1. The obvious, but we pitch to the players. The less-experienced players can get soft-toss, an under-hand pitch, or a shorter-distance pitch from the coach. The more experienced players can be pitched to from right in front of the pitcher's mound. Some coaches pitch from the knee while others don't. It's all up to personal preference. We like to reserve the use of tees for practices. 
2. We typically play 3 inning games (sometimes 4 if it's not hot or if 3 innings is reached in under an hour). 
3. No players strikeout. They swing until they get a hit or make solid contact (even if its foul territory, just to speed things up)
4. We don't keep score. There is no winning, losing, or records. However, to encourage the kids to get outs in any way they can, we count the outs they get each inning and try and track that for personal team progress. They may get 8 outs today, so we need to try and get 9 in the next game for team improvement. When a kid is out, he goes back to the bench to prepare for the field and cheer on his teammates. 
5. Players are usually a little more competitive, and that's just the nature of them becoming more mature. T-Ball is understood to be geared towards first-timers and very young kids learning their bodies and capabilities. You still get a few of those at 5 and 6 yrs old, but the majority of the players are excited to get players out or to get that awesome hit. 
6. Some coaches like the Home Run Hitter (no matter where the ball is hit or if the team gets him out, he and all the players on base, round the bags and score) at the end of the inning, while others could do without it. We leave it up to 2 HCs to decide prior to game time. 
7. Surprising to most, the kids seemed to love throwing on the gear and getting behind the plate to catch. Most don't catch anything, but they loved being involved on every pitch. We like to rotate 2-3 kids per game. 
8. In the second half of the season, we will introduce pitching for our 7yr olds. Coaching proper mechanics can be a collective effort from all coaches (clinic-style) or managed by HCs individually with their own teams at practices, but the idea is to better prepare them for Kid Pitch in Triple-A. We would have them throw 3 pitches to their own players and a coach would step in to finish the at-bat (if needed). We tested this in Fall Ball and it worked well. Both pitchers and hitters benefited. 1 pitcher per inning to save their arms. We can also have them pitch to only their peer 7yr olds so we don't intimidate our younger 5 and 6yr olds. 
9. We ask all coaches to help prep and clean the fields pre-game, and we'll need them to do the same post-game to ensure our field conditions don't deteriorate. This will require you or one of your ACs to be at the field 30-40 minutes early to help prepare. We'll divvy up the labor between Home and Away coaches.

Difference between a Head Coach and Assistant Coach in Double-A

1. HC will be responsible for communications with their team (up to 9 families). The coordinators would provide all contact info for your teams. You can simply set up your email list or text message with all their numbers at the start of the season and use that to communicate moving forward. I've tried both and found the text to be more convenient for reminders and weather updates. 
2. Ideally, the HC will need to be present at every game or practice. However, if you have trusted AC's with you and your team's families understand, you could probably miss or arrive late to 1 thing or another. 
3. HC will be responsible for scheduling their own practices. Double-A has access to Strong Elementary School's field all week long in the evenings. I'm suggesting practices go from 5:30-6:30, but I leave that up to you. With this group, we can fit as many as 4 teams at Strong at once and they don't need more than an hour. You can cancel/reschedule practices however you wish. A group chat is usually formed with all head coaches to text each other throughout the season. 
4. Ideally, the HC comes up with the practice plan and game lineups, and shares these with their AC's before or at those games/practices. It helps them help you prepare. We have some drills we learned from D-Bat that would be good to implement. I also encourage you to reference some of our Little League drills that we share at the bottom of this page. Lastly, we encourage you to allow ACs to come up with some ideas for drills so it's not entirely on you. 
5. HC will need to be the sounding board for parents. Any concerns they have with their players or the league in general, and the HC should be there to listen.
6. HC will be responsible for the team equipment we're providing: bucket of balls, bases (for practices), first aid kit, and potentially, a tee and hitting net (we have limited nets and tees, but can be given or shared upon request to me or other coaches). If you are unsure if you'll be around for an event, simply delegate this to an AC. You are free to use any of your own equipment for practices as well. For example, some coaches bring their own tennis balls or whiffle balls from time to time. 
7. Not necessarily a difference, but one of the coaches on your team needs to be CPR certified.
8. We really need to have more HC presence at the monthly coaches meetings. It's important for the future of our program.

Perks of being a Head Coach

• You get some practice running a team at its easiest level. T-Ball coaching is more like chaperoning, while Triple-A starts to introduce Little League rules such as pitch counts, inning minimums, etc. Double-A is the last division where we can make it what we want and cater to the player's skill sets.  
• You can make your practices work with your personal schedule. (as long as we don't have more than 4 teams at Strong on a given night)
• If you can give your coordinator nights or times you definitely can't make, they'll do their best to avoid them when scheduling games. As of right now, We typically target 1 game per team on Saturday morning and 1 game per team on Tues, Wed or Thurs (5:30p). The rest of the week is up to you for practices. 
• If you have a few preferred players/families you want on your team, simply share them and we'll see what we can do.
• We typically get new hats each year, so you can pick your team! 
• You'll be given access to both equipment sheds at Rec Park.