Certainly, there are different kinds of baseball fans. There are the more casual ones who enjoy watching the sports on TV or enjoy a game or two at the local park during the weekends, while there are those who follow their favorite teams and watch each live game wherever their teams play. Then, there are those who are so passionate about the sport that they are willing to teach little league baseball in order to propagate the finer techniques of the sport.

If you belong to the latter group of baseball fans and would want to share your love of the sports to more people including the participating children and their parents, then you might have toyed with the idea of holding a weekend baseball camp for little league players. Although this seems like such a daunting task, it could prove to be a very worthwhile endeavor especially since this would mean that you will be instrumental in the physical, mental, social, and emotional development of young children through youth sports.

Admittedly, when it comes to planning a weekend baseball camp, passion and interest are not enough. These should be matched by careful planning and organization. To make this task a little bit easier, here are five easy steps to help you set up camp.

Identify your objectives and goals

Before you busy yourself with the technical matters, the first thing that must be established is the set of goals or objectives that you wish to achieve as the camp manager. If you plan on setting up a short course for kids, definitely, the main objective should be toteach baseball to prospective little leagueplayers. Next, you must lay down and identify the specifics, for example, what age group would you like to teach? Children as young as 7 years old can already play decent baseball given the right set of basic instructions, yet, are you prepared to handle tantrums and other mishaps associated with younger kids? Do remember to keep your objectives realistic and feasible.

At this stage, it is better to delimit the age group (say, 8-12 years old) and impose a limit as to the number of kids you can handle. Anywhere from 5-15 is okay for a short course.

Next, you must identify what particular aspects of the game you would like to teach them. For example, do you wish to teach all the basic aspects of the game such as fielding, hitting, throwing, pitching, sliding, and so on, or would you like to focus on just a few of these skills for each session or course? In order for you to effectively teach little league baseball, the preparation stage is the time in which you must decide how the short course shall be carried out.

Devise a program that will meet the goals

Now that you have identified your objectives, the next thing for you to do is to devise a program that will allow you to realize your targets. For example, if you have chosen to work on improving the participants’ skills in pitching and throwing, then you must choose appropriate drills and practice strategies to help them in these areas. For these skills, you can incorporate appropriate drills that target these areas. Do remember to keep the drills simple so that little kids can easily understand and repeat them.

Of course, an effective short course on baseball must teach the participants all about the basic information about the game aside from targeting basic skills. Thus, you must strive to create a program that emphasizes rules, common errors, and basic skills development in the fields of fielding, hitting, and throwing, among many others. Drills and practice games should also be incorporated into the program. Aside from these, you have to ensure that you set aside some segment of the program for evaluation and discussion. As you teach little league baseball, during these sessions, encourage the participants to share their feelings and opinions regarding the positive values they might have learned from their daily experiences.

Prepare the materials

Once you have devised a detailed program, you will now have a basic idea as to what materials are needed. For basic materials that are easy to procure such as papers, pencils, chalk, blackboard, etc., you can provide these yourself. However, should you need other materials, consider asking the participants to bring their own. This aspect of the program depends entirely on your objective. For example, if the program aims to develop pitching and hitting skills, bats, helmets and other protective gears must be present during the training.

Take care of legal concerns

If you designed a program which is free, more informal, and is meant for a small group of participants, a wide backyard should suffice. However, if you plan to charge a small fee, check with the local authorities if there is a permit that you need to procure to make the program legal. Parents might be reluctant to allow their kids to participate if the program does not comply with official requirements. Moreover, if you wish to hold a program with more participants, you certainly need a bigger venue like a park or any other public venue that is of the right size.

Advertise and recruit participants

Of course, a program will only come into fruition if it has participants. For this, you need to advertise and recruit the participants based on your target group. If you plan to hold a short program or course for just a few kids, word-of-mouth advertising with a few friends or friends of friends will do. However, for bigger programs or courses, you need to post advertisements throughout the neighborhood and the community in order to entice more participants to join the program.

If you wish to teach little league baseball, the program will be more effective if you include the parents and get the rest of the community involved. Finally, in all of these, keep in mind that the program should be fun and memorable for the participants.