Report  to International Softball Federation

European Development Facilitator

 

History

During olympic year 2004 there were several discussion about the development in Europe. These finally led to attempt to create new position within the continent – European Development Facilitator. ESF (European Softball Federation) and ISF (International Softball Federation) have reached the agreement about joint financing and cooperation in supervising of the position. Than ISF Development Director Cindy Bristow and ESF President Mike Jennings with the input of some other people involved in european development (M.Romeo, B.Fromer, P.Prachar) have written the document called Objectives, Procedures and Strategy, which became the base for job description and also for plans for next few years. I was chosen for the job and staretd to work from October 2004.

Development Plan

Based on above mentioned document and  discussions within Europe the new Development Commission of ESF led by Gabriel Waage have created the Development Plan for next four years 2005-2008. This plan designs the main areas where we can help to develop the sport within continent, sets priorities and offers following more detailed programs:

  1. Coaches, players and administrators clinics/camps
  2. Promotional materials
  3. Equipment
  4. Youth program (especially school program)
  5. Men´s and boy´s program
  6. Slowpitch program
  7. Use of Athen´s facilities

The first year

At the begginig I have set the office with no additional cost, it is in my house, equiped with basic office equipment such as computer, printer, copier, fax, internet connection etc. Neccesary administration expenses are cover together with travel expenses from special limited budget which cannot exceed USD 5000 for a year.

Monitoring

Is done through the system of monthly reports sent to President of European Softball Federation, Chairman of ESF Development Commission and ISF Director of Development. I also make quarterly (three months period) reports for ESF Executive Council and Federations/Association. Since ESF Developmnet Chairman Mr. Gabriel Waage is from the same country, we also meet regularly, at least once a month, to check and discuss what has been done and what should be done next.

Communication

One of the very important parts of my work. Most it is done by electronic mail or fax if necessary. To make it easier I have created Development Website with the address www.softballdevelopment.com which serves for publishing news, reports, plans, forms, photos etc. from different development or aother softball events.

Database

The comunication through national federations/associations is not always perfect, therefore I am working on my own database of contacts, people involved in development, coaches or umpires, or just enthusiast in that particular country or region. In the same time I fill this database regularly with all the information which could be usefull for better picture about the country and would help to find out the best way to develop the sport in thet particular place.

Priorities

Development Commission has set so-called Priority Countries, which are the countries less or not developed in our sport. It is either country they have never had this kind of sport or (and that is more often) they do have some baseball, but no or very small softball. In Europe this is mostly countries in the east and north of the continent like Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine or Norway, Finland, Sweden, Estonia atc. These countries are offered to help to make their development plans and programs, they are the main target for organizinig the local clinics.

Development Programs

  1. Clinics – there are two types of the clinics we offer:  Local clinics and International clinics. 

a.              Local clinics – we have list of experienced coaches from the continent and we can send them to the country where they need to have a clinic. The local association takes care of all stay (accommodation and meals) and we pay the travel, which is not expensive when it stays within the Europe. We can do either coaches clinics, or combined with umpiring or even coaching, umpiring and administartion in one clinic for beggining countries. We had them in Poland, Finland, Malta, Gurnsey and Bulgaria this year, we plan more at the end of the year after season is finished in most othe countries.

b.             International clinics – another kind of the clinic, we arrange certain type of the clinic in some place and invite as many as we can to come and participate. We have three in 2005 – very succesfull Pitching Clinic during the European Championship Women in August led by Michael Bastian (USA) and Vladimir Suss (CZ) and Players Clinic with US olympic gold medailists Stacey Nuveman and Jessica Mendoza. The third is still to come – International Coaching College in December in Prague based on agreement between ISF and NFCA.

  1. Promotional materials – we try both, distribute avilable from ISF like „What is Softball“, „Softball in Schools“ or „Field Manual“, videos Coaching FP or Beggining and Advanced Pitching, but also making our own like DVDs with some top games (this is very important because most of the people in Europe have never seen good top softball) or PowerPoint Presentation with photos which could be used especially in schools to introduce the game and its aspects.
  2. Equipment – equipment program is on already three years and it is very succesfull. This program is mainly coordinated straight from ISF office. But we plan to make a storage in Europe which will help in two ways – it will be cheaper to send at once and than distributed there rather than sending small amounts to different places. Secondly it would be much easier for us to contact the people and get equipment quickly to their countries.
  3. Youth Program – we are focused especially on school programs because we belive this is the easiest way to introduce softball to youth. We help associations/federations to make a plan which includes clinics and seminars for physical education teachers, getting ISF equipment kits, giving them promotional stuff to show the game, advice how to contact local authorities to help.
  4. Men´s and boy´s program – lot of people in Europe still sees softball as a „baseball for women“. Therefore bigg part of our efforts wherever we go, is to support the boys and mens program not only to make it equal. We do belive that growing boys and girls together within the schools and clubs in softball helps the development much more than considering baseball and softball as one sport. We have prepared some proposals for ESF Competition Rules changes (Pick-up Rule) which will help to grow numbers of mens teams participating in ESF tournaments, we plan the new competition European Challenge Tournament and we support all the youth tournaments for boys.
  5. Slow-pitch – part of our seminars and clinics is also Slow-pitch program which we hope will bring more people to the game within the countries. We also closely cooperate with Bob Fromer (GB) to help him to promote SP and distribute his promotional stuff.

In General

After an experimental year I like to say that the program works well, we have done in development and promotion much more than ever before and I believe we are on the right track. I like to thank both ESF and ISF officers for excellent help, support and cooperation in this new program.

 

Pavel Prachar
European Development Facilitator

 

Mysliveckova 10
16200 Praha 6
Czech Republic
phone: +420 220612245
fax:      +420 220612244
mobil:   +420 777863677
e-mail: pprachar@sendme.cz
web:  www.softballdevelopment.com