First Team Tee-Ball Practice

Two years ago Joshua did tee-ball for the first time.  He didn't love it, so we didn't do it last year.  But this year we decided to try it again, but we also included Clara, as she's old enough to play.  Conveniently, they were able to play on the same team due to the way the ages worked out.  The team coach, Scott, wanted to organize a few practices before the first game.  Unlike last year where the "games" were actually half practice and half game, this year the games are actually just games, so the only practice the team will get is from these sessions.  He's planning to have three or four before the season starts, and then no more after that.  Tonight was the first one, and basically the kids go through rotations of stations to work on different skills.  Here you can see Clara at the catching station and the hitting station.  At the catching station, she tried to catch balls lobbed to her, but she was mostly only able to get them if they landed in her glove.  She'll get better about moving her glove to where the ball is as she gets older.  Her throwing though...   That poor little girl just has no arm strength.  Her tiny spindly arms just don't generate much power.  You can see here where she's putting her entire body into it.  I'm going to work with her on throwing mechanics, which will allow her to throw it further with less effort.  You can also see her here working with Coach Scott on the hitting drill.  She seemed to barely be able to swing the bat, but she actually did pretty well.  She hit the tee a bunch of times, as I'm guessing gravity is pulling the heavy bat down more than she anticipates when she's lining it up.  But she was also able to get a fair amount of solid hits, including the one I captured here.  Joshua is also on the team, as I noted, but I didn't focus on getting pictures of him, since he's done this stuff before.  They both seemed to like it, including Clara, which was my concern, and they're both looking forward to the next practice, which is good.