I don't have any kids but I've "helped" coach my little cousins tball teams and 7-8yr old team last year. I loved it. I really enjoyed teaching them something that they'll use for a few more years. It's taught me patience and that you might have to tell certain kids the same thing over and over again lol
Obviously put the kid that can catch the best at first base, then set your infield. We were one kid away from having an outstanding infield. Outfielders are easy to find, sorry to say. 7-8 over here is machine pitch and it took awhile for the kids to get the timing down of the ball coming out of the machine.
Base running took some time, especially with the stuff they didn't see all the time. Like holding up when the ball is hit in the air. They just want to take off as soon as it's hit. That was fun trying to explain that to some of them why they had to stay on the bag lol
Something I learned too, don't be afraid to hurt their feelings, most of them won't get their feelings hurt. I tend to be hard on the boys that I knew were really good and had potential. So when they would start goofing off or not do what I knew they could do I would get on them pretty hard. Then later after practice I would go and explain to them why I did so. I'd tell them "I get on you more cause you're one of the better players on this team and I know you can do better than that". They would usually smile real big and run off
Damn, I actually miss the little shits
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