The 10 questions every new volunteer coach asks. Answered honestly.
No. These plans were designed specifically for parent volunteers with no formal coaching background. Every drill has clear setup instructions, written coach cues, and a success criteria so you know what "good enough" looks like for 8-and-under players.
If you can read a recipe and follow it, you can run these practices. The curriculum does the expertise — you just need to show up, stay positive, and keep the kids moving.
Absolutely not — and you shouldn't. Each lesson plan covers exactly one technique and runs about 30 minutes. The curriculum is designed to be spread across 5 or more sessions over the season.
The sequence matters (grip → stance → stride → contact → finish), but the pacing is up to you. If your team needs two sessions on grip before moving on, do that. The goal is correct repetition, not covering all the material by a deadline.
No. All lesson plans on this site are completely open — no login, no sign-up, no form. Just go to the Lesson Plans page, click print on whichever plan you need, and you're done.
This is a city volunteer program. The goal is to make your job easier, not to add more steps.
Yes — with some adjustments. The plans are written for the 5–8 age range, and each one includes age notes for the youngest players. For 5 and 6 year olds, the main adaptations are:
At this age, the goal isn't technical precision — it's building positive associations with the game and starting to develop good habits.
Completely normal. Kids at this age are still developing body awareness and coordination. Most 7-year-olds will drift in and out of a proper stance within a single practice — that's expected, not a problem.
The solution is repetition and patience, not more correction in the moment. Each time they drop into their stance and hold it correctly for even one swing, reinforce it: "That's it — that's the position." Don't fixate on the misses. Stack the wins.
If a player's stance is genuinely unstable after several sessions, check their grip first — locked-up hands often cause a rigid, unbalanced stance.
Yes. All drills are designed for youth players and use foam or soft training balls. Standard youth safety practices apply:
None of these drills involve overhead throws, pitching at full speed, or any contact between players. If in doubt, always defer to your league's official safety guidelines.
Each lesson plan has an equipment checklist. The full list across all five plans:
Most city youth programs provide tees and soft balls. If yours doesn't, foam balls are inexpensive. The whole setup costs under $30 if you're starting from scratch.
For ages 5–8 and T-ball or coach-pitch level, the general guidelines are:
Quick check: have the player hold the bat straight down at their side. The end of the bat should reach roughly their palm. If they can't hold it out at arm's length for 10 seconds, it's too heavy.
For T-ball specifically, plastic or composite youth bats are fine — no need for high-end equipment at this level.
For players 8 and under, 30 minutes is the sweet spot for a focused hitting segment. Beyond that, attention and quality both drop fast.
If you have a longer practice (60–90 minutes), structure it as: hitting segment (30 min) + fielding or baserunning (30 min) + free play or scrimmage (15–30 min). That keeps energy up without burning kids out on any one skill.
The lesson plans are built for 30-minute sessions by design. If you run short, that's fine — quality reps beat clock-filling every time.
The rule of thumb: one correction per turn, maximum. Pick the most important thing to fix and say it once, clearly. Then let them swing.
More corrections per swing = more confused kids, not better hitters. At this age, the brain can only act on one new input at a time — give them more than that and they freeze, get frustrated, or tune out.
Prioritize the current lesson's technique over everything else. If you're on the stride drill and a kid's grip is slightly off, let the grip slide. Fix the stride. When the session is grip day, then you focus on grip.
And when they get it right — even accidentally — make a big deal of it. Positive reinforcement at this age builds habit faster than correction does.
If something came up that's not covered here, reach out. These plans get better when coaches share what they're actually running into in practice.
Ask Trevor