I am 99% sure I’m going to coach Tee Ball Spring 2018. After all, here are my options: College Pitching Coach, High School Varsity Asst Coach, or Tee Ball Head Coach… It’s a no-brainer right? Tee Ball here we come!
On one hand, this represents a dream come true: The opportunity to coach my own kid playing baseball. What a thrill. I’ve envisioned this moment for most of my adult life, and with my oldest child (a boy, Kobe, 5 in January), now is the time. On the other hand, this represents a truly dangerous scenario: The opportunity to coach my own kid playing… well… anything! I have worked in and around youth baseball for 20 years and have seen it all. Good, bad, ugly, you name it. I’ve either seen it firsthand or heard about it.
Here’s my idea for today:
WHO IN THE DC COMMUNITY WANTS TO JUMP ON BOARD THE SPRING 2018 COACHING CIRCUIT WITH ME?
It would be especially cool to find other tee-ball coaches around the country, and share a best-practices of tips, trips, to-do’s, and no-to-do’s, through the course of the season. Reminds me, did you know that we have a full coaching guide available for members? Currently, it’s available on the Clipboard Screen and called the DC Athlete Development Plan:
That leads me to a cool update. Soon, that document will also be available via the Resources button @ MyDugout:
The plan is to store the Athlete Development Plan (I call it our “Curriculum”) as well as the DC Coaching Clinic Video, and DC Tutorial & Practice Planning Clinic under the Resources umbrella. I’ve been waiting a long time to get that button live, and members can find HUGE value with these three resources:
DC Athlete Development Plan – A standardized curriculum for athlete development from tee ball through age 14. Essentially, what should an 8 year old be proficient in? What skills should a 10 year old be taught to prepare he/she for the next level. We layout EVERYTHING for the coach – dive into your age and see the suggestions. This Plan includes bullet-point learning objectives for each age level, which have been programmed into the DC Practice Plans. Follow our practice plans, you will expose your athletes to all of the objectives and responsibly “graduate” them to the next level. NOTE: We have an entire chapter dedicated to Getting Started, and so you coaches that join me in 2018 will be prepared!!
Coaching Clinic – We filmed one of my Coach-the-Coach on-field training events and professionally put it together for consumption. The events are typically 2.5-3 hours long, and so this has been edited down to roughly an hour and ten minutes. Essentially How to Coach Baseball 101, I run 15-20 of these events each spring and absolutely love them!
DC Tutorial & Practice Planning Clinic – This is a video equal parts Practice Planning 101 and DC Website Tutorial. I run these shorter events on nights and weekends for various DC partner leagues. The goal is to highlight the practice planning philosophy we follow, by navigating through the website and explaining how it is laid out.
Stay tuned for that, and I’ll fire a message to find out when we can expect to have that page available. Now, back to the idea of going through a spring season together, who’s coming with me? Leave a reply below and we’ll get a coaching group going! Everything from what to say at the first team meeting, to how heavy of a practice load young families are interested in. Heck, imagine sharing the best drills for tee ballers, the best suggestions for prizes or competitions, the best way to handle kids that don’t show up to practice. This fires me up! I’ve ran lots of workouts for tee ball age kids, but I’ve never coached my own kid through a season. I’m ready to learn, how ’bout you?
View Comments (11)
Hey Dan it's Coach Webb from Lancaster Pony. I'm in. I'm coaching 5-6 yr olds in Shetland Machine Pitch. My son turns 5 in February. Let me know how I can help. Thank you again for all your help.
So good :) You know it JWebb. And we can get started soon at the Lancaster Pony Coaching Clinic!
I am now going to be a Five Time winner - doing T ball with my 4 year old grand daughter after stints with three of my own and a grandson.
I’m sure this old coach will be taught a few new tricks!
Spoken with the humility of a true champion. Those are some lucky teeballers Coach Doyle!
DK, what’s up champ! The more I think about it the more I want to get Owen started in spring. He turned 4 on November 26th so curious of opinions about starting that early???
Well, I just learned that we actually missed tee ball!! Kobe will be playing Shetland (machine pitch). He honestly won't know the difference. Biggest challenge in my opinion will be the lost year in learning the game (bases, rules, etc). As for Owen, it's definitely NOT too early to start - especially if he's shown an interest in playing.
Congrats Dan on coaching T-ball. I'm sure you will enjoy it. I'm going on my 3rd stint as a baseball coach, but 1st time as Manager. My son will be playing Rookie ball this year (Machine pitch for mostly 6-7 year olds). I'm currently reading/scouring everything I can get my hands on in terms of drills, plans, etc, and will be happy to share anything I come across. My wife has even been making fun of me for how much reading time I'm putting into this at night to get ready for the season. Oh well! :)
I think 3 drills that I know we're going to do during our practices this year that sound like fun for the kids will be:
1. Kick-Ball with Kids vs Parents - We did a kids vs parents game in soccer practice twice and they loved it, and I like this idea of kick-ball b/c its close enough to baseball that the kids will have fun and we can still re-iterate alot of the same rules (and parents can play easily)
2. QB/Lead Drill - May be tough for t-ballers, but as part of teaching them this usual OF drill, I think I'm going to start with a Nerf football. Incorporate another sport and visually, may be easier for young kids to understand if we start w/ a football (and then switch to gloves)
3. Water Balloon BP - We picked this up from you and didn't get a chance to do it in practice last season. But we've done it a few times at the house with our son's friends and they all love it. So to me, its an absolutely necessary drill sometime during the season.
These are AWESOME suggestions. Will definitely consider the Kick-Ball game as it's a fantastic way to teach the game... and a less intimidating format. Thanks for sharing Matt!
Dana Point Youth Baseball would like to know if you would be interested in doing a coaches clinic? Thanks Dan!
Hey Hey Dan! Hit me up @ dan@dugoutcaptain.com and let's make it happen. My biggest challenge is calendar availability, but there's always a way!
Hi Dan I,
We just had ours at Ramona and it was fantastic!
Dan Keller, Dan from Dana Point actually knows where Ramona is haha, they've been coming down to our RBI tournament every year. If you can make it happen, Dana Point is a great bunch of folks! Class acts all the way.
Joe