A couple of tips for parents new to baseball / T ball

Hi folks

If you're looking to learn a little about how to help you T ball aged children learn about playing baseball / T ball, here are a couple of things you can use.

Firstly, watch baseball games!  Even if it's only an inning or two or a couple of home run highlights, watching a bit of baseball on tele or online can really help.  Sky Sport are now broadcasting ESPN and ESPN2 so if you're lucky enough to have a Sky Sport subscription you can watch MLB regular season games and condensed game replays of the final month of the regular season and the post season during October. mlb.mlb.com has video highlights of games and lets you follow what's happening in the various leagues.

If you're looking for drills to run with your child, there are a couple of good options.

The first thing I'd recommend is spending $10-$15 on this book by Marty Schupak: T Ball Skills and Drills.  I've found it really helpful in understanding the sorts of things you need to focus on with the kids as their motor skills develop.

In terms of online videos, there are tons!  But as a starter, the following are pretty useful for teaching kids playing T ball for the first time some fundamentals on how to catch and throw.  Don't forget we will give each of the T ball kids a soft core baseball at the start of the season (ie a baseball where the surface has some give and is therefore softer and easier for kids to learn with - they're the same type of balls we use all the way up to U11 baseball).  If you don't have a baseball yet, you can always do these drills with tennis balls in the mean time.

This catching video is helpful to teach kids struggling to catch the ball using the correct technique - which even for our 7, 8, 9 year olds can be a problem.  For the younger kids, the throwing videos give you an idea of where we're trying to get them with their throwing technique, and for the older kids the three step throwing program should be something they do every time they go out to throw a ball as a warm up!

How to teach baseball catching to 5 - 7 year olds

Here are a couple of videos on throwing technique.  The two video series by "Mr Baseball" is one that provides a useful throwing warmup for kids, and can be used for ages 4+, but is probably better used as they get to 6 - 7:

Throwing technique with Mr Baseball part I
Throwing technique with Mr Baseball part II

Here are another couple of videos with a slightly different method to the same end, and are probably more useful for teaching the younger kids - particularly the first video:

How to throw a baseball (5&6 year olds)
BFTGU.com - Youth Throwing Drill (for 5-8s)

This is merely a start and but a scratch on the surface of the resources available to teach our kids how to play baseball properly.  If you want any further tips or places to look, keep an eye on the blog or better yet comment and let me know what you've found useful or what further things you'd like some direction on!

You can also post directly to our facebook page and I'll see the comments there as well.  Here's hoping the spring gives us some fine days / weeks and lets us get outside on some dry terra firma!