Looks like I'll be coaching my son's t-ball team, Moore Youth League Baseball. Any advice on what equipment I need? Places to practice, drills etc? I am decently familiar with baseball, having played it years ago. Hope I can still hack it LOL. Thing that scares me the most is that my son still hasnt shown right/left hand dominance, and will either be ambidextrous, or a lefty. How am I gonna deal with that?
The number one thing in my book (coached a long time) is teach them correct baseball. How to catch, throw and base running. I have coached a lot of kids that come from t-ball to machine or coach pitch that do not have basics. Some coaches teach kids to get ball and run down player and tag them out NEVER throwing to correct base. This is hard to break and will not work when moving up in league. There are a lot of internet sites that have drills to run for the fundamentals for young kids. Just do kids a favor and teach good baseball and it will help them in future. I always had my best fielder/thrower in T-ball at pitcher,shortstop and firstbase. Hope this helps
I coached hockey for a long time and the most important advice I can give you is to remember that it's about the kids. It's not about you, winning and as much as the parents will try to make you believe...it's not about them either. You have the chance to teach them proper baseball and allow them to have fun. The competitive/winning aspect will come into play later. I quit coaching because of players parents...they tend to ruin all youth sports. I didn't mean to lecture there...sorry if I did.
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OK1911
Guest
+1 on teach them to throw to the proper base. I saw a team taught to ROLL the ball to the base. They cleaned up at the first of the season, but after half way though the season they were being beat all the time. It's all about fundamentals. Teach them the basics, it's very rewarding!
Parents can be a pain, if they don't support their kid by bringing them to practice and games there isn't much you can do about it. Regardless, it is all about the kids at that level. It WILL get intensive to get the win in a few years. Lay down the foundation now...
Ron
Parents can be a pain, if they don't support their kid by bringing them to practice and games there isn't much you can do about it. Regardless, it is all about the kids at that level. It WILL get intensive to get the win in a few years. Lay down the foundation now...
Ron
Every game has a winner and a loser, but everyone gets pizza so it's ok. There are no 8th place trophies. Start working on preventing the next "Occupy" generation. I'm just messing. Like mentioned earlier, proper fielding. And sportsmanship, the only thing worse then a sore loser is a sore winner...
Let them be kids and tell the idiot parents to talk to the hand when they start bitching. This was approach the former Mrs. Dutchwrangler and I took when we coached her nephew's first grade basketball team 20+ ago. He still talks about how much fun he had. The kids actually won a few games too. 
have fun, make sure they have fun. try and instill the fundamentals. Equipment wise I coached for the YMCA so I didn't provide anything but some mouth guards and time. google is your friend for ideas for practice and to help you get going.
It's all about the drink tickets and who gets to hand them out after the game!
Mostly I would say to keep it fun. I always told my kids and parents that rule number one was to have fun. Rule number 2 was to learn the basics along the way. And I agree with what has been said above about teaching them the right way to do things. We got our tails kicked the first year while learning to throw the ball. Everybody else was chasing people down and tagging them out. My parents all understood that we were going to do it right and that it was better in the long run. We moved up to pitching machine in the fall and while the other teams were trying to re-learn how to play, we were running circles around them. As for fun drills, you can do the caterpillar game. Line everybody up in a straight line facing you. roll the ball towards them and they have to let the ball go between their legs down the line and try to get it through everybody's legs. It helps them work on team work by having to watch the person in front of them, and it also teaches them to center the ball between their legs. Another one is to play cat and mouse. Have one runner (mouse) start and let them get a head start before sending the next runner (cat) after them. They have to touch all of the bases and try to make it home before the cat catches them. One last trick is to use balled up socks for them to play catch with for the first couple of practices. It lets them settle in and not worry about getting hit with the ball. They can focus on glove control and learn to trust their gloves.
And make sure you have a thick skin! You're going to get yelled at. there's always one of "those" parents that think they know better and will tell you.
I would just let your son try it both ways. He'll settle in and show that he can throw with one hand better than the other. It took one of my girls half the season. And I know it sounds crazy, but I would make my kid bat left handed. If they are just starting then it won't make any difference to them. Either side will be foreign to them. But just in case they stick with it, batting lefty will come in handy. Plus in Tball they are a little closer to first so they won't get chased down as easily.
Mostly I would say to keep it fun. I always told my kids and parents that rule number one was to have fun. Rule number 2 was to learn the basics along the way. And I agree with what has been said above about teaching them the right way to do things. We got our tails kicked the first year while learning to throw the ball. Everybody else was chasing people down and tagging them out. My parents all understood that we were going to do it right and that it was better in the long run. We moved up to pitching machine in the fall and while the other teams were trying to re-learn how to play, we were running circles around them. As for fun drills, you can do the caterpillar game. Line everybody up in a straight line facing you. roll the ball towards them and they have to let the ball go between their legs down the line and try to get it through everybody's legs. It helps them work on team work by having to watch the person in front of them, and it also teaches them to center the ball between their legs. Another one is to play cat and mouse. Have one runner (mouse) start and let them get a head start before sending the next runner (cat) after them. They have to touch all of the bases and try to make it home before the cat catches them. One last trick is to use balled up socks for them to play catch with for the first couple of practices. It lets them settle in and not worry about getting hit with the ball. They can focus on glove control and learn to trust their gloves.
And make sure you have a thick skin! You're going to get yelled at. there's always one of "those" parents that think they know better and will tell you.
I would just let your son try it both ways. He'll settle in and show that he can throw with one hand better than the other. It took one of my girls half the season. And I know it sounds crazy, but I would make my kid bat left handed. If they are just starting then it won't make any difference to them. Either side will be foreign to them. But just in case they stick with it, batting lefty will come in handy. Plus in Tball they are a little closer to first so they won't get chased down as easily.
