Joshua's First T-Ball Practice

 

Joshua's first t-ball practice was Friday, April 5, at Nitrauer. While it had been warm during the day, by the time we got there, the wind had picked up and it was FREEZING! But he still refused to wear the zippy I brought for him.

When we arrived, he met some of his friends that he knew from the other AM Kindergarten class. There was no one from his class on his team, but I'm glad he knew a couple other kids.

The coaches started by getting them into a huddle after they talked to us as parents. I was impressed with the coach (at least so far). He split them into three groups to work on drills and then at the end, they did some running of the bases, which Joshua LOVED!

The first drill Joshua was in was out-fielding. He got into fielding position with his glove down and 'alligator-snapped' the ball back to the assistant coach. He was one of two lefties in his little group of three.

The next drill was throwing. I loved how they used tennis balls rather than hard baseballs as they are just learning how to catch and throw.

 Joshua LOVED kicking the dirt with his cleats!

Baseball is typically a waiting game, but with these smaller groups moving through drills, they were a lot more active than what I was expecting. I was glad! It's hard for a six-year-old to be still and wait. I also liked seeing how they were approaching the teaching of technique. They were kind as they gave the boys one thing to work on (like look where you're throwing, etc).

The picture below was one of my favorites of the night. Since both Shawn & I wanted to see his first practice, we hired our babysitter to watch the other boys at our house while we were on the field. Shawn & I were freezing as the wind whipped through the fields, but it was nice to see Joshua enjoying himself.

The third drill was the hitting of the ball off the tee. As soon as he put on that hard hat, I had to snap a picture. He's standing behind the fence in the photo on the left, waiting for his turn. I loved his smile!

He did well when it was his turn to hit. The main coach was the one at this station, and he would remind Joshua to keep his back elbow up, his eye on the ball, etc. He got several chance to swing at the ball. And even though he's left-handed, he preferred hitting like a righty.

He looked so cute, I had to get several pictures of him. He said that hitting was his favorite part, and Shawn said "YES! That's true of everyone." And I thought "everyone but his mama." This would NOT have been my sport. In fact, I'd rather run all the bases all the time than have to connect a ball to a bat. But, Shawn was really good at baseball, so hopefully the boys will have his athletic ability.

 After the batting, they practiced as a team running passed first base and making sure to step on it. They gave one of the coaches a high five BEYOND first base to keep them running the whole way past it.

Then they took half the kids and went to second base and left the other half at home plate. They did relay races to run all the bases and make it home. Joshua also enjoyed the running. After they were done, the coach asked "Who still has energy?" and all the boys raised their hands (while I noticed none of the parents did - HAAA!!!). We all laughed.

Since we had a babysitter, we told Joshua we were taking him on a special Mommy/Daddy date afterward, just him. I originally thought we were taking him to dinner with us, but Shawn suggested we just have dinner the two of us beforehand (after Shawn had an eye doctor's appointment that afternoon) and we took Joshua out for ice cream instead.

 The Bean LOVED it! He had clipped up twice at school that week for "quietly working hard" and we encouraged him to keep making good choices. We talked about t-ball and just enjoyed our time together. Then we went home, paid the babysitter and got the kiddos to bed.

 

Hopefully the next practice is WARMER!