The life long love affair with baseball starts at a real early age. You\’re usually too young to even really remember that first year or little league t-ball but the imprint is there on your developing brain. Maybe it\’s the fact that baseball heralds springs and the thaw of winter is starting to fade. There\’s newly cut grass and sun shines off your brand new baseball hat. You\’ve got the sounds of bats and chatter not to mention the sudden eruptions of motion between down periods of joking with your friends or checking out bugs in the outfield. It\’s little league t ball and baseball. That\’s where the love starts and unlike other passing fads and phases, this love never fades. Let\’s look at little league baseball and it\’s impact all the way through to high school baseball many years later.

Little league baseball shares the spotlight with youth soccer for being incredibly popular for young kids both girls and boys. Almost every community has a program for little league and it\’s usually pretty well-organized and legitimate. T ball can start as early as 4 or 5 years old depending on the area. At this level, the kids are probably more interested in the ring-pop they get after the game but it\’s a great introduction to the game of baseball. American baseball is really an original sport. There\’s nothing quite like it. You have bases, bats, and gloves….it\’s completely unique which is probably why it\’s remained America\’s past time for so long. It\’s also a lot to wrap your head around and if you want to get well-versed in the game play and rules, it helps to start early. Rules of the game is one thing but the real focus of little league baseball is getting the basic skills down.

If you\’ve never picked up a ball and learned to throw for accuracy, you\’re likely to send it 20 feet wide of a target 30 feet way. There are basic skills of baseball that you have get down with repetition. The simple act of \”tossing the ball around\” is a perfect example with throwing and catching being core skills for little kids to pick up. Better to learn at age 5-8 than to try in middle school. By that point, you already have some serious competition that have probably played little league baseball their whole life. Then there\’s hitting. Yea, as little kids, we all love swinging around imaginary swords but not with a ball flying at us. Getting the timing of the swing much less putting some power behind it requires lots of batting practice. The \”t\” in t-ball let\’s a young little league player just concentrate on the act of swinging without the moving bat. The next few years bring yet another high specialized skill only found in baseball. The pitch.

Pitching is probably one of the most technical skills in the baseball and you almost need to focus on it early on in your little league career to become proficient. It\’s also a function of raw arm strength and talent but years of culling this raw ability down requires…well it requires years and that\’s where a little league baseball history and experience can help shape amazing high school baseball players. Did we mention that you all get a ring-pop?

Author Bio: Dennis Jarvis writes about the world of Prep Sports including high school sports such as high school football, basketball, and baseball.

Category: Sports
Keywords: little league baseball, t ball, high school baseball, prep baseball, high school sports, prep sports