Take your kid to the batting cage and teach him/her to hit. If they can do that well, they’ll always play. ** Edited by VT Pops at 3/20/2023, 8:08:11 PM

He's one of the youngest, hasn't played before, most of the kids/coaches know each other. He's got a lot to do and I'm afraid the stacked deck will make it hard for him to learn to love the game this spring. Yes- I'm throwing with him, hitting off the tee at home and in cage before practice to get his bat up to speed. His hand eye coordination has to come along.

My only point is that unless you’re a pitcher, good hitting will always overcome defensive deficiencies in the field, so that’s where I’d spend my time focusing.

kids in OF during batting practice taking turns field ground balls. t-balls are soft and won't get out to you in a true OF. ** Edited by RhinoVT at 3/20/2023, 3:34:39 PM

there may be some super awesome coach out there but for the most part you need to teach him to catch and hit - that volunteer coach is running the team and not giving baseball lessons - there are alot of leagues out there- and coaches are volunteers which 99% of the time means their kid is playing- same as any other sport-

And it's not just the coaches but the vision of the league. If you are compressing your league schedule to make room for tourny ball, then you are absolutely making a choice about ignoring fundamentals. Of course I'm in the yard throwing with him but if it's his first time out, he needs that attention when the team is between the lines at practice.

Catching and throwing is a big part of the game and just get them used to the mechanics to try and catch up a bit. My daughter never wanted to really play, but we used to do back yard throwing and she really liked that

And yes, baseball is pretty boring for the really young kids. Mine showed SOME amount of skill at it....nothing great....but greatly preferred soccer because he was able to almost always be doing something.

If you stick a kid out in the outfield and then scold him for not paying attention, it's poor coaching. I've coached so I understand the temptations of setting up your best lineups but your weaker kids won't learn the game if they don't get opportunity. Ends up being a selection bias situation. I'm loath to interfere though

I've done most of my coaching at 9-10 year old group, but spent one season in the 7-8 group first. We only get an 1h or 1h15m for our practices. Dedicating 1:1 time can be difficult so the best thing that can be done is to have multiple coaches running multiple smaller drill groups. It may not provided 1:1 time but it'll be closer with a small group. I told my 9-10 group that there were 6 things that we were always working on improving: hitting, running, fielding, throwing, being a good teammate, and their baseball brain. Told them they can all succeed with the running and good teammate part even if it's their first day on a baseball field. As long as they improve a little in the other 4 then it's a successful season. I'd think that would stick even more so with 7-8 year olds. Good luck!

** Edited by coshokie at 3/20/2023, 4:20:58 PM

I liked our coach we had the 2nd year, but there's way too little action for some kids. The first coach is a good coach/teacher, but he's such a douche-nozzle that I'd never let my kid play for him again.