History Of The Game
Why This Game Can Be So Complicated
The Game In Its Proper Perspective
In a Perfect World...
Let's Get Started
Tee Ball is a great game, but quite often, it's not until a parent begins managing or coaching, or has been around the game for a season that he realizes that there is more to this game than a bunch of kids dressed up like ball players chasing the ball and running the bases.
This is a sport that can produce young ball players who can make diving catches, throw runners out from their knees, and turn double plays. These magnificent feats do not occur unless they are effectively taught at home and coached on the ballfield. This handbook gives you what you need to begin helping children become good ballplayers so they can contribute to the building of the kind of team that can accomplish great things. Good luck!
History Of The Game
Hitting tees have been used by professional baseball players for more than fifty years to help them develop their swings for use against "live" pitching -- the first hitting tees were made by Voit. The tee is great for practicing that "perfect swing" for players practicing alone and it's perfect for coaching hitting mechanics in a setting where the coach can pay close attention to every aspect of the swing.
It wouldn't surprise me a bit to learn that kids around the world have found ways to place baseballs or tennis balls atop some equipment resembling tees and making a game out of it for years. As you'll see in your experience in dealing with tee ball players, some of the neatest and most imaginative things come out of the minds of kids.
However, when it comes to laying credit for inventing the game of tee ball -- that is, formulating rules, giving it organization and a name, and being the enabling force behind its development as a sport and not merely another backyard "hitting rocks with sticks" game, we go all the way back to 1960 and to Dayton Hobbs, then a thirty-eight year old elementary school principal from Bagdad, Florida near Pensacola. Dr. Hobbs had been coaching youth baseball since the 50's and took note over time of the little "fence grabbers" at the ballfield where his players worked out -- you know, the kids who clutch and press their noses into the chain link fence to watch the big kids play. These were kids who, like we did, made heroes of their neighborhood stars and talked like real philosophers about who had "it" and who didn't. They'd run home, gather up whatever equipment they could find and play a game in the backyard, in the street, or in the vacant lot down the street.
Dr. Hobbs was coaching a group of 14 and 15 year old baseball players on their hitting when the co-mingling of baseball, hitting, tees, and the "let me try it" crowd of kids at the ballfield fertilized a creative seed in his mind and thus, he began work on creating Tee Ball Baseball -- it seemed like the perfect game for players who had all of the desire but little of the physical development to play "real baseball."
Dr. Hobbs, who was also pastor of Grace Bible Church and President of the Santa Rosa Christian School in Milton, FL near the Naval Air Station at Whiting Field, went to work on developing rules for the game. A Navy chaplain from Whiting Field was one of Dr. Hobbs' first Tee Ball coaches (there were only two teams at first) and as they played, they refined the rules.
Dr. Hobbs soon began work on promoting the game, announcing that the game boasted some great features worth considering: "1) Inexpensive to play 2) Plenty of help available 3) Excellent parent cooperation 4) Doesn't require a large area to play the game 5) Minimum equipment required 6) Teaches basic baseball skills; and most of all 7) Boys and girls have loads of fun playing." His promotion efforts paid off as interest in the game grew and he was soon writing the first Official Tee Ball Baseball Rule Book.
His association with Navy people from Whiting and the growing popularity of the game in Pensacola, "The Cradle of Naval Aviation," led to a worldwide promotional forum he never anticipated. Soon, the game caught on at Navy bases in Japan and in Europe and across America until the success of the game led Dr. Hobbs to apply for a patent on the name and game of Tee Ball Baseball with the U. S. Patent Office in 1970, the same year the first annual Tee Ball World Series was held. His application met the stringent requirements for approval and won him recognition as the originator of the game of Tee Ball Baseball. He also won the patent on the four ounce bright orange official Tee Ball Baseball.
In the Official Tee Ball Rule Book, amended and published annually, Dr. Hobbs reminds us what the children already know: "that this is nothing more than a game of children's baseball." He admonishes managers and coaches "not (to) put pressure on the children, but attempt to teach them to play the game to the best of their ability while they enjoy it." The same guidance easily applies to Tee Ball parents.
Why This Game Can Be So Complicated
In one sentence, the reason this game can be so complicated is that many newcomers expect Tee Ball to be just like baseball. But it isn't. The game was created as a way of introducing young children to the game of baseball so they could enjoy this great sport while developing baseball skills and sportsmanship at a pace they could handle.
The official Tee Ball Baseball rule book published annually in Milton, Florida provides a very comfortable atmosphere in which these objectives can be met, as do many other rule books published throughout the world. In the Tee Ball Baseball rule book, there are provisions built in to suit local needs for younger players. The official rules of baseball generally apply to Tee Ball Baseball, but the fact that the ball is placed on the tee and hit while stationary demands that there be a re-balancing of the relative advantages enjoyed by the offense and defense.
Because a fairly uncomplicated game like baseball has been adjusted to accommodate young children, the game is packed with judgment calls for the umpires and the need for managers, coaches, players, and parents to learn the ins and outs of a game they might not otherwise recognize. The failure of coaches and parents to understand the game of tee ball has hurt many children by denying them the benefit of meaningful well-developed training right from the start. I have heard from dozens of coaches and parents who have told me that they wished they'd known more about the game earlier. Unfortunately, a late start in a game like tee ball or baseball typically means the player won't make up the difference until the next season when he can get a better start.
Since the game can get complicated at times, managers, coaches, and parents need to put some thought into how they intend to teach their players the game. Tee ball players generally range in age from 4 to 7 years, with some getting as young as 3 and some girls as old as 8. Many of us learned baseball long ago and have long since forgotten what it was like to see baseball through a child's eyes. This gap tends to produce one of two outcomes in coaches and parents.
On one hand, some describe the game in adult terms, not appreciating the fact that these kids don't know what it means to "step in the bucket" or "take an extra base" until someone tells and shows them and they've had a chance to practice it a lot.
On the other hand, some underestimate the importance of well-developed tee ball skills and remain silent to the extent that they teach them nothing about the game. Some parents make so little of their children's athletic endeavors to the point that the children become incredibly awkward and unprepared on the field because they are "oh-so-cute," uninitiated to the learning environment the coach is there to maintain. You can teach these youngsters to "get in the dirt" and "turn two." Of course, you can anticipate less than perfect execution, but it's fun to watch them learn and attempt these skills. It is utterly satisfying to see them do it right, even if it's only once in a while, but you'll find that if you can get them to be successful a few times they soon gain confidence and consistency.
As you might expect, you have to have a lot of patience and perseverance to manage, coach, and teach a group of tee ball players. When you lose your patience with your players, they can see it on your face. Of course, as part care-giver, part coach, part teacher, and part parent figure, you need to motivate your players through the use of a variety of leadership tools. Use them prudently and judiciously. Remember that this game, like any new game, can be complicated for them too.
I used to be a U. S. Marine helicopter flight instructor and ultimately became a standardization pilot -- an instructor's instructor. I used to tell new flight instructors that the trick to being a great flight instructor was knowing how to present the same material dozens of different ways. Each of those deliveries is like a key, and when you can walk into the cockpit with a pocket full of those keys, you improve your student's chances of learning the material. The same principle applies to coaching: The likelihood that you will succeed as a coach with only one way to describe or teach a skill is very poor.
Successful coaches are those who can take physical challenges and use analogies and common visual imagery to establish an intellectual and cognitive connection with their players. For tee ball players, these images are best when they are a bit dramatic: point the belly button toward the part of the field where you want to hit the ball, make your arm like an elephant's trunk when throwing, and point the button on your cap toward the direction from which the ball came, for instance.
Parents are almost uniformly surprised at how capable their children are at learning a sport and developing athletic skills. In some cases, this surprise is preceded by skepticism. Great coaches do not allow this skepticism to deter them from formulating success for their teams and players. Obviously, it takes a lot of work at home, practice on the field, and patience from coaches and parents. In any case, diligence, persistence, and the proper perspective will simplify the complexity of this game.
The Game In Its Proper Perspective
As managers, coaches, and parents grow in their understanding of the game and try their hands at teaching young players the game, they come to realize that there is much more to properly coaching a Tee Ball team than simply chaperoning kids with gloves on their hands. They learn, some sooner than others, that these children bring with them all of the elements that favor the coach in his role as teacher. It is an incredible waste of an opportunity and a great injustice if parents and coaches don't do their best to teach their players as much as they can.
How do they do this? How far do they go? Is it reasonable to expect 5, 6, and 7 year old children to learn to stop the ball when it's hit to them? How about catching fly balls? And throwing the ball to the right base? Should they be drilled on throwing accurately? Should they be taught to hit properly? Does it really make any difference if the players develop terrible bat swings or that they don't get in front of the ball when they field it? Let's look a little further. Knowing that your players are going to slide into bases, should they be taught the right way to slide, or should they be allowed to do whatever they want to do? Most parents and coaches agree that these things should be taught, particularly when they learn that the game is made safer by quality comprehensive instruction, but few progress further because they either lack the knowledge to teach the right thing or they're reluctant to get too deeply involved in the game, or both.
You see, this is such a difficult issue for many because parents and coaches often confuse perspective with commitment. They don't know where the line is between taking their responsibilities seriously and taking an excessively aggressive approach to the game. They're uncertain whether they have lost their perspective or upheld their commitment when they take the time to develop their players' skills with a lot of practice and drills. That's why some leagues don't keep score -- they're concerned about the outcome. I recommend parents and coaches remember two important things about Tee Ball: First of all, they should remember that Tee Ball is only a game. Secondly, they should remember that understanding that Tee Ball is only a game is not a good excuse to avoid teaching their players about winning, losing, sportsmanship, gamesmanship, and "gutting it out."
Ask a coach why he doesn't teach and drill his players on basic baseball skills and he'll usually tell you, "We're not that serious about the game here." Well, why aren't they? And why does the chief complaint people have about youth athletics usually have something to do with someone taking the game "too seriously?" Many attribute this problem to the competition, but as far as I'm concerned, the problem, insofar as it is a problem, is actually caused by poor behavior by adults who should know better. My children have played in both, competitive Tee Ball leagues where score was kept and outs were counted and so-called "non-competitive" Tee Ball leagues where there was none of that. However, based on my own experience as a parent and coach, I can confirm that the one thing that is common to both types of leagues is the presence of a relatively few obsessive adults who always seem to find ways to have a problem with the umpires, the coaches, the parents, the score, and so on. Precautions such as changing the rules of the game and not keeping score don't prevent these problems, they simply provide them different grounds on which to surface. The problem is not that the game is taken too seriously — the problem is that we adults can tend to lose our perspectives.
My team lost the fifteenth game of my first season as a coach by 40 runs. That ran our record to 1 win and 14 losses. Humiliating, right? Nope. Most of my players didn't know the difference. Kids place a premium on what their coaches and parents emphasize. At the end of that game, we emphasized appreciating the skill and teamwork the other team demonstrated and noticing that they obviously played hard and had fun along the way. Our kids were smart -- they knew the other team was really good and they wanted to be like them. We took satisfaction in recognizing that our own players played hard and had fun, and that they were making great progress as they went -- some day they'd blossom. However, after the game a parent approached me and told me that one of the other parents had been making a fuss in the bleachers over our team's lack of success. I phoned that parent and asked him if there was something we needed to talk about and after a while, we got down to it. He said that he was tired of being humiliated and he was tired of seeing his kid humiliated.
I didn't pull any punches. I told him that if his kid was humiliated, it was probably because his father was focusing on the wrong things. We had a team that was not good enough to beat the good teams and nothing we did at practice and nothing I said at the games was going to change that. Our job was to capitalize on our opportunities and not to place unrealistic expectations on our team. As it turned out, our last four games of the season were with teams nearer to our own caliber and our kids did fine. In fact, we won those four games, the kids loved it, and we did it without compromising the principles we had maintained all along. Unfortunately, there was grumbling in the bleachers again and, of course, I made a second phone call to the same parent I had called four games earlier. This time his complaint was that he didn't like having his kid play on a team where winning was everything. What do you do?
The fact is that it's essential that everyone take the game seriously -- coaches, parents, umpires, and children. Taking your responsibilities as a manager or coach seriously means that you don't lose your head during a close game. It means that you teach your players as much as is reasonable and give them every opportunity to become good enough to have bright moments in games. It means that you teach them how to lose gracefully after a tough game and it means that you teach them how to be generous and polite when they win. It means that you teach them about teamwork and cooperation and it means that you help them become disciplined enough to do what you taught them to do. It means that you teach them to play aggressively and ambitiously, but it also means that you don't win at all costs. It means that if your team is a little short of talent that you do as much as you can with your team and your individual players anyway. In Tee Ball, there's always something to be successful at.
A coach's perspective is not blown simply because he insists that his players not hit pop flies or because he has a word for them when they make an error of concentration on a routine play. His perspective is blown when he expects players to perform skills in games that they have not first mastered in practice, or when he handles a situation on the field in anger without regard for the example he sets for the players. In my opinion, he has also blown his perspective when he does not attempt to train his team to standards of excellence. Realize that I didn't say that he has blown it when his team doesn't achieve excellence; I said that he has failed when he doesn't try and doesn't encourage his team to try to accomplish what they can. Regardless of the won-lost record at the end of the season, if you take your responsibilities seriously and keep things in perspective, you will build a team of winners.
When parents don't take the game seriously they don't work with their kids at home, cheer for them in the bleachers, and have them to practice and games on time.
When umpires don't take the game seriously they don't hustle to see the whole play so the great plays can be properly recognized and rewarded and they don't ensure the rules of the game are enforced so that orderly play and a proper learning environment can be assured.
When the players don't take the game seriously they don't learn and they don't attain the physical and mental development this game is designed to give them.
You see, not taking the game seriously enough is at least as damaging as taking it "too seriously."
Let me set one thing straight right here at the beginning: I hate to lose at ANYTHING; however, I know how to take a setback and turn it into an opportunity. How many Baseball Hall of Famers failed in more than 60% of their attempts to reach base safely? Success has its sweetest taste when it has risen out of failure.
Coaches should never quit on their players or their team, parents should never quit on their children, and players should never quit on themselves -- regardless of how bad things appear.
In A Perfect World...
In a perfect world, everyone would maintain the proper perspective and coaches would be flawless in their management of people, time, and material resources... but they're not. Parents need to keep their eyes open and speak up when they have a question or a problem with what is happening on their child's team. It has long been my sense that as long as people communicate, many problems will be resolved before they see the light of day. Coaching a winning team brings with it a set of responsibilities different from coaching a losing team, but no more or less important to the children on the team. These responsibilities are difficult to identify sometimes, especially on the first pass. Parents need to help their coaches out and be a good influence and assistance to them. Parents and coaches need to do their best with the children, but remember that this is not a perfect world, and that by cooperating, the task is much easier.
Let's Get Started
Since the game can get complicated at times, parents and coaches need to get a good start if they are to make a meaningful contribution to the children's understanding and preparation for the game.
I must confess to an abundance of naivete during the two years that I watched the game and for much of the first season that I coached it. The old adage that "I wish I knew then what I know now" certainly applies to me, and as I've already mentioned, from the letters I've receive, it apparently applies to a lot of other people too. To be honest, I wish I knew more back then so I could have played a larger personal role in the development of my children during those critical early playing days. As you continue reading this booklet, parents, please remember this encouragement to be a great help to your child off the field, then turn him over to the coaches on the field. When he's on the field, be the best fan in the stands and be unflinching in your support of him and his team. With your help, he will enjoy tremendous progress.
Managers and coaches, set and seek whatever goals you can reasonably set for your players, but don't tarnish your achievements and theirs by failing to have fun...and ensuring your players do the same.
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