6U Baseball Practice Plan (60 Minutes, Tee Ball Age)
- By Julien Levadoux
At 5 and 6, a practice is an hour of games. Spend it on catching and throwing with soft balls, fielding grounders, hitting off a tee and running the bases the right way. Nothing runs longer than 10 minutes, and no one waits in a line.
What 6U players can do
Five- and six-year-olds have attention spans of a few minutes and are still learning which way to run. The goal of a practice is that they touch a ball as many times as possible and want to come back. Use tennis balls or soft safety balls for every catching drill, and keep groups of three or four with a parent helper each.
The plan
| Time | Block | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| 0:00 | Warm-up | Follow-the-leader warm-up: jog, hop, skip, arm circles |
| 0:08 | Catching | Partners 5 feet apart with soft balls, then step back after 3 catches in a row |
| 0:18 | Fielding | Ground ball alligator: coach rolls, players trap with two hands |
| 0:28 | Water break | |
| 0:31 | Hitting | Tee stations: three tees, 5 swings each, rotate on the whistle |
| 0:46 | Baserunning | Run through first, then sharks and minnows |
| 0:56 | Wrap-up | Huddle, one thing they did well, team cheer |
Coaching notes
- Teach where to run. Have every player hit off the tee and run to first, every practice. Put a parent at first base pointing the way.
- Catching uses two hands. “Alligator” and “hands like a basket” stick at this age. Big gloves and hard balls make kids afraid of the ball, so stay soft.
- Celebrate effort. A tee ball game isn’t scored for the kids; practice shouldn’t feel like a test either.
- Rules at this age are simple: everyone bats, coaches help on the field, and the inning often ends when everyone has hit. Your league’s local rules decide the details.