Coaching tee ball for the first time is less about baseball strategy and more about crowd control with gloves. At 4 and 5 years old, most kids have never held a bat, don’t know which base is which, and will lose interest in anything that takes longer than a few minutes to explain. The good news is that a simple, repeatable practice structure solves most of this.
This plan breaks a tee ball practice into short, high-energy stations built around the four skills every player needs by the end of the season: swinging, fielding, throwing, and running the bases in order. Use it as-is for your first few practices, then tweak the order once you see what your group responds to.
Quick Answer
Keep practice to about 40-50 minutes total, broken into 4-5 short stations of roughly 10 minutes each (hitting off the tee, ground balls, throwing/catching, and base running), with frequent water breaks and as little standing-around time as possible.
How to Structure the Practice
Arrive 10-15 minutes early to set up tees, cones, and bases before kids show up — you lose their attention fast if you’re setting up equipment while they wait. If you have an assistant coach or a couple of parent helpers, assign each one a station so kids rotate in small groups instead of standing in one long line.
Open with a 2-3 minute warm-up: a lap or two around the bases, some jumping jacks, or a simple stretch. Keep any talking to a few sentences — demonstrate instead of explaining. From there, rotate through stations every 8-10 minutes. A typical lineup is: tee hitting, fielding ground balls, throwing and catching with a partner, and base running. End practice with something fun and competitive, like a short relay race around the bases, so the last thing kids remember is enjoying themselves.
If you only have one coach and no helpers, run the whole group through one activity at a time rather than trying to split them into stations you can’t supervise — safety and attention span both suffer when a station runs unsupervised.
Core Drills for This Age Group
Tee hitting: Set 2-3 tees side by side so multiple kids swing at once instead of waiting in one line. Focus only on a level swing and watching the ball — don’t correct stance or grip in detail yet.
Rolling ground balls: Roll (don’t hit) balls directly at each player one at a time. Emphasize ‘two hands, knees bent, eyes on the ball’ over catching every single one cleanly.
Throwing and catching: Pair kids up a few feet apart with a soft or foam ball and have them toss underhand to each other. Distance and accuracy come later; the goal right now is just getting comfortable catching something coming at them.
Base running: Have the whole group jog the bases together while you call out each base by name (‘first… second… third… home!’). This single drill, repeated often, is usually what finally teaches them which direction to run and in what order.
Mini scrimmage or relay: Save 5-10 minutes at the end for a simplified live-action game — even just hitting off the tee and running to first — so kids connect the individual skills to the actual game.
Tips / Common Mistakes
Rotate activities often. Ten minutes is close to the ceiling of a 4- or 5-year-old’s attention span for one task — if you see kids wandering off or picking grass, that’s your cue to switch, not to lecture them back into focus.
Avoid long lines. A line of six kids waiting to take one swing at a tee is where practices fall apart. Use multiple tees, multiple stations, or small-group rotations instead.
Don’t over-coach mechanics. At this age, kids are building basic coordination and comfort with the equipment, not proper swing mechanics. Praise effort and keep instructions to one simple cue at a time (‘watch the ball,’ ‘two hands’).
Build in water and bathroom breaks before kids ask. A quick break every 15-20 minutes prevents meltdowns and keeps energy up for the next station.
End on something fun. A relay race, a quick scrimmage, or just letting them run the bases one more time leaves kids excited to come back next week.
Explore more: More youth coaching guides.
Tee Ball Practice Plan FAQs
How long should a tee ball practice be for 4- and 5-year-olds?
Around 40-50 minutes total is the sweet spot. Much longer than that and attention spans at this age drop off sharply, which makes practice harder to run, not more productive.
What skills should a tee ball practice focus on?
The four fundamentals are hitting off the tee, fielding a ground ball with two hands, throwing/catching with a partner, and running the bases in the correct order. Most official tee ball curricula build toward these same four skills.
How many kids should be in one drill station at a time?
Keep groups small — ideally 2-4 kids per coach or helper per station — so no one waits more than a minute or two for a turn. Long lines are the fastest way to lose a tee ball group’s attention.
Do tee ball practices need to include a scrimmage?
It’s not required, but ending with a short, simplified scrimmage or relay game helps kids connect individual drills to the actual flow of a game and gives practice a fun, memorable finish.
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Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash.