My 5-year-old son started T-Ball a few weeks ago, and is learning the basic skills such as throwing, catching, and batting.

He has two older sisters who play Barbie, Littlest Pet Shop, princess dress up, and all the other "girl things" that little girls spend their time doing. So it's fun to see my son get excited about a "boy activity".

His coach has also encouraged parents to jump in and help with practice, which basically gives me a chance to play ball with him twice a week for an hour. I've asked him a few times after practice which part of practice he liked best and why, and his answer is always "because I got to do it with you!" Dads love to hear those words

Now I must admit that I'm not a sports junkie by any means. I'm not even very athletic, although I do like karate and cycling a lot, and I work out quite a bit. But I've just never really been into sports that much. I lean more towards technology than ESPN.

So when it came time to help my son learn to catch, I called up my sports junkie buddy Tom and asked him for a pointer.

Here's a tip he gave me for helping young kids learn to catch a ball: Aside from lack of coordination in many young kids, their fear of getting hit with the ball is their largest obstacle. Simply having them hold their mits out to the side is a good way to ease this fear and help them focus on the ball. If they miss the catch, the ball doesn't smack them in the chest... it just rolls by and they can run and pick it up. Once their coordination improves and they start catching more than they're missing, then you can have them move the mit in front of them.

Another trick we use in T-Ball practice to get them in the habit of trapping the ball in their mits is to use the "Alligator" analogy, where the trapping hand and the mit is the Alligator's mouth that wants to chomp into the ball. Kids love that one!

I found a great use for the small, round trampoline that my folks gave our kids for Christmas this last year - a rebounding backstop for baseball pitching! I set it up in our backyard and when I pitch the ball it bounces off the tramp and sends it right back to me. No more chasing after baseballs in the bushes, and it keeps the pace plenty fast for short attention spans of 5-year-olds.

Thanks for the tip Tom, and for those of you sports fan dads reading this blog, please leave a tip of your own to help me teach my son (and daughters) how to play better ball.