Coach s Curriculum Guide T-Ball
N Zone Junior Coach Curriculum Guide T-Ball Introduction: Name Tags: Introduce yourself and make sure name tags of kids are visible. Session Rules: an overview of the rules of the program; must be covered daily. Hands Up 1,2,3 A technique used to teach the kids to be quiet when the coaches are speaking. Coaches should put up index finger and announce the words Hands up one. This continues through Hands up three, and by the time the coach reaches the third call, all the kids should be completely quiet. To make it fun for the kids, have them make as much noise as possible (scream and yell), then you begin to count towards Hands up three. Respect Discuss the importance of respecting others. Introduce the concept of a team and how respect for each team member is important in sports. No contact (pushing, shoving, etc.) Discuss basic rules for participation for activities. Exploring the Field: ask the kids questions pertaining to the equipment used to play the sport. This would include discussion of baseball bats, baseballs, the tee, and the field and bases. Value of the Day: Value of the Day is listed at the top of the daily drills page(s). Stretch: Group stretch Create a big circle with the coach(es) in the middle of the circle Make yourself as big as you can/stretch to the Sky stretch standing straight up with arms extending towards the sky. This is for the purpose of stretching the torso and back. Touch the ground spread legs slightly (shoulder width) and stretch downwards while keeping the back straight. Kids should be able to touch the ground or come very close. For the purpose of stretching the legs and also the back. Down to the left Legs spread wider than shoulder width and stretch downwards towards the left leg. Down to the right Legs spread wider than shoulder width and stretch downwards towards the right leg. Jog in place Kids should begin running in place, moving both their arms and legs at a medium rate. This is for the purpose of the general loosening of the muscles. 1 For NZone Junior programs working with ages 2-3, each day s activities should take no less than 30 minutes and no more than 3. This includes introduction, stretch, drills, and overview. Literal instructions for drills should need not be carried out with the same precision as is with ages 4-8. The overall goal for the drill is still to be reached but do to the inability to comprehend the drills at the same level as an older child in the program, the younger children should be instructed in a far simpler environment. Use the same time frame for drills throughout, as it is important for the children to receive the same amount outside activity. Shorten the program each day by limiting stretch time and the introduction period. With this younger age group, the emphasis should be for the children to have as much fun as possible while still in a structured environment.
N Zone Junior Coach Curriculum Guide T-Ball Week 1 Value of the Day: Teamwork is the value of the day! Ask the children what their understanding of teamwork is and follow by giving them the following example: The sport of baseball is a team game. When playing baseball, many different players are on the field and all of them have to do their job in order for a team to win! No single person can win a game by themselves because the ball has to make it all around the field by catching it and throwing it from one teammate to another in order to get outs. When batting, it is important to work as a team to get runs because not everyone can hit a homerun. Runners need to get on base and other people need to hit them in to score runs. We must always give 100% for our team on every play! That s what teamwork is. Which hand are you? Understanding left and right. This drill is extremely simple and is for the purpose of finding out which hand they are more comfortable throwing with. Pair the children up and line them up across from each other. 5 feet is more than enough distance to have between each child as many of them are going to struggle with both throwing and catching. Work your way through with each child and make sure they understand the fundamentals of throwing and which hand to use. Step and Throw Learning a little form. Line the children up in the same pairs they were in for the first drill. Move throughout the kids helping them understand the throwing form of turning their body perpendicular to their target. Each child should be able to point their non-throwing arm at their target and create a T with their body. The throwing arm should come past their ear and across their body. They should step towards their target with their front foot and step into the throw as they release the ball. Basic throwing form. See attached diagram Capture the ball! Throw it back! Coach should line children up in one straight line. Stand approximately 10 feet away from the start of the line facing the children. Using a bat, the Coach should hit ground balls towards each child at the start of the line. Each child should field the ground ball and use proper throwing form as previously instructed to return the ball to the coach. of the concept which hand to throw with, the proper throwing form, and how to catch and release the ball. Reward Each child earns a Level 1 Pass Sticker 2
N Zone Junior Coach Curriculum Guide T-Ball Week 2 Value of the Day: Positive Attitude is the value of the day! Ask the children what their understanding of having a positive attitude is and follow with this example: When your team is down by 2 runs going into the bottom of the 9 th inning, it is hard to be happy or have a good attitude about the game. With that being said, it is important to have a positive attitude and encourage your team because the game is not over until it is over! If your attitude is poor and all your teammates see that, they are going to be discouraged. If your attitude is good and your teammates see that, they will be encouraged and will feed off of your positive energy. Let s stay positive, work as a team, and get back in this game! Grip the bat Show me how you hold it! We are using this drill to find out which way the child is most comfortable swinging the bat. This will usually correspond to which hand they throw the ball with but this is not always the case so do take proper time in evaluating each child. Place a ball on the tee and bring each child up one at a time to the plate. The purpose is to discover comfort level as well as show form. Feet of the child should be about shoulder width apart. The back foot should be in line with the back of the plate. Front foot should be near, if not on, the front of the plate. Every child should slightly choke up on the bat (grip it high) and should be the appropriate distance away from the tee in order to extend for a full swing. Slow motion swingers slow and steady wins the race! During the last drill, you spent the time to explain and show to them the proper technique. This drill is a continuation of the previous drill. Bring all the children back through in the same order. Instead of them not hitting the ball, or them swinging full speed, they will be swinging in slow motion to make slight contact with the ball. If you would like to make a game of the slow motion aspect of the drill, it may help with entertainment and maintaining the attention of the children. See attached diagram Hitting off the tee Putting it all together! Let s put them in front of the tee, tell them to use the technique they just learned, and let them swing away! Instruct as they go along. of the concept of the proper batting stance and the proper way to swing and hit the ball. Reward Each child earns a Level 2 Pass Sticker 2
N Zone Junior Coach Curriculum Guide T-Ball Week 3 Value of the Day: Effort is the value of the day! Ask the children what their understanding of giving maximum effort is and follow with this example: We talked about it before, but just to make sure you were listening, how much effort should we give for our teammates on every play? We need to give them 100% of our effort on every play. If you think about your teammate giving 100% effort, you will want to give the same. Just in case you were wondering, to give maximum effort means to run as fast as you can or to never give up on a play even if it seems hopeless. If you have a positive attitude, are all working as a team, and everyone is giving 100% effort on every play, there are very few games you won t be in the winning dugout! Old Frog (ready position) Let s get ready to rumble! In baseball, each player has to know how to field the ball but more importantly, they have to always be ready to field the ball. The ball can come at you in many different ways so you have to be in a stance/position at nearly all times that will keep you prepared for anything that comes at you! We call this ready position. Put all the children in a circle around you. They should have plenty of room around them to move and practice the stance (the bigger the circle, the better). It is good to make this drill as playful as possible for the children. Show them the ready stance of being bent at the knees with your shoulder s over your knees and having a straight back and eyes toward the batter. Explain it to them as the Old Frog position. Spin around jumping and hopping on your tip toes to show how easy it is to move in this stance. See attached diagram Stop the ball Gotta knock it down! It is very important, as a defender, to not let the baseball get past you while you are playing the field. Even if you cannot cleanly glove the ball, you must knock it down and keep it from going past you. Line the children up in a single file line. One at a time, throw or hit to them ground balls. Change up the location, speed, and intensity of each ground ball. The purpose is for the child to either field the ball cleanly or knock it off of its path and recover quickly. See attached diagram Hot potato! Getting the ball out quick! In a big group circle, the Coach should be in the middle with all the players (children) along the outside perimeter. Once all players are spread out and in ready position, precede to give each ground balls with high intensity. Their primary responsibility is to field the ball and get it back to the Coach in the middle with a clean throw. They need to be able to get the throw out quick as if they are beating out a base runner. of the concept of the proper defensive stance, the importance of knocking down the ball at all costs, and how to field the ball and get it out quickly! Reward Each child earns a Level 3 Pass Sticker 2
N Zone Junior Coach Curriculum Guide T-Ball Week 4 Value of the Day: Control is the value of the day! Ask the children what their understanding of having self-control is and give them the following example: Self-control is a very important value for everyone to understand, even adults! For the sport of baseball, self-control comes into play in many different ways. The most important is when you get angry. Say someone in the baseball game throws the ball and it hits you while you are batting or running the bases. We both know that is not a very nice way to treat anybody, whether it was by accident or on purpose, and we wouldn t want to do that to anybody but they did to you! Do you get angry and yell at them? Of course you don t. You have to exercise self-control, not get angry or mad, and just go talk to someone of authority to handle the situation. You never want to get in a situation where you could hurt your team or yourself because you didn t have control! Throw to warm up Feeling cold! It is important to properly warm up your arm before throwing the baseball in a game. Even in the majors, professional athletes with spend a significant amount of time warming up before the game begins. Pair the children up and have them softly throw the ball back and forth. They should slowly grow farther and farther away from each other to increase the distance of the throw. Hit to warm up A little warmer! Your arm is now warmed up, but how about the rest of your body? Batting practice is a great way to get the whole body warmed up before a game because your swing involves your legs, your torso, and your arms. Each child has at least a 2 minute window to practice their batting stance as well as get in a couple practice swings to get loose. No baseballs are involved. Scrimmage Getting hot! Let s get people into positions and get a game going! The children should be broken into two age and skill appropriate teams. Positions will be rotated between innings for fairness so please keep track. Instruct throughout the whole game and most importantly, everyone should have fun! of the concept of the pregame warm up and how a game is run! Reward Each child earns a Level 4 Pass Sticker 2
N Zone Junior Coach Curriculum Guide T-Ball Week 5 Value of the Day: Drive is the value of the day! Ask the children what their understanding of motivation is and give them the following example: To be driven is to be motivated to do well for your team! It is important to give maximum effort and to have a positive attitude for your team but you won t be able to do that without having the right motivation. In baseball, a lot of players are motivated by competition or simply the love of the game. For you guys, I want you to be motivated to just have fun and play well for your teammates. If you can do that, you will love coming out here every week and giving your all as a member of the team. Keep that drive to do well every day! Throw to warm up Feeling cold! It is important to properly warm up your arm before throwing the baseball in a game. Even in the majors, professional athletes with spend a significant amount of time warming up before the game begins. Pair the children up and have them softly throw the ball back and forth. They should slowly grow farther and farther away from each other to increase the distance of the throw. Hit to warm up A little warmer! Your arm is now warmed up, but how about the rest of your body? Batting practice is a great way to get the whole body warmed up before a game because your swing involves your legs, your torso, and your arms. Each child has at least a 2 minute window to practice their batting stance as well as get in a couple practice swings to get loose. No baseballs are involved. Scrimmage Getting hot! Let s get people into positions and get a game going! The children should be broken into two age and skill appropriate teams. Positions will be rotated between innings for fairness so please keep track. Instruct throughout the whole game and most importantly, everyone should have fun! of the concept of the pregame warm up and how a game is run! Reward Each child earns a Level 5 Pass Sticker 2
N Zone Junior Coach Curriculum Guide T-Ball Week 6 Value of the Day: Focus is the value of the day! Ask the children what their understanding of focus is and give them the following example: To remain focused means to be concentrated on what is important all the time. In sports, you have to remain focused on the goal that your team set out for that day or that competition. A good example of staying focused is during practice! When Coach is talking to you and trying to tell you something important for a drill or for the game coming up that week, if you are not focused on what is being said, you may be unprepared going into the game. It is very important to stay focused all the time do what you are supposed to be doing! Throw to warm up Feeling cold! It is important to properly warm up your arm before throwing the baseball in a game. Even in the majors, professional athletes with spend a significant amount of time warming up before the game begins. Pair the children up and have them softly throw the ball back and forth. They should slowly grow farther and farther away from each other to increase the distance of the throw. Hit to warm up A little warmer! Your arm is now warmed up, but how about the rest of your body? Batting practice is a great way to get the whole body warmed up before a game because your swing involves your legs, your torso, and your arms. Each child has at least a 2 minute window to practice their batting stance as well as get in a couple practice swings to get loose. No baseballs are involved. Scrimmage Getting hot! Let s get people into positions and get a game going! The children should be broken into two age and skill appropriate teams. Positions will be rotated between innings for fairness so please keep track. Instruct throughout the whole game and most importantly, everyone should have fun! of the concept of the pregame warm up and how a game is run! Reward Each child earns a Level 4 Pass Sticker 2
N Zone Junior Coach Curriculum Guide T-Ball Week 7 Value of the Day: Sportsmanship is the value of the day! Ask the children what their understanding of sportsmanship is and give them the following example: Has anyone ever told you to be a good sport? Across all sports that you will play in your life, sportsmanship is important to have. Sportsmanship means to have a good attitude and respect towards your team, the opponent, and the game. An example of good sportsmanship would be to help up a player from the other team when they get knocked down or to not get upset or have a fit when your team doesn t win. We want to always show our team and our coach that we have a great attitude when playing the game and that we have respect for everyone on the field every day! Throw to warm up Feeling cold! It is important to properly warm up your arm before throwing the baseball in a game. Even in the majors, professional athletes with spend a significant amount of time warming up before the game begins. Pair the children up and have them softly throw the ball back and forth. They should slowly grow farther and farther away from each other to increase the distance of the throw. Hit to warm up A little warmer! Your arm is now warmed up, but how about the rest of your body? Batting practice is a great way to get the whole body warmed up before a game because your swing involves your legs, your torso, and your arms. Each child has at least a 2 minute window to practice their batting stance as well as get in a couple practice swings to get loose. No baseballs are involved. Scrimmage Getting hot! Let s get people into positions and get a game going! The children should be broken into two age and skill appropriate teams. Positions will be rotated between innings for fairness so please keep track. Instruct throughout the whole game and most importantly, everyone should have fun! of the concept of the pregame warm up and how a game is run! Reward Each child earns a Level 4 Pass Sticker 2
NZone Junior Coach Curriculum Guide T-Ball Week 8 Value of the Day: Self-confidence is the value of the day! Ask the children what their understanding of what having self-confidence means and give them the following example: Self-confidence is very important for us to have. What that means is that you have to believe in yourself the way your teammates believe in you. If you are on the field and you are telling yourself that you aren t going catch the ball before it is even thrown or that you aren t fast enough to keep up with someone else, you have already lost the battle in your mind. You have to believe in your ability and you have to trust that you have put in the time during practice in order to be ready to compete on the field each week. Simply believe! Team warm up Working together! Most of the time, baseball players will do a warm up before a game with just themselves or one other player. To us, it is very important to build the team concept. Let s get everyone together and do a group warm up! In addition to the stretches that we start every day with, we need to get the children warmed up before the game. Pair the children up and put them into two lines, standing across from the person they were paired up with. They should begin throwing the ball back and forth to each other to warm up the throwing arm. Have the children throw it up in the air, down on the ground, and right to each other. 1 World Series! This is it! This is no longer just a scrimmage; it is the World Series of scrimmages! By now, you should have been able to assess talent and decide equal and fair teams from your group of players. Get them lined up and ready to go and as they say Let s play ball! The Coach should discuss all the drills performed by the children during the session. Each child should have a solid understanding of the concept of how to play T-ball! Reward Each child earns a Level 8 Pass Sticker Coaches should fill out a performance card for each child to take home for parental review. It is important for the parents Season Award Celebration! 30 minutes
N Zone Junior Coach Curriculum Guide Inclimate Weather Plan Should the weather become a concern, all Coaches should follow the instructions listed below: - Assess the current and future weather situation at least 1 hour prior to the day s workshop. 1) The workshop cannot be held outside if the inclimate weather includes: Medium to Heavy Rain Lightning Medium to Heavy Snowfall Hail High/Severe Winds Other obvious unsafe conditions (flooding, tornados, etc.) 2) Should the local Weather Advisory System provide a Severe Weather Warning or make the suggestion to stay indoors, Coaches must not hold the workshop outside. - Speak with the school/center supervisor to inform them about the weather concern. 1) Discuss the possibility of moving the workshop inside in an appropriate space. This should have been previously discussed prior to the beginning of the 8-week program as a precaution. 2) If moving the day s activities inside is not a possibility, discuss the rescheduling of the workshop with your owner/ manager as well as the school/center supervisor.
N Zone Junior Drill Diagrams T-Ball Week 1 T-Ball Week 2 T-Ball Week 3