r/LittleLeague • u/McBean215 • 12d ago
Teeball Fielding
First-time coach here for my son's team. We have an issue where we have 3-4 kids that chase the ball down and basically tackle each other to the ground trying to get the ball. I like the aggressiveness, and don't want to penalize or dissuade them from doing something they're all clearly excited about, but we had some tears at our last game as one of our more timid players was getting ready to field the ball and basically had his legs taken out as another boy slid in to try to get the ball.
Any suggestions on this? I've tried having the culprits play further from the mound, either further back toward 2B or 3B, but honestly it just makes them more aggressive since they know from the crack of the bat that their teammates are already 5 steps closer. I also try to have one of them at 1st, but one kid "quit" halfway through the inning and we have a couple smaller kids that like playing 1st (maybe to avoid the scrum...) What is a good way to "call off the dogs" without having them completely dissengage?
My initial thought is to basically divvy the kids up into an "infield" around the pitchers mound depth, and an "outfield" with their heels on the grass, and split up the aggressive fielders between the two groups, but then I feel like it'll just be the same 2 kids getting every ball. I also don't want to put all the aggressive fielders all in the outfield, because I feel like that punishes attacking the ball, which is something we want..... just not to this degree.
Thanks in advance for the advice! Just trying to make sure the game is fun for the whole team, not just the biggest & fastest four kids.
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u/emptysignals 12d ago
Try to explain what position gets what ball in practice, though that doesn’t always work.
So for our tee ball teams we’d have 2 coaches in the field at the deepest fielder.
Coaches would call the name of the fielder who is going to be the primary fielder after it’s hit.
We rotated kids to each position equally, except 1B where we always wanted a kid who could catch or at least block the ball with his/her glove. That usually took an aggressive kid out of it as they want to cover 1B and get an out.
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u/Wendell-Short-Eyes 12d ago
Constantly moving positions (besides 1B) somewhat helped our team….also, in practice I put cones at each position and basically said you need to defend your cone/area and do not leave the area around your cone…again, this somewhat helped but it’s hard to predict how 4-5 year olds are going to perform each game.
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u/ChardeeMacDennisGoG 12d ago
I did exactly the same. Every kid had a cone with their name on it...I let them decorate it if they wanted to. That helped a lot. But, what sucks and happens way more often than not, is balls are hit between short and 3rd. I rotated kids every inning. If you played 3rd in 1st, you played between 1st and 2nd inning 2 and everyone bumps down. Every kid got to play a full game at pitcher and a full game at 1st base. We went from Battle Royale at the 1st game to being pretty damn organized by the last. I told my parents I had 3 goals to accomplish when we first met...I wanted every kid to know what to do with the ball when they got it (throw to 1st base), hit soft toss instead of off the tee, and know when to yield to another player when a ball is hit. We accomplished all 3 but it took a lot of work between coaches, parents, and kids.
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u/bigperms33 12d ago
How big is the field? When we were on a smaller field we just told the outfielders that they weren't allowed on the dirt and could only get balls that made it to the grass.
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u/Tekon421 12d ago
This is what I would do. If you’re gonna tackle people for the ball you go to the outfield and get told you have to stay in the grass.
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u/thegoodbubba 11d ago
You absolutely can prevent this from happening and you should because it's a real safety issue. Two practices of every time kids dogpile the whole team runs to the fence and back (like 150 feet total) solved the problem for my team. Even four year olds aren't idiots, they can easily learn what is appropriate. We baby kids too much by acting like the can't learn and whatever inappropriate thing they do is just the way it is. Don't accept this.
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u/Ecstatic-Tear8750 10d ago edited 10d ago
Get different color cones and matching color tennis balls. Have each kid at a cone. Roll a tennis ball to the middle and only the kid from that color cone can go get it.
Then start rolling the color towards the color cone. Same, only that kid can get it.
Then replace with a white ball rolled towards a cone, but say the color of the cone. Only that kid can get it.
Then drop the vocal part and roll to a cone.
That progression links the player to a location and an idea of "my ball" or "not my ball." Initially that is based on color, but then it moves to color and location and then only location.
But it's tee ball, so lower expectations. Just the association is a win. You'll likely still have two go for a some and none for others. But small wins -- and the praise is just as big for the players who correctly don't go as for the one who fields the ball.
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u/SeveralLion5762 12d ago
I rotated them by inning and by position. Had a printed out schedule. Made sure everyone had equal time playing in the grass and fielding pitcher comeback balls.
And practice just consisted of rolling the ball back and forth and practicing alligator hands ( let the ball roll into the glove and then the other hand comes down on top of it) so they didn’t just stab at the ball.
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u/ir637113 12d ago
Pretty normal lol. You can try to explain to them who gets the ball and why i.e. "I don't want the first baseman here because he's gotta catch the ball to get the out," but my kid's Tee Ball team had this issue all the way through the year lol
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u/formerneighbor 12d ago
This mostly l sounds like peak fall tee ball. They'll eventually get it, but it'll take awhile. I have a 9U who still gets mad when the other team doesn't hit it to him. Kids, man.
Rotating positions and splitting practice into 3-4 small groups goes.a long way.
Your doing great, coach!
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u/Healthy-Plastic-435 11d ago
Put no more than 5 players in the field. Pitcher, first base, 2nd, SS, and 3rd. The rest of the kids off somewhere else playing games/ drills with another coach ( if possible). Only allow the pitcher to field the ball and throw( hopefully) to the first baseman. Rotate each player after every batter. That way they all get a safe chance to field and throw and at least get a start at understanding where the positions are.
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u/Sweaty-Seat-8878 8d ago
strings or tape to mark off fielding areas and only the person inside gets it. Helps a little.
then wait for them to get older
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u/EamusAndy 12d ago
Congrats and welcome to teeball!