tee ball

[ecfiffer]

ok guys could use some pointers here.  i'm not a sports guy at all so this is uncharted area for me.  my son seems to be diggin teeball but i dont know what all i should be doing at home with him.  pointers?  flaming can come AFTER you give me some ideas 

[Chako]

I had to look it up. Guess I can't help you.

[82brutus]

Well in reality it is t-ball and at that age expect to see kids playing in the dirt or watching planes fly overhead.  Don't sweat it too much.  You can get cheap practice tees for home if you want to help with batting practice but that isn't critical. Really, if you work on good basic ball skills like stopping the ball and looking where you want to throw the ball.  Have them take a good stance then work on stopping the ball with the glove.  You can roll the ball to them  around where they are standing and have them stop the ball and toss it back.

[Grant Lamontagne]

I played T-ball when I was a kid.  My team apparently did quite well, although to be honest I really don't remember much about it now, nor did I pay much attention to it then.  It's a great sport as kids who aren't good at sports (like me!  ) can have a decent showing.  It's just like baseball, only without the confrontation of batter vs pitcher, since the ball isn't thrown, it just sits there on a stand, waiting for the kid to hit it.  And, eventually, even kids with very little coordination will be able to hit it!

As for what to do at home to help your son improve, I'd suggest playing catch with him, since just like baseball, catching and throwing are a large part of the game.  Make sure to throw him a few "wild ones" so he learns to react and move quickly, but to be honest, I wouldn't push too hard, as T-ball is really not that competitive a game. 

Def

[cgk]

Key to hitting (I was told by a college baseball coach) is to hit the ball in front of his body, not the centerline of the body.  This will give him more power when hitting.  Practice the hitting.....and of course throw him fly balls and grounders.

[RaptorMan]

You guys forgot the most important part. You need to practice being one of those obnoxious parents on the sidelines that screams at his kid and the coach because they are doing it all wrong.   

[specgrade]

 Play catch with him. Get a tee or just a length of PVC pipe and put it in the ground so he can get used to hitting a ball off of it. Ball glove, bat about 24" long and a baseball are all that is really needed. A ball cap, too, if one is not provided. We got a hat and a shirt on our team.


http://www.teeballusa.org/rules.asp



 The most important rule of all is to have fun! 

[ecfiffer]

thanks guys.  I think I will be swinging by a second hand sports store by our house to get a glove and a few baseballs for us to use.  i will work with him on those things.

oh and Raptor... i'm already one of those parents!!  only i heckle the other kids j/k

[sawman]

Learning good throw/catch skills IMO are actually way more fun than batting.

[82brutus]

Learning good throw/catch skills IMO are actually way more fun than batting.

And in essence, catching and throwing are more essential to the game of baseball.  You potentially spend a lot more time catching and throwing during a game than batting.  Both of my kids went through T-ball and I helped coach a couple of years.  As my kids got older, they went through several stages where the pitchers were obviously way ahead of the batting skills for that age level.  Although frustrating to a batter that will always be the case.  Watch any game and you'll see there are always be strikeouts. Good skills with the glove and throwing are key.

The majority of balls they will see in t-ball will be grounders.  Just practice good skills for stopping the ball with the glove and throwing it back in since many times the rules in t-ball stop the runner from advancing when the ball is either back inside the baseline or in the pitchers glove.   Most of the time the coaches are just trying to stop the runner from advancing.

Have you determined whether your child is right handed or left handed?  Sometimes with young kids it's hard to tell.  One child was a lefty but had shown signs of right eye dominance.  We eventually went with left handed gloves and batting after a lot of trial and error. 

[Threeme2189]

Have you determined whether your child is right handed or left handed?  Sometimes with young kids it's hard to tell.  One child was a lefty but had shown signs of right eye dominance.  We eventually went with left handed gloves and batting after a lot of trial and error. 

That's exactly my case, it makes me have to shoot (fire arms, bow and arrow, etc') right handed.

[ecfiffer]

we think he's right handed but some times he uses his left... but 99% of the time hes a righty...