My kid is playing for the first time and his coaches suck. Practices are poorly organized - the kids spend the 45/60 minutes kicking the dirt with nothing to do. Usually they warm up for a few minutes, bat around (with 3 or 4 kids standing waiting to bat, the rest fielding - outfielders with nothing to do the whole time) then they do a little baserunning practice. Seems like they are only learning how to react to very specific situations, and only the kid that actual field the ball gets any instruction - the other kids are just jacking around (cant blame them). I'd like to see the kids split into smaller groups, 4-5 kids to a coach, so that they can receive some real instruction on the basics. What have you done or seen in the past that seemed to work?

(also - there isnt a lack of adults out there to assist - the team has 4 coaches (12 kids) and there is always 4-5 other adults out there willing to help).

Throwing and catching first.

Have them line up across from each other and practice throwing and catching the ball. Start about 5 paces across, let them get comfortable, and every so often have them back up one step, then continue throwing, until they get the rhythm and feel of it.

If the fathers want to get involved, I'd have them standing behind their sons, offering assistance when needed.

This should be the first part of practice every night. There'll be no shortage of boys who can hit. At the instructional age of 6 and under (I'm assuming this is T-ball), the big question will be fielding and getting a runner out.

I know what you're saying about the "game situation" coaching philosophy, and at this age, it's meaningless to them.

Kids this young should be as active as possible, whether that's throwing the ball, running the bases, fielding ground balls, etc.

After a bit of pitch and catch, I'd have them line up in three groups of three or four. Have a dad stand 15 feet or so in front of them and throw ground balls. After the player fields it and throws it back, have him go to the back of the line and let the next one take a turn. Do this for a few rounds to give them the feel of getting down on the ball, picking it up, pivoting and throwing it back to you.

Most important here to get down to their level. During games, they'll be throwing to teammates their height, so it does no good to practice throwing to a 5'10" father when they should work on getting the ball down.

Once all that's done, and you've finished throwing, catching and baserunning, have them hit.

A lot.

Good luck to you and your son's team. This can be a lot of fun.

LSU is right...

In fact I just got back from my son's practice (he's 6).
He started when he was 3 playing tball and so did a few other kids on our team but we do have some first timers.

The most important thing is to have the parents involved. If they are there is not a reason iun the world for any kid to sit around doing notihng. This is what we do...

We have great parental support so we have several stations going at one time.

1 - We start off throwing and catching. Like LSU said, if you can have the parents there to support them here it is huge...it also gives the coaches the time to give instruction to each kid while not having to worry about crowd control.

2- We then split up into stations for most of practice - this is coach pitch and we are focusing big time on hitting right now.
Our stations are as follows...
*3 stations where parents/coaches are pitching to a player (full disclosure here - our facilities are crazy - I get to use the facilities of a local 5a high school)
*2 stations where they hit off of a T
*1 soft toss station
*2 stations working on fielding - typically one working infield...the other outfield. We never have more thatn 3 kids at these stations.

After the station work we might run the bases a bit.

Bottom Line - we have rgeat parents who are involved and it allows us to have alot going on where no kid is ever just standing around. We keep them moving...we keep them playing...and we make sure they learn and have fun.
Then last part is obviously the most important because at this age the 2 most important things to the players are the snack and the drink after the game

mnuge kinda hit on my point

[This message has been edited by byron06 (edited 3/8/2004 9:24p).]

kinda makes me want a kid so i can take him to ball practice.

I'm coaching 5-6 now and this is our typical practice, in fact this is last nights practice:

First 30 minutes, four stations:

1: Throw TENNIS balls at kids without gloves. Have them put their throwing hand behind their back and catch the ball with their bare glove hand.

2: Hitting station #1. Hitting a flat basketball off of a tee. Form is important and this is good for wrist strength and bat speed.

3: Hitting station #2. Hitting off of a tee into the backstop. Purely a chance to work onform. Leading with the hands, stepping towards the pitcher, where to stand in the box.

4: Baserunning. It's early so all we're doing here is working on running from home to first and running through first base by having them run through the bag and give me 5 about 5 steps later and in foul territory. In a couple of weeks we'll introduce watching the base coaches and our hand signals to stop or go.

After 30 minutes we take a short break, then line up the kids at the pitchers mound and first base. I hit grounders to the pitcher, who throws to the first baseman to get the out. The kids finish at each station and go wait in line for the next station.

After 25 minutes we stop that drill, split the team in two, and run a relay race around the bases.

In one hour we have hit on all but the mechanics of throwing, which will come tomorrow night when our practice is at a field with a poor surface, hence no ground balls.

coach pitch age coach here. Go easy on the coaches first of all...after all they are volunteeering. If they happen to be a first year coach, organization is probably one of the hardest things to learn that will keep your practices flowing smoothly. our practices basically go like this.
1. All kids form a circle with a different kid in the circle every time. Light exercises and really light stretching. Kid in circle calls the "cadence".
2. Short run
3. Pair up and throw and catch for about 10-15 minutes. At young age basics of throwing and catching cannot be taught while taking batting practice.
4. Breakout kids into two groups 1 on first base one on third base. One coach hits to 1st base group..another coach hits to 3rd base group. kids get one ground ball 1st time through then nexttime through they get 3 in a row then next time through they get five in a row so they are moving through the line pretty quickly and it keeps their attention.
5. Break out into full fielding positions working outfield and infield on situational fielding.
6. Three kids in a group go bat. More experienced kids bat in "game setting" ie hit the ball or 4 swings whichever comes first. Younger kids get different set of attention. With more coaching taking place behind the backstop inbetween their turn at the plate.
Rotate thru til all kids have batted.

LOYAL is right...using tennis balls is a very good idea for the young ones (throwing and hitting).
In fact, we might pull them out tonight. We have a few guys who are dreadfully afraid of te ball and literally run from it when it is thrown. The tennis balls take the fear out of the equation (if not, you have bigger problems).
We use them with hitting for the guys who seem to stop the bat when it hits the ball instead of going all the way through it.

the head coach has coached in this league for years and I have heard grumblings from other parents - I myself have coached other sports before, so i know how hard and time consuming it is, so I dont feel much need to go easy on them. The head guy also missed the last game and the last practice. What does that tell my kid?

oh and thanks, what you all are saying is spot on - exactly what i wanted to know. and great stuff i can do at home with the kid.