KiwiBall starts Friday night!

Hi folks

KiwiBall Spring Training begins this Friday!  In advance of our season kick off, here are a few bits of information and a big request for help.

Start time

Friday night training:

Both Junior Sluggers (5-6 year olds) and Sluggers (7-8 year olds) will start at 5:30pm.  The Juniors run for 45 mins and the Sluggers run for an hour.

Saturday morning game:

Meet time is 8:30am for warm ups with games starting at 9am.  Again, 45 mins for Junior Sluggers, 1 hour for Sluggers.

Location

We'll be on the touch rugby fields over the far side of the Number 1 diamond (the first diamond as you walk into Lloyd Elsmore Park from the baseball car park off Cascades Road (opposite the vege wholesaler near Ben Lomand Cres).

Weather cancellation

If we are uncertain about the weather, and/or the fields are too wet, we'll cancel the training or game.  Cancellation will be via the KiwiBall facebook page and on this site.  For training, we'll notify of cancellation no later than 4pm.  For the game Saturday, we'll notify of cancellation by 8am.

Parent help - Junior Sluggers

We're looking for help with coaching teams once the Spring Training period has ended.  In the meantime, we'll need all the parent help we can get - particularly at the Junior Slugger level.  If you are willing to help out with coaching, please put your hand up to assist during the Spring Training period.  I've put together a detailed format for week one of the Junior Sluggers training and game day below so everyone understands what we want the players to do. 

Please either email or phone/text me if you are able to help out - or even just make yourself known to me on Friday night.  If you're able to help out, print out and bring along a copy of the Junior Sluggers training / game format as a guide.

I'll be there working with the Sluggers grade, but I'll also need help to wrangle the players, so parents with players at that level, please don't be afraid to step forward.  I've included a brief outline of what we'll be working on for week 1 below as well.

Format:

Junior Sluggers - Friday night training:

Juniors - Base names, timed home run and a game.
Helpers required - at least 2 parents per diamond

Learn the bases:

After a quick warm up and stretch (jumping jacks, stretch to the sky, bend to the ground), the players gather around home base.  Everyone points at the base and yells as loudly as they can "HOME" three times.  Then get everyone to run to 1st base (everyone points at the base and yells "base 1" three times), 2nd base ("base 2"), 3rd base ("base 3") and returns to "home!".

Timed home run:

Line all the players up at home base.  The line follows the leader running around the bases (no overtaking) jumping on each base and yelling out it's name, finishing at home base.  After this practice, do it again but "time" it.  See if everyone can set a world record!

Game:

For week one, this game will be the format of the game used on Saturday morning as well.

Split the players into two teams - one team bats, one team fields.  After everyone has batted on the batting team, swap over.

Batting team
Line the team up away from home base.  Set up the batting tee on home base and have one ball to hit.  Use one bat only for safety reasons.  Bring up one batter at a time with a helmet on, everyone else remains seated in line and cheers for the batter. 

Before the first batter, explain to the team what they need to do:  Have the batter hit the ball off the tee and, once the ball is hit, the player carefully DROPS THE BAT - NEVER THROW THE BAT, and run a home run jumping on each base and yelling out it's name as they go. 

Be patient with the batter.  Get them to focus on the ball (batting technique is not too important at this stage).  If they swing and miss three times, have a parent help them make contact.  Watch out for enthusiastic swings of the bat!

Fielding team
Help the players to put on a baseball glove (they go on their non dominant hand, their dominant hand is for throwing ie a right handed thrower wears their glove on their left hand).  Get enough baseballs so you have at least one per fielder.  The parent helping the fielding team should stand near base two with the baseballs.

Spread the players out behind the red safety cones to avoid being hit by well hit baseballs.  The area between home base and the cones is RED HOT LAVA and so must not be stepped in!  When the batter hits the ball, the parent throws the fielders balls out to the fielders - each one fields one ball only.  They then run the balls back in to base 2 back to the parent helper.  Repeat for each batter.  See who can get their ball back the fastest!

Junior Sluggers - Saturday game:

Warm up - a game of "Stuck in the mud" or something similar and some fun stretches to warm up (eg star jumps, standing jumps, arm circles)

Practice running the bases again and make sure they yell out the name of each base as they jump on them!  Have them all stand in the middle of the diamond.  Yell out a base name and get them to run to it - see who can remember the best!  If Friday was washed out, then go through the learning the base name drill instead to teach the base names.

Play the game as per Friday night training.

Sluggers - Friday training

Warm up game of Stuck in the Mud and stretches.
Learning "ready position", "fielding position", "throwing position" and "hitting position".
Learning the fielding positions - and then a test.
Working on catching basics - glove off, then glove on.
Working on ground ball basics - glove off, then glove on.
Hitting off the tee - two stations, more if required.

Sluggers - Saturday game:
Warm up as per Friday night, go through catching basics drills then working on throwing basics (4 seam grip and arm path).
For the game, using tees to begin with, but progressing to coach pitch from the 2nd inning for the more confident players.  Hitters run until the ball is touched by a fielder, and then remains at the base they're approaching.  Fielders throw to that base.