RESOURCES

Program Structure

There are three main ways in which to structure your Learn to Play softball program:

Station Based

The Station-Based Program is one way to organize your Learn to Play softball sessions. This system works well when there are multiple groups holding their weekly sessions at the same time, or when there is one large group of children and multiple coaches/volunteers. Each week one coach or leader should take charge to plan all the stations (weekly activities as laid out in the lesson plan) and to explain to the others what activities are being run at each.

Each group of children, or each team, will rotate through the stations, spending about 7 to 10 minutes per station, depending on the activity and the group. Each group should have a supervisor at all times, whether the supervisor stays at each station or circulates with one group of children, is your decision.

Coaches are to lead the children through an appropriate warm-up prior to splitting up into the smaller groups for the stations. Typically, there will be a welcome announcement, and then the entire group of children will warm-up together before splitting up.

The stations will be set up throughout the softball diamond. The number of stations, and the number of groups at each station, depends on the number of children that you have participating and the types of activities you want to run at that session.

Once every team has been to every station, the teams can play a lead-up game, or a modified game together as a wrap-up for the session. This type of structure is great to keep kids moving and keeps things fast and interesting. It also allows for effective skill development and allows coaches to interact more directly with children.

Team Based

The Learn to Play softball team based program works well with a smaller group where everyone can move through the activities together. It works well for working on cooperation and teamwork! Having one team move through all the activities together can make it easier to teach the rules of the game and can be more effective in teaching children cognitively.

This structure can be done easily using the Learn to Play softball manual by moving from week to week using the structured lessons outlined. Each lesson has warm up activities, main activities focusing on learning both fundamental movement skills and basic softball skills and then lead up games which allows children to use what they have just learnt in a “game type” setting.

Game Based (U9 only)

When children reach the U9 level they may, depending on development, be ready to experience more game like activities. If this is the case, it is encouraged that Learn to Play softball lesson plans be used for practices to maintain the development of fundamental movement and softball skills while also allowing athletes the opportunity to learn different aspects of the game prior to moving to U11. Many different modified and lead up games are provided in the U9 level to encourage the development of skills (as laid out in Softball Canada’s Athlete Development Matrix) but continue to keep softball fun and engaging.