in? Will players arrange their own transportation to the field, or will a school bus be provided?
You'll also want to consider some more specific practice and team objectives you'd like to accomplish. Are you preparing to face a particular opponent? Are you working on developing speed or strength? Are you trying to improve your team's communication skills?
Do you have a meeting with a parent or administrator? Do you need to check in with a particular teacher about an athletes performance in the classroom, etc? These are all items appropriate for your weekly plan.
Daily Plans
This is the nitty gritty portion of your practice planning sequence. You'll want to make note of the EXACT activities and drills you want to perform, how long to do them for, and what order to do them in. It's best to get all of this down in an easy-to-read template that you can keep on your clipboard and refer to throughout practice.
Before each practice, sit down and outline your top three primary goals for the day. Do you want to master a play that you will run in an upcoming game, do you want to work on building speed or strength, do you want to help your athletes improve a technical skill critical to your sport?
Next, make note of any equipment that might be required for the day's practice. Do you need pylons, jump ropes, extra balls, etc?
When you're ready to plan your drills and activities, start with the team warm-up. Structure your warm-up into 3 phases: Aerobic Warm-up, Stretching, and Technical Skills Warm-Up. Many coaches find that three 5-minute phases work well. During the aerobic warm-up you may decide to have you athletes complete a light jog, jumprope, or perform some other kind of gentle aerobic activity to increase their heart rate and warm up their body.
Once your athletes are sufficiently warm, you can transition into the stretching phase of your warm-up. Focus on stretching the muscles that are used most often in your sport.
We recommend completing your warm-up with a technical skills tune-up where athletes practice specific athletic skills required by their sport (i.e.- basketball free-throw shooting, volleyball serves, etc).
Now you can move onto the "core" of your practice, first list the skills you would like to work on with your team (place this in the first column under "skills to improve"). Next, assign a drill to each skill that specifically targets the area you are seeking to improve.
Finally, note any coaching points you'd like to remember during the practice (i.e. keep head up, make sure players bend their knees, make sure Andy keeps his elbow back, etc.)
Complete your practice with a cool down that lasts at least 10 minutes. Slowly bring your athletes' heart rates down with gentle aerobic activity (do not abruptly stop practice or aerobic activity as this may cause injury). Once your athletes are breathing normally, lead your team in a thorough stretching session.
Make sure you allow athletes water breaks every 15 minutes to ensure they remain hydrated throughout your practice. It's best to schedule these into your planner so that you don't forget.
After practice, make notes on how the day went at the bottom of the practice planner. Are there any areas you'd like to focus on for the next practice? Did a particular drill work well (or not work well)?
Follow this simple formula and your practices will run much smoother, you'll get more accomplished in each practice and you'll see an exponential increase in your athlete's performance!
If you'd like to put your practice planning system on the "fast track", we highly recommend the sports team website builder at Sportata.com. Even if you know nothing about computers, you can create a dazzling website for your basketball, football, softball, baseball, volleyball, hockey (or any other) team in just 3 easy steps. With just a few clicks, you can post practice schedules, send broadcast emails, and deliver workout plans to your athletes. Go to Sportata.com to learn more.
Scott Sanders is Director of Business Development at Sportata.com, the fastest, easiest team website builder online. If you can spare 15 minutes, you can create a dazzling sports team website in just 3 easy steps with Sportata. This incredible tool is extremely simple to use, and allows coaches and team managers to organize their schedules, communicate with players and parents, and manage their team (without wasting time on administrative chores). Here's what our users are saying:
"Easy to build, especially for someone that doesn't know much about computers."
Coach Meyer SCS Baseball St Clair Shores, MI
"Very easy. My 7 year old could have done it!"
Mark Sweetman Metro Basketball Association Sixers Dearborn, Michigan
To test drive our site building wizard, go to http://www.Sportata.com
