The following rules are for the Canton Little League (CLL) baseball tee ball division. These were reviewed and agreed on by various members of the CLL board of directors. Our goal is to teach the rules of baseball that are used at this level in order to form a strong base that can be built upon in future play. The focus is not on winning at this level. The focus is on developing baseball skills and knowledge of the game as well as providing a positive experience in being part of a team. Most importantly – HAVE FUN.
Goals:
All managers and coaches should create a team environment to allow the players to have fun!!!
Be ready to start at your designated time. 9 a.m on Saturdays at Canton High School
Canton Little League will issue each manager an equipment bag for the season that will include balls, throwdown bases, helmets, and a tee. Each manager is responsible for their bag for the season and they are expected to return the bag at the end of the season in good condition.
Bats will be stored inside the field house at Walsh Field (softball). Coaches are responsible for getting bats out of the field house for their team prior to practice and they are also responsible for returning the bats to the field house after practice / game is over.
Safety:
All batters and baserunners must wear helmets
A soft tee ball baseball will be used for all practices and games
No on-deck batters (the only player who should ever have a bat in their hand is the batter)
Bench area needs to be at least halfway down the base path and back from the playing field
Five Year Old Rules:
PRACTICE GUIDELINES:
All practices should be 35 – 45 minutes at the beginning of each session. Here are some helpful ideas.
Begin with some type of warmup. Stretching, jumping jacks, running the bases, etc.
Divide the team into small groups. Have 1 group work on the correct way to throw and hold a baseball. Have 1 group work on fielding of ground balls. Have 1 group work on hitting (bat grip, hand eye coordination, step and swing, level swing – no uppercut). Have 1 group work on catching a ball.
Tee Ball players have short attention spans so rotate groups so that they kids don’t get bored
GAME GUIDELINES:
All players must use the batting tee (in the last 2 weeks of the season start having the coaches pitch – keep the tees on hand for the kids that are not ready for live pitching and use them as necessary)
Every player should bat through the lineup each half inning
Runners advance one base at a time with the last batter of each inning clearing the bases
No outs (as we progress through the season encourage the fielders to throw to the proper base but still no outs)
Rotate the players around the field so that everyone has a chance to make plays
Six Year Old Rules:
PRACTICE GUIDELINES:
All practices will be run as a weekly skills session. The players will be broken into smaller groups and the will rotate to different baseball skill stations that will be run by the coaches.
GAME GUIDELINES:
Coaches will pitch to the batters and use the tee only when necessary
There will be outs only if a play is made in the field (catch a pop fly / line drive or throwing a runner out at a base) – if a batter or runner is out the coach should explain to the player what happened and send them back to the bench
The inning will end after 3 outs or after a team has batted through their lineup. If the inning ends on 3 outs, pickup the batting order where you left off in the last half inning.
