The bunching problem at tee-ball is famous. Ten six-year-olds chase the ball wherever it goes. The shortstop ends up in left field. The pitcher ends up at first base. Nobody learns where they are supposed to stand.
The fix is cones at every defensive position, set up where the kid would actually line up. Not on the bag. In the slot.
Where the cones go
Set a cone on the dirt or grass exactly where the position player stands. For an infielder, that means the cone is to the side of the bag, not on it.
- Pitcher: on the rubber.
- Catcher: behind the plate, the chest of the cone facing the pitcher.
- First base: a step toward the pitcher and a step toward the right-field line. Not on the bag.
- Second base: a step toward the pitcher and a step toward the right-field line. The second baseman lines up to the right of second base.
- Shortstop: a step toward the pitcher and a step toward third. To the left of second base.
- Third base: a step toward the pitcher and a step toward the third-base line.
- Left field, center field, right field: out in the grass at roughly even spacing.
That is nine cones if you have nine players. You usually have more.
When you have more than nine kids
Tee-ball squads run twelve to fifteen kids on game day. Everyone plays. Nobody sits.
Add cones in the outfield. Two left fielders, two right fielders, two center fielders if you need to. The rule we use: as many cones as kids on the field that day.
A line of cones across the outfield grass at even spacing is fine. It looks crowded. The kids do not know it is supposed to look any different.
The point is that every kid has a place. No kid is wandering. No kid is in the dugout when their friends are on the field.
Two cone bins
Carry two bags or buckets of cones. One bin is the infield cones. One bin is the outfield cones.
When you rotate kids each inning, you draw from the bin that has not been theirs that game. A kid who was at first base goes into the outfield bin next inning. A kid who was in left goes into the infield bin.
You do not need to write down who plays what position each inning. You just need to make sure each kid is rotating between the two bins. By the end of a game, every kid has been an infielder and an outfielder.
This is the laziest fair-rotation system that exists. It works.
What the kids learn
Kids who practice with cones at the position they are playing learn three things, fast.
One. They learn there is a place to stand. The cone teaches it without a coach yelling about it.
Two. They learn what their position is responsible for. The shortstop cone is in the slot between second and third. The kid stands there and starts to understand that ground balls hit to that area are theirs.
Three. They learn to go back to their cone after a play. This solves the bunching. The cone pulls them back like a magnet.
What you bring to practice
A bin of twelve to fifteen plastic cones for the infield positions plus the outfield. They cost ten to fifteen dollars for a set on Amazon or at any local sporting goods store.
A separate bag for hitting cones (the cones you use to set up base paths or to mark drill stations) so the position cones do not migrate.
A cone count check at the end of practice. Cones disappear into outfield grass faster than you would believe.
A note on the kids who get it
By age seven or eight, the cones come out and it is mostly a memory aid. By coach pitch, the cones go away. The kids know where to stand because they have been standing there for two summers.
The cones are not a crutch. They are a starter wheel. The kids outgrow them. That is the point.