It’s Baseball Season, such a fun family time of  the year. Whether your kids play ball, or you just enjoy going to games it is important to show them good sportsmanship. I have 2 boys who play baseball, a 5 year old in T ball and a 6 year old in AA league. I am in the field coaching T ball and I help out on the bench with AA. My biggest goal is to teach them to have fun, be fair and to learn you don’t always win, to have good sportsmanship.  Having fun is the easy part; we are silly out in the field during practice and even during the game. I don’t know if you have ever watched 5 yr olds play baseball, it is more like watching a bunch of dogs go after the same ball when the ball is actually hit (and the kids are paying attention). Or the best is when the get bored (immediately) and they start playing in the dirt.

I love every minute of it. We try to teach them the basics, throwing, hitting and catching. They want to know the fun stuff – sliding and batting. Sliding is tough, you don’t want to send them home all beat up just yet. During a typical T ball game all the kids are out on the field; half in the infield, the other half the outfield. Then we switch them up and we try to rotate positions. This is one way we show them how to be fair especially since they all want to be the pitcher. When our team is batting the entire team gets a turn to bat. There are no outs in T-ball, everyone gets a hit, gets on base and makes it to home plate.

At this age you also start to see name calling, we show them that everyone is trying and that you should always cheer your team on and it is OK to cheer the other team on, especially if someone does something really cool. All of these actions are part of being a good sportsman. On both teams it is so important to show the kids the only way to get better is by listening and practicing. My oldest likes to think he knows exactly what he is doing and for me the best way for him to learn that he doesn’t know it all, is to let him fail then help him learn. I know that may sound harsh, but for me I can only try to show him so many times. When he comes back from striking out or missing a catch I help show him the right way or have another coach show him, he usually listens better if it is not Mom talking.

We work with the kids, they need to miss that ball out in the field or get struck out when batting  to help them get better. You learn from your mistakes! On the AA team, it is even more important to teach good sportsmanship. With this age they are getting more into heckling, I find the best way to stop that is try to get them to think about how they would feel if someone was booing them, or teasing them while they were at bat. A big rule on our team is if you are not batting, you need to be watching the game and cheering your teammates on. Leading by example is also huge, myself and the other coaches cheer on the team, the batter and the field players. We also compliment the opposing team for good hits or good plays; showing it is OK to be happy for opponent’s successes.

Baseball is our national pastime; baseball is a great way to bring families together teaching our children to love a sport! GO Yankees!

How do you teach your children good sportsmanship?