Well after kickball, I thought we would continue with the base idea, so I went to wiffle ball. Working with mostly 1st graders, who haven't thrown, caught, or hit much using a wiffle ball and bat seemed a lot safer than using real ones. They still had times when they would hurt their fingers trying to catch, and a few times the bat went flying, but thankfully no
major injuries.
I grew up in a home where my dad played ball (of all sorts) with my sister and I as we were growing up. He taught us the basics of baseball, volleyball, basketball, and more which gave us a great foundation in all the sports that we played. As I was trying to teach these kids how to
throw, I could hear my dad's voice in my head explaining it to me. I could hear him insisting on always using 2 hands to catch a ball, and on never throwing the bat. These things worked for me through all my years of playing baseball and softball, so I found myself teaching these kids the same things. He also taught me the importance of commitment, never quitting, and always giving my best effort in everything, whether practice, game, or whatever I was doing. All these have been applicable inside and outside of sports and his advice has served me well throughout my life. Thanks Dad, I love you.
At the end of our time, we were throwing and hitting better, but still need work on catching, and understanding the
concept of when to run and where to throw it. Each class, after we did some situps and pushups, we would work on our throwing, catching, and hitting. Then we would finish our time with a short game, of 1 inning with 2 outs. If it wasn't a strike out, or I didn't catch it (I pitched) we could have been there a while. The kids were getting the idea of throwing it to first, but too often the person was already there, but we kept working at it. The dizzy bat relay often proved to be a good laughing moment for us all also. Next up - basketball.
Well after kickball, I thought we would continue with the base idea, so I went to wiffle ball. Working with mostly 1st graders, who haven't thrown, caught, or hit much using a wiffle ball and bat seemed a lot safer than using real ones. They still had times when they would hurt their fingers trying to catch, and a few times the bat went flying, but thankfully no 
major injuries.
I grew up in a home where my dad played ball (of all sorts) with my sister and I as we were growing up. He taught us the basics of baseball, volleyball, basketball, and more which gave us a great foundation in all the sports that we played. As I was trying to teach these kids how to 
throw, I could hear my dad's voice in my head explaining it to me. I could hear him insisting on always using 2 hands to catch a ball, and on never throwing the bat. These things worked for me through all my years of playing baseball and softball, so I found myself teaching these kids the same things. He also taught me the importance of commitment, never quitting, and always giving my best effort in everything, whether practice, game, or whatever I was doing. All these have been applicable inside and outside of sports and his advice has served me well throughout my life. Thanks Dad, I love you.
At the end of our time, we were throwing and hitting better, but still need work on catching, and understanding the
concept of when to run and where to throw it. Each class, after we did some situps and pushups, we would work on our throwing, catching, and hitting. Then we would finish our time with a short game, of 1 inning with 2 outs. If it wasn't a strike out, or I didn't catch it (I pitched) we could have been there a while. The kids were getting the idea of throwing it to first, but too often the person was already there, but we kept working at it. The dizzy bat relay often proved to be a good laughing moment for us all also. Next up - basketball.
