A 30-Minute Tee-Ball Practice Plan Volunteer Coaches Can Run

You raised your hand at the parent meeting. Someone had to. Now it's Tuesday night, practice is tomorrow at 5:30, and you're Googling "tee ball practice plan" while your kid eats chicken nuggets in the next room.

Take a breath. You don't need a binder full of drills. You need 30 minutes, a simple structure, and enough confidence to say "line up here" without second-guessing yourself. This is that plan — four blocks, one page, no clipboard required.

Why 30 minutes is enough

Five- and six-year-olds don't need a 90-minute practice. They can't focus that long. Honestly, most adults coaching tee ball can't either. Thirty minutes keeps the energy high, the lines short, and the meltdowns rare.

The trick isn't filling time. It's moving fast enough that no kid stands still for more than 60 seconds. Every block below is built around that idea: short instructions, quick reps, keep it moving.

Here's the structure:

• 5 minutes — Warmup
• 10 minutes — Hitting
• 10 minutes — Fielding
• 5 minutes — Game

That's it. Four blocks. Let's walk through each one.

Block 1: Warmup (5 minutes)

Skip the laps. Nobody wants to run laps, least of all a kindergartener who just got out of a car seat. The warmup has one job: get kids moving and get their arms loose.

What to do:

• Running game (2 minutes). Freeze tag works. So does "Coach says" (Simon Says, baseball edition — "Coach says run to the fence," "Coach says touch the ground"). Pick one and let them burn off the car energy.
• Partner toss (3 minutes). Pair kids up about 8–10 feet apart. Hand each pair a ball. Let them throw and catch. It'll be ugly. That's fine. Walk around, fix a grip here and there, and say "nice throw" a lot.

Don't overcomplicate this. The warmup isn't where learning happens. It's where wiggles happen.

A note on pairing up

If you have an odd number of kids, you're the extra partner. This is a feature, not a bug. Kids love throwing to the coach.

Block 2: Hitting (10 minutes)

This is the block parents care about most and the one that goes sideways fastest — because hitting means a line, and a line means waiting. Here's how to keep it tight.

Setup: Put a tee at home plate. Set up a second station if you have a second tee and another adult. Two stations, half the wait.

How it runs:

• Each kid gets 3–5 swings, then rotates to the back of the line.
• While they wait, the next two kids in line are holding bats and taking practice swings (no ball). Give them a spot a safe distance behind the hitter. This keeps idle hands busy and builds muscle memory at the same time.
• After each hit, the batter does not chase the ball. A designated "shagger" (parent volunteer, older sibling, or your most energetic kid) collects balls and brings them back.

What to coach:

Keep it to one cue per kid per round. Not three things. One.

• "Watch the ball hit the bat."
• "Step toward the fence when you swing."
• "Hands up by your shoulder before you swing."

One cue. Let them try it. Move on. You'll have the whole season to layer in more.

The common mistake

Don't let each kid hit until they "get a good one." It feels right, but it doubles your line time and the other 11 kids are now throwing dirt at each other. Three to five swings, then rotate. Everyone gets multiple turns.

Block 3: Fielding (10 minutes)

Fielding is where tee ball coaches lose the plot. They try to run full infield drills with kids who don't know what "shortstop" means yet. Forget positions. Focus on two skills: picking up a ground ball and throwing it to a target.

Drill 1: Ground-ball alley (5 minutes)

Line the kids up in a row, about 6 feet apart, all facing you. Roll a grounder to the first kid. They field it, throw it back to you (or near you — we're not picky), and squat back down. Roll to the next kid. Work down the line and back.

Roll the ball slowly. Slower than you think. You want them to succeed. A grounder that scoots past a five-year-old isn't a teaching moment — it's a chase.

Drill 2: Throw to the base (5 minutes)

This is where base placement matters. Set a real base on the ground — not a beanbag, not a glove, not a hat. A flat, visible base that stays where you put it. Kids need to learn that a base is a specific spot you step on. If you use a beanbag, they'll kick it, trip on it, or stuff it in their pocket. A proper throw-down base lies flat, doesn't slide, and teaches the habit of finding it with their feet.

Put a parent or older kid on the base. Line up your players about 20 feet away. Roll a grounder, they field it, they throw to the base. The person on the base catches it (or picks it up off the ground — both are fine) and tosses it back to you.

After a few rounds, point out: "See the base? That's where the ball goes. Every time." It'll click faster than you expect.

If you need a set of bases that actually stays put on grass and rolls up when you're done, we make exactly that. Throw-down bases, a home plate, and a pitching rubber in a bag you can carry in one hand.

Block 4: Game (5 minutes)

End every practice with a game. Every single time. This is the payoff. This is why the kids showed up.

It doesn't have to be a real game. Five minutes isn't enough for full innings anyway. Here's a version that works:

Setup: Bases laid out in a diamond. Tee at home plate. Split the team in half — one group hits, one group fields.

Rules:

• Batter hits off the tee and runs to first.
• Fielders try to get the ball and throw it to first base before the runner arrives.
• If the ball gets to first before the runner, it's an out. If it doesn't, the runner stays on first.
• After everyone on the hitting team has hit once, switch sides.
• No score. Or keep score if your kids are into it. Either way, nobody's tracking standings.

The real point of this block isn't competition. It's putting together the things they just practiced — hitting, fielding, throwing to a base — in a context that feels like baseball. That connection matters more than getting the rules perfect.

If a kid runs to third instead of first, gently redirect. If two runners end up on the same base, let it go. There are worse problems in life.

The gear you actually need

You don't need a storage unit full of equipment. Here's the short list:

• A tee. One is fine. Two is better if you have a second adult.
• Balls. Soft tee balls, not hardballs. Bring more than you think you need. They disappear into the grass like golf balls.
• Bases. Real throw-down bases — flat, weighted, visible. Our Bag of Bases comes with a full set including home plate and a pitching rubber, and the whole thing rolls into a bag about the size of a yoga mat.
• A bucket or bag for balls.
• Batting helmets. Your league probably provides these. If not, ask parents to bring their own.

That's the list. You can run this entire practice with what fits in the back of a sedan.

A few things I've learned the hard way

I've coached my own kids' teams since my oldest was in tee ball. That experience is a big part of why we started this company. Here's what I wish someone had told me before my first practice:

Don't talk too much. Every minute you're explaining, they're not moving. Give one instruction, demo it once, and go. If half the kids don't get it, that's fine. They'll figure it out by watching the kid next to them.

Bring water and expect bathroom breaks. Someone will need to go. It's always in the middle of a drill. Have a parent ready to walk them over.

Name learning matters. Learn every kid's name by practice two. Use them constantly. "Nice throw, Marcus" lands ten times harder than "nice throw, buddy."

End on time. Parents are watching the clock. If you said 30 minutes, make it 30 minutes. Respecting everyone's time builds trust — and it makes parents more likely to volunteer to help you next week.

Your cheat sheet

Print this out or screenshot it. Tape it to your steering wheel if you need to.

• 0:00–0:05 — Warmup. Running game + partner toss.
• 0:05–0:15 — Hitting. Tee work, 3–5 swings per kid, rotate fast.
• 0:15–0:25 — Fielding. Ground-ball alley + throw to the base.
• 0:25–0:30 — Game. Hit, run, field, throw. Keep it loose.

That's the whole thing. Thirty minutes. Four blocks. One volunteer coach who showed up and gave the kids a reason to be outside.

You already did the hardest part — you raised your hand. The rest is just rolling out the bases and letting them play.