Welcome to the world of coaching T-ball.
More than likely you are a dad of a 5-6 year old, and you’ve either been waiting patiently for this moment for years, or you just got told that if no one signs up to coach there won’t be a team.
You are busy with life and at least one small kid and odds are that your oldest is 5-6 or you wouldn’t be researching coaching sites. This page gives you one quick overview of what you need to have a great season.
Making the Difficult Easy
I started coaching in 1999 before I had kids, so I skipped T-ball and started with 10 year olds, then 11’s and then 12’s.
When my kids were 5, I went back and started again at T-ball and I was amazed at how HARD it was.
This page is all about trying to make it easy.
I will say some of the most fun I’ve had was at T-ball practices — kids ask the greatest questions: “Why do we run around the bases in THIS direction?” or “I always forget which one is right field,” etc.
A Suggested Goal
While you might have your own goals for your coaching, I’d also like to suggest one: the player should have so much fun and learn so much that they want to play next year.
In T-ball this is hard.
There is a lot of standing around, kicking the dirt, and playing with grass. It’s crucial to keep practice fast moving.
Keeping It Moving
The key to a fast moving practice is to get a LOT of parents to help. To do that you need to be clear in the initial e-mail to parents.
Here’s a sample email you can use: Initial Letter to Parents
Once you send that out, I strongly recommend an opening season pizza party for all players and parents to attend. Ideally you can talk to the parents for about 15 minutes and go through the agenda. The key thing to emphasize is that you want players to return next year and that you need the parents to help out at practice for that to happen.
Below are links to more resources on the site for you:
- Parents Meeting Agenda
- Ready to go Practice Plans (Early, Mid-Season, Late Season)
- Game Management
- Equipment
Each practice plan has links to the drills referenced in the plan. Enjoy and send me comments if you like it or if you have favorite drills that you think I should add — I’ll be glad to add them.
