Whole Sport Plan 2013-2017 - BaseballSoftballUK · © BaseballSoftballUK 2012 4 Whole Sport Plan...

Whole Sport Plan 2013-2017

© BaseballSoftballUK 2012 2 Whole Sport Plan 2013-2017

Table of Contents

Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................. 4

Context ....................................................................................................... 4 Approach .................................................................................................... 5 Themes ....................................................................................................... 5

Section 1: Organisational Vision and Priorities ............................... 6

Overall Goals ............................................................................................... 6 Fit with Overall Strategy ............................................................................. 6 Operational Responsibility for Work ........................................................... 6

Section 2: Track Record and Capability .......................................... 7

Track Record ............................................................................................... 7 Strengths and Weaknesses ......................................................................... 7 Evidence...................................................................................................... 8 Risk Management ....................................................................................... 9

Section 3: Market Context .......................................................... 10

Who Plays Our Sports? .............................................................................. 10 Why Do People Play Our Sports? .............................................................. 12 Demand for Our Sports ............................................................................. 13 How Do People Find Our Sports? .............................................................. 14 How Do People Participate in Our Sports? ................................................ 15 Our Influence and Reach into the Market .................................................. 16 Retention of Participants .......................................................................... 18 Becoming Regular Participants ................................................................. 20 Why People Leave The Sports ................................................................... 20 Opportunity and Potential ........................................................................ 22 Challenges ................................................................................................ 23 BSUK's Pen Portraits ................................................................................. 25

Section 4: Programmes .............................................................. 27

Introduction to Growth ............................................................................. 27 How We Plan to Grow ............................................................................... 30

Strategic Approach to Areas of Growth .................................................... 31 Regional / Local Focus (Epicentres) ........................................................... 32 Relationships ............................................................................................ 34 Programmes Overview ..............................................................................37 New Adult Structures ................................................................................ 40 Existing Adult and Youth Structures ......................................................... 42 New Structures for Young People ............................................................. 44 England Talent Development ................................................................... 45

Section 5: Scale of Impact ........................................................... 54

Impact on Active People Survey ................................................................ 54 Team Growth by Years ............................................................................. 54 Team Growth by Programme ................................................................... 55 Participant Growth by Year and Programme ............................................ 55 Assumptions ............................................................................................. 56 Approach .................................................................................................. 56 Measurements .......................................................................................... 57 Feedback .................................................................................................. 60 Estimating Impact ..................................................................................... 62 Talent Development ................................................................................. 62

Section 6: Infrastructure ............................................................ 63

Workforce ................................................................................................. 65 Club and League Development .................................................................. 71 Marketing ................................................................................................. 74 Facilities .................................................................................................... 78

Section 8: Core costs ................................................................. 80

Governance............................................................................................... 82 Commercial .............................................................................................. 84

Section 9: Financial Overview ..................................................... 86

Budget ...................................................................................................... 86 Assessment of Price .................................................................................. 87 Comparison with Previous Cycle ............................................................... 87 Salary and Pension .................................................................................... 88


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Value for Money ........................................................................................ 88 Financial Need........................................................................................... 89 Partnership Working ................................................................................. 89 Approach to Additional Work in 2013-17 Period ........................................ 89 Whole Sport Plan Budget .......................................................................... 90

Evidence Portfolio ....................................................... 91

Played in Every Park Strategy - Draft ........................................... 91

Introduction .............................................................................................. 91 Objectives ................................................................................................. 92 Strategic Plan ............................................................................................ 93

Overview of Baseball and Softball ............................................... 94

Market Segments and Programmes ............................................100

Calculations for Retention and Acquisition .................................. 103

Monitoring and Evaluation ......................................................... 105

How Are We Doing Quarterly Report ...................................................... 105 Example: Recovery Plan (Higher Education) ........................................... 108 Example: Club and League Health Check (Baseball Clubs) ...................... 109

Programme Outlines ................................................................. 110

Hit the Pitch .............................................................................................110 Pitch In .....................................................................................................112 Swing By .................................................................................................. 115 Baseball and Softball 4 Beginners ............................................................ 117

NGB and Funded Partner Assurance Programme 2011 ................. 120

Baseball and Softball England Talent Development Strategy: 2013-2025 ......................................................................................... 121

Appendix .................................................................................................123

England Talent Development..................................................... 124

Introduction ............................................................................................ 124 Evidence to Support Talent Development Achievements in 2009-13 (unfunded) .............................................................................................. 124 Measures of Success for 2013-17 (if funded) ............................................. 131 The Academy Attendance........................................................................ 133 Case Studies ........................................................................................... 138


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Sport England NGB 2013 – 17 Funding

Baseball and Softball Whole Sport Plan Submission

Introduction

Context

BSUK has been invited to apply for Whole Sport Plan funding for the past two cycles (2005-09, 2009-13) and is now in the process of completing its third Whole Sport Plan. With each cycle we have gained a better understanding of the needs of our sports and what we can deliver and have developed a more mature approach to strategic planning.

In stride with delivery of growth

Over the course of the 2009-13 cycle we have developed a real understanding of how to actually deliver growth. This has not been an easy concept to master, but is critical to success. This understanding, along with the direct management of our delivery programmes, is what allows us to set outcomes with confidence.

Sits in the wider context of the sports' development plan for the sports

The Whole Sport Plan submission to Sport England is one part of the wider strategy for the sports of baseball and softball that BSUK will deliver in collaboration with the British Baseball and Softball Federations. Our broader strategy is in the process of being drafted (see here) and extends into areas that include: national teams, schools, leagues and competition, events and working within other Home Countries. The Whole Sport Plan is fully aligned with this wider plan.

Within the strategic plan for baseball and softball, BSUK has responsibility for delivering the WSP component. It is this division of responsibility that allows us to focus entirely on delivering the outcomes agreed with Sport England.

Long-Term Vision

Played in Every Park

Mission Increase participation in baseball and softball in the UK by:

Building a quality infrastructure.

Providing an enjoyable experience.

Improving performance.

Raising the profile of the sports.

2013-17 WSP Vision

Triple the number of teams playing regularly (since 2009).

Priorities 1. More adult teams.

2. More community youth teams 14+yrs.

3. Improved playing experience for both recreational and talented participants.

Role in Market

BSUK is the Development Agency for the British Baseball and British Softball Federations.

Our role is to facilitate the development of more (quantity) and better (quality) playing opportunities for teams and individual participants.


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Approach

Maturation of the organisation to this point

BSUK has established a track record as an organisation able to deliver against outcomes. To date, this has been done by maximising the output of the entire staff, which has made BSUK effective as well as excellent value for money. As our organisation matures, however, this approach is not sustainable. The initial investment to BSUK needs to be built on to ensure that we can continue to develop. Our guiding principle will continue to be efficiency and cost-effectiveness, but additional resource will enable us to continue to mature and to make sound organisational decisions.

Building on successes and taking on new areas of work

The 2013-17 Whole Sport Plan is based on what we have learned during the current investment period. As a result, we understand what we can do effectively and our strategy is to continue to work in the areas where we can be successful while developing new areas of work in a careful and strategic manner. The new WSP represents a natural progression from the last one rather than radical change.

Our current four priority regions in London, the South East, the North West and the Midlands will remain but we believe there is an opportunity to extend into the M4 West and Yorkshire areas where we can capitalise, in the same way we have to date, on existing bases of play.

Themes

Work over the next four years, building on current learning, will likely be more prescriptive in terms of the processes required for development, though we will balance more formulaic approaches with flexibility to cater for local needs. Recently-formed programmes such as the Hit the Pitch growth programme, Pitch-In volunteers programme, Swing-By local authority and leisure centre offer and Beginners Baseball and Softball will become more established and more standardised. A priority will be placed on developing a strong and appropriately skilled workforce. These and other programmes – tools in place to support the workforce – will be developed from an understanding of the motivations and experience of the participant. We believe these themes will help to improve our success and enable us to deliver an even more appealing and high-quality sporting experience for many new participants.


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Section 1: Organisational Vision and Priorities

Overall Goals

1. 200 new adult teams, increasing the number from 789 to 989. This equates to an increase in individual participation from an anticipated 2013 level of 21,097 to 24,697.

2. 75 new community youth teams 14+yrs, taking the total from 215 (predicted at the end of the 2009-13 cycle) to 290. That is an increase in young participants of 1,050 – from 3,010 to 4,060.

3. Improve the playing experience for recreational and talented participants through:

Stronger clubs.

Good coaches.

Skilled, rewarded and recognised workforce delivering the sports.

Player development opportunities.

Appropriate facilities.

Fit with Overall Strategy

This plan fits into a wider and longer-term strategy for the development of the sports, which is currently in draft form.

Operational Responsibility for Work

Operational responsibility for this plan is carefully aligned to the organisation's objectives. As such, it is overseen by the BSUK Board, monitored regularly through the Development Strategy Committee, and delivered as a part of the performance work of BSUK staff. Each staff member has responsibility for sections of the overall targets. The Head of Development is responsible for national development targets. National Development staff then take on national targets in their respective areas, which are delivered by Regional staff.


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Section 2: Track Record and Capability

Track Record

BSUK has existed for 12 years and over the course of that time has worked hard to establish a strong track record both outside and within our sports. We have been very clear that we want our organisation to be seen as professional, well-governed, flexible, efficient and excellent value for money, and have set out our stall to deliver the results we sign up to. As an organisation with relatively modest resources and heavily dependent on Sport England funding, we are highly aware that we need to consistently demonstrate that the investment made into BSUK reaps significant dividends.

Since 2005, when Sport England took the decision to include baseball and softball among its funded sports, we have delivered the targets and outcomes to which we have committed. In the current 2009-13 cycle, our Sport England performance reviews have recognised that we have been successful in growing the number of people playing our sports.

Our performance reviews have also highlighted that BSUK has been able to capitalise on the facility investment we have received and it has also been recognised that BSUK has established excellent systems for monitoring and evaluation, which enable us to take quick action when 'recovery' is necessary.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths

BSUK's systems and processes, both in terms of delivery and governance, are one of our key strengths. A great deal of work has gone into developing robust systems throughout the organisation, and this has provided a secure framework in which both our delivery and operational staff can operate.

Over the past five years we have focused heavily on the governance of our organisation, and have put a lot of work into creating a model that works effectively, balancing the complexity of our arrangement (two Federation members) with a skilled and independent Board. We have developed committees below our Board with clear purpose and excellent reporting and monitoring systems, which ensure that actions and discussion are properly picked up and followed through. Our strength in this area has been continually recognised in the feedback we receive from the Self-Assurance process and from the on-site audits we have undergone.

Our ability to directly influence the sports of baseball and softball is another strength. As almost all organised baseball and softball is played within our sphere of influence, we are able to approach strategic planning with confidence in our predicted outcomes. As an organisation, we are self-aware and highly critical, and

Alice Watson, Bluesox Captain, Manchester Softball League

What players say...

“ I heard about the Manchester Softball League through colleagues and friends and decided to set up a softball team to join the league in 2011. After getting in contact with BSUK regional officers I found the process to be really straight forward, and considering BSUK is a relatively small governing body I was shocked how much support we received to get started. This involved everything from access to a coach to coach us for 5 weeks prior to the season starting so we could get used to the rules and format of the game, access to free equipment, and then support buying our own equipment through grants. The support then continued through the season, with BSUK staff and coaches checking how we were getting on. We are now in our second season, and won our first game of the season last night.”


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therefore able to understand cause and effect in our development work. In order to be as efficient as possible in our delivery, BSUK has taken the decision to employ delivery staff who are able to be flexible, and who can work across multiple programmes and targets. This has been a strength for our organisation in terms of being able to efficiently change focus where necessary. Additionally, our choice to invest primarily in staff provision has enabled us to maximise our impact, with delivery staff able to access additional funds for our sports.

Weaknesses

Interestingly, a number of the weaknesses that have been considered in our review of risk are tied directly to our areas of strength.

The work we have put into the governance of BSUK has been hampered by the less-developed governance of our two member Federations. The Federation Boards are made up of volunteers from the sport without any thought given to skills analysis or open recruitment, and these volunteers then feed through to our Board. In reviewing our systems it has become evident that there is a clear need for the Federations to be supported in improving their governance because of the impact this can have across our structure. It is for this reason that we are seeking to employ a staff member within our core staff to lead this development.

Our staff model is also both a strength and a weakness of the organisation. Having staff who can operate across multiple programmes has meant that we lack certain specialist skills across our organisation. This has prevented us from being able to develop in areas that might have had a significant outcome for our sports, such as commercial development, marketing and high-level coaching.

The lack of high-level coaching, as well as the lack of any investment into our talent pathway, has been a weakness for our sports. The fact that at present we are not able to provide a seamless progression from community sport to the talent pathway works against our ability to retain players or to help individual athletes reach their full potential – and, importantly, to function as high-level and credible international sports.

Underpinning each of the weaknesses identified is the key issue of lack of resource and dependence on Sport England investment. The difficulty in balancing the need to maximise results from investment against choices that we should make for the good of our organisation, our staff and the sports is clearly not sustainable in the long-term. It has forced us to overload our staff and take far too many things in-house that would be better delivered through external expertise, and it constantly requires that we make choices between direct delivery and organisational health.

Evidence

Building on the success of growing regular participation in baseball and softball in the current funding cycle, we are confident and clear that continued growth is possible, despite the increasing demands of sustaining current participation and making new teams secure. New growth can be achieved as part of our continued core business – our sharp focus on growing participation in the sports – aligned to the organisation's mission and long-term vision. Work has already begun to understand more clearly the mechanisms that will enable larger growth through the charity sector and we are confident that there is a potential for team sports to be used as a vehicle to raise money for charity while offering regular and strong sporting opportunities.


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Risk Management

Over the current four-year period BSUK has embraced an ethos of carefully managing risk that runs through every aspect of the organisation. In this period, the culture of the organisation has moved from passively maintaining a risk register to understanding what it means to consider and mitigate against risk in all areas of our work. Our operational approach to managing risk can be divided into organisational and development.

Organisational Risk Management

For BSUK, managing risk works not just from the top down (Board), but is an integral part of all operational areas. The Board, each of its subcommittees and the Operations Department maintain separate active risk registers that are reviewed regularly. Each risk has an identified owner who holds that risk as part of his or her work programme. The people involved in each work area have a clear sense of the agreed appetite for risk and make decisions with this understanding. In the regular review of risk, actions are often moved from committee to committee in order to get input from different organisational perspectives (financial, governance, development), as this can elicit different treatments.

The BSUK Board will annually review its entire Risk Register and agree the priority risks to be managed and reported on over the year ahead so that items do not lie dormant in between. As a risk changes in terms of likelihood or impact, this is reported to the Board and discussed.

Development Risk Management

In order to best manage the outcomes and targets that BSUK is committed to delivering, robust mechanisms of capturing data and effect have been put in place for all development work (see here). The process of check and challenge is constant and allows us to recognise any risk to success as early as possible.

Embedding these monitoring and evaluation processes (see here) has developed over the current cycle and is now an integral part of development work. Where a risk to successful delivery is identified we are able to be efficient in putting recovery plans in place. Due to our having a flexible and multi-skilled development staff, we can be agile and efficient in making changes to focus in order to address a risk of under-delivering.

The BSUK Board Development Strategy Committee which meets 8 times each year has ownership of the monitoring and evaluating process and critically interrogates all information provided on a quarterly basis. This has ensured that any issues in delivery are identified quickly and that recovery plans are carefully scrutinised. This mechanism has ensured that BSUK is proactive about possible risk, rather than reactive once a risk has materialised.


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Section 3: Market Context

Overview of baseball and softball: click here.

Who Plays Our Sports?

BSUK Target Audience

Baseball and softball are two sports that are still relatively new to the UK sporting landscape. However, what we know about our sports and our development programmes, matched with key market segmentation data from Sport England, allows us to draw a clearer picture of exactly who we are pitching baseball and softball to. Given the mixed-gender nature of slowpitch softball and the fact that baseball and fastpitch softball tend to be made up of male and female participants respectively, there is a broad mix of people who fall under the BSUK 'audience'. In consulting key data and research, there are a number of profiles and trends which we think match up with what we offer. This includes groups such as students within the college or university setting who are looking for a new recreational activity such as softball to take up and try. For some, predominantly the baseball societies formed at universities, this tends to be international students familiar with the sport from their home country upbringing, or lapsed cricketers.

Similarly, once outside the FE and HE setting, recent graduates who fall under the 'Ben' and 'Chloe' profiles of Sport England's Market Segmentation very much want to extend their university experience, and socialising through sport makes them a key group. In the main, this is due to the mixed-gender nature of slowpitch softball and the social scene that goes with it. This group incorporates a range of profiles but with similar trends threaded through them, such as a desire to play sport for enjoyment's sake, to meet new friends and as a release from working lives. Many members of SUK's audience like to be part of a club and so fit well with club development programmes and membership, following on from the team league play they experienced through Hit the Pitch programmes either at college, university or in the workplace.

Therefore, the main age groupings for our sports would be:

Segments 1-4 (18-25 year olds)


And to a lesser extent but still relevant for corporate/charity and new adult activity:


Moreover, looking at the map of market segmentation by population, one can see that around large cities – for example in London, Birmingham and Manchester, which are all key locations within our four focus regions – the key groups are represented in force . The nature of their work and lifestyle reflects their large city environment and they are a major audience for BSUK's adult corporate and leisure centre activity . This is not to say that programmes should not be run in less urbanised areas, but larger cities and areas of population do lend themselves to BSUK's main offers.


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Ethnicity Demographic by Market Segments

From the table below one can see a clear similarity between the current baseball and softball playing population and the Sport England profiles that match most closely with the sports and with BSUK development programmes. It should be noted that the ethnicity percentages of BSUK participants was taken from 1728 respondents who undertook the survey. This is a only a proportion of the total playing number in the UK but is sufficient to reflect the whole. A focus on these profiles should be made to sustain and continue the growth of baseball and softball in the UK.

Market Segment White British Other White Asian /

Asian British Irish Heritage

Black / Black British

Chinese Other

Ben 74% 12% 7% 5% 1% 1% 1%

Jamie 60% 15% 14% 5% 2% 1% 2%

Chloe 75% 12% 6% 5% 2% 1% 2%

Helena 76% 11% 5% 6% 1% 1% 1%

Tim 77% 10% 6% 5% 1% 1% 1%

Alison 78% 9% 5% 6% 1% 1% 1%

Philip 82% 7% 4% 6% 1% 1% 1%

Elaine 83% 7% 3% 6% 1% 1% 1%

Segments Average 76% 10% 6% 6% 1% 1% 1%

BSUK Average 68% 22% 3% 2% 2% 1% 2%


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Why Do People Play Our Sports?

Insight From 2009-13

Baseball and softball have a wide appeal and many people find them interesting and enjoyable to play. Softball is predominantly played as a mixed sport, with five men and five women on a team. This lends itself to a fun and social sporting experience. Both sports appeal to people who enjoy team environments and the experience of competing as part of a wider group, with shared and common outlooks. As a recreation activity, the feeling of belonging to a wider group of people adds a dimension to the sporting activity that many find compelling. While the added commitment might be more of a complication for some, the fact that there is a commitment to a common team outcome presents as an additional motivation for taking part.

As sports best enjoyed outdoors, there is an appeal to having an outdoor activity where players can enjoy the fresh air and make the most of the summer months.

Both sports are both relatively easy to learn, but complex enough to present a challenge, and can take a lifetime to master. Slowpitch softball, already modified to offer an easier and more enjoyable playing experience for the whole team, has easier entry points and lends itself more to those who are looking for a sporting outlet that doesn't require previous experience or a great deal of skill. Baseball lends itself better to the serious sports person.

Barriers – such as accessing and paying for equipment and the know-how to form and run a team – can be mitigated by quality hands-on support. Where this is offered, there is an appetite to play and perhaps surprisingly also to volunteer to organise the activity for friends or colleagues. BSUK has been very successful at offering this close support and has reaped rewards (in terms of new teams) by doing so.

Unlike more traditional sports, baseball and, even more so softball, do not present themselves as sports best suited to one type of person or another and are not limited by preconceived ideas of who might play. This makes the sports much more welcoming to people from all walks of life and more likely to be taken up by people from a myriad of backgrounds. Softball, in particular, is a welcoming and friendly place for LGBT players, as well as a great equaliser for people from different socio-economic backgrounds. Chief Executives and high-earning bankers play alongside unemployed, students and people from less affluent backgrounds and upbringing, without reference or issue. Moreover, both sports, with a strong brand identity linked to Major League Baseball and to common references in American culture, are seen as cool options to play by many – particularly teenagers and early adults.

For many, interest in the sports has been sparked overseas. The demographic data below – specifically the high percentage of White Other players – indicates that a lot of people from Antipodean, Commonwealth, American and South African backgrounds find the sports appealing. This is due to a combination of exposure to the sports in their home countries and their social appeal.

Additional motivations have materialised in the last few years. There has been a boom in players who begin their involvement with the sports through activities designed to raise funds for charities. Other reasons why people take part are to grow their status within a company, build stronger work relationships, network and meet others from similar industries. This is reflected by the boom in industry leagues in the Charity sector, Advertising, Publishing, Banking, Law, the Public Sector and the Emergency Services. For some, often women, they play because their workplace team needs women to make up team numbers or just to be a part of the wider team activity.

For some, playing is a chance to live the dream of playing in the Major Leagues.


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Demand for Our Sports

Finding people interested in playing the sports does not tend to present itself as a significant challenge. The sports are appealing enough to be of interest to a wide range of people, far wider than the sports' infrastructures can handle. When we have widely promoted the sport, such as through our Play Ball! With Frubes Roadshows and MLB's Fan Fest festivals in major UK cities, there has often been overwhelming interest expressed, which has driven hundreds of new participants to local organisations. This means that the bigger issue for our sports is to create an infrastructure of clubs and leagues that are able to cope with such levels of demand. It is our belief that building this structure – and extending it to new places – is the best way of growing participation in our sports.

Demand can be broken down into four broad categories:

1. Those who do or have played the sports.

2. Those who are aware of the sports (usually baseball fans), who would be open to playing opportunities.

3. Those who have some awareness that the sports exist (often through seeing a baseball game in another country), but haven't yet considered playing.

4. Those who have little to no awareness of the sports and have not yet considered playing.

“Latent demand” covers items 2 and 3, whereby people recognise that they might play if they had the opportunity. However, the majority of our new and potential new participants probably sit in the fourth category – they don't yet know that they will want to play the sport(s).


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How Do People Find Our Sports?

Baseball Softball

Have a familiarity through exposure in other countries or on television in the UK and found it after internet or local search.

Word of mouth, including through a friend.

Saw a game being played and was interested.

Saw a notice about beginner or taster sessions.

Have played it from young, or played softball at school (74% of secondary schools play softball).

Found it at college or university (growing area).

Through a local session or taster activity.

Moved to a new city and found it as a new social activity.

Want to try a new sport or try something new. This includes people who have left or don't like cricket but are looking for a similar sport.

Joined a company that has a team.

Have a familiarity through exposure in other countries and found it after internet or local search. Perhaps have seen baseball on television in the UK.


Saw a game being played and was interested. This includes seeing it played in an open urban venue such as Regents Park.


Have played it from young, or at school (74% of secondary schools play softball).



Found it through new social sports environments (such as Go Mammoth).

Moved to a new city and found it as a new social activity and as a place to meet new people.

Want to try a new sport or try something new.

Are a part of a multi-sport club, like hockey or rugby, that offers summer softball. This includes teams formed by teams or groups of people from other sports.


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How Do People Participate in Our Sports?

Like cricket and rounders, our sports are played predominantly in the summer months, by people who participate in teams that play at least once a week. Often, teams play more regularly. Softball teams often take part in weekend (one-day or two-day) tournaments in addition to their weekday league play. Baseball teams, which typically play on one day of a weekend, also encourage players to attend one or two weekday practice sessions. There is some winter play. Baseball either continues to practice indoors throughout the winter or starts soon after the new year. Softball has a number of organised tournaments and leagues that play a modified indoor version of the sport that is fast, active and fun. This is played by a smaller, but growing, community of players. The participation model for baseball and softball is reflected in the adjacent graph.

There is quite a lot of sporadic playing of the sports. Quite often, teams form – mostly from companies – to play once or twice a year and BSUK offers support for these company days (and charges for them). In 2010, over 80 individual softball days were run for companies in London alone, with other leagues across the country running similar events. As these individual days do not count in our internal measurement systems, no developmental resources are directed towards them and they are regarded for the most part as a commercial activity for BSUK. However, some efforts have been made from these days to encourage teams to form and join leagues and players to take up the sport more regularly. Very few players play all year round but not weekly.


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The Appeal of Slowpitch Softball

Where many other sports are having to create modifications that make them easier to access, our sports have already made this modification. From roots in baseball and competitive fastpitch softball came the most popular format of our two sports in the UK – slowpitch softball – usually played as a mixed sport with equal numbers of male and female players. Since being introduced over three decades ago, slowpitch softball has grown from being a niche pick-up game played in London's Hyde Park to a fully-fledged sport, with over 300 teams in London and 650 teams across the country. The popularity of slowpitch softball comes from the fact that the game can be played in every park, with lines marked out and bases put down in a space of approximately two football pitches. And the format is particularly conducive to busy urban lives, with the majority of games played in 60-90 minutes during weekday evenings. This makes slowpitch softball a great option for many types of people who find it an appealing mix of social and sporting activity.

Our Influence and Reach into the Market

BaseballSoftballUK Ltd (BSUK) is the development agency for the two sports. Our primary relationships within the sports are with the main organising bodies: baseball clubs and softball leagues. We form the conduit by which most clubs and leagues partner with the broader sporting world, including national and local sport agencies and international governing bodies. Our development staff communicate directly with leagues and clubs via our Point Person system. BSUK partners with companies, charities, local authorities, County Sports Partnerships and the educational environment (HEI, FEI and schools) to build participation and profile for British baseball and softball. BSUK’s key internal stakeholders are:

The British Baseball Federation (BBF) and British Softball Federation (BSF), the two National Governing Bodies and membership societies that organise and regulate the nation’s domestic baseball and softball competitions – the British baseball leagues and British softball leagues and tournaments.

Slowpitch Softball is an easy-to-access sport, played mostly in parks for up to an hour-and-a-half on weekday evenings by men and women playing together. For many, it is the perfect mix of a low-commitment sporting activity and social outing.


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The volunteer workforce via direct support to clubs and leagues.

Coaches through the BSUK Coach Education Programme.

Players through clinics and BSUK's Academy Baseball and Academy Softball programmes.

The levels of influence BSUK has in our sports are strong. In the 2009-13 cycle, club- and league-focused work, whereby a development member of staff has been allocated to work with every baseball club and softball league – the key organising structures for the respective sports – means that there is a track record of development influence from BSUK and the two federations on baseball clubs or softball leagues, carrying through to the teams and the players that make them up. In addition, there are relationships that exist with many independent leagues and teams playing in structures that we don't work with directly through other means such as facility provision and management – for example, in Regents Park. Our data, which analyses all known baseball and softball teams in existence, gives us confidence that we have a good understanding of the playing population in this country and the ability to understand our influence on it.

Contact with Participants

Most clubs and leagues affiliate to either of the two Federations and are communicated with regularly. The community has a strong on-line presence and participants are in regular contact with either BSUK or their respective Federation through email, by engaging with our suite of websites (one for BSUK, one for the British Softball Federation and one for the British Baseball Federation), through our strong presence on Twitter and Facebook, through push news notifications and in person through Federation volunteers or BSUK staff members.

Through our Point Person system, whereby a member of staff works directly with every baseball club or softball league, there is regular contact (not less than every two months) between a staff member and those organisations. This has led to a strong presence, a clarity of purpose for the organisations and a clear route for feedback. Over the last four years, through this Club-Centred approach and through the work of BSUK Point People, relationships with clubs and leagues and with the players that comprise them have become strong, positive and vibrant.

Through our tournament offer in the 2009-13 period, we have enhanced relationships with league-based and independent softball tournament organisers by offering support in the form of facility development, equipment loans and tournament organisation standards.

Through the development of new opportunities to play, BSUK has maintained a firm handle on the experience of those taking part in our sports for the first time. Very few examples exist of structures offering new playing opportunities that do not include the direct involvement of a BSUK staff member and this gives us direct influence over the experience of new participants across the country.

Where a league exists that does not affiliate to one of the Federations, BSUK has made efforts to support their development and enhance their playing offer, usually with the end in mind of encouraging full affiliation as part of the natural growth process and long-term sustainability of that organisation. Taking this approach of not limiting our development support to affiliated members has helped us build relationships and influence in new and emerging markets, such as the rapidly-growing London Charity Softball League.


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Contact with deliverers of our sports

BSUK has built relationships with key deliverers of our sports and we have worked closely to enhance and steer delivery with a number of bodies such as:

Local Authorities and education institutions who make their facilities available for hire by the sports. We have worked with a number of such organisations to develop their facilities so they are more appropriate to the sports and to open up additional use of their facilities, often for our new development programming. Where relevant, we have provided advice on maintenance, upkeep and rates of hire.

The Royal Parks, working to provide as tailored and effective a provision of softball facilities to the London playing community as possible.

Go Mammoth, a new virtual social sports club set up in London. Partnership with Go Mammoth has given us another means to introduce softball to new audiences, particularly consisting of new-to-London young working professionals.

Retention of Participants

There are a number of ways through which our sports retain current regular participation, including some routes supported directly by BSUK staff. The most significant reasons why people continue to play the sports through life changes are:

Belonging to a team or club. The team aspect – specifically being part of a group of players with whom friendships have been formed – means that there is an extra motivation to stay involved in the sports. Sometimes, when friendships are broken or there are fall-outs, this might result in a negative impact, but this is rare and often these players find other teams to play with, replacing one group with another. People who like a sense of belonging are likely to want to find alternative options should their current environment break down. Team involvement as a motivation presents itself slightly more strongly for people who have experienced team involvement in other sports and / or other countries.

Belonging to the wider baseball or softball community. There is a strong sense of community in both sports, but particularly in softball. Strong friendships are formed with players in other teams and, though a vibrant social community, made stronger through weekend tournaments away, motivating people to keep up these friendships and stay in the sports. There are a number of examples of people who travel from other countries to continue to be a part of the sports and to maintain their involvement despite the cost and effort. For many, belonging to a wider community is a high motivation for continued involvement.

These drivers manifest themselves in many ways, including, for those who played at university, as a way of staying in touch with university friends (some continue to play with their university group for years after graduation). Former employees of a company may continue to play on the company team after they've moved on (many of the corporate leagues in London allow for former employees to be counted as legitimate players for their old company). People whose other life commitments take priority still continue to be involved on a more ad hoc basis with their old team.

“Cell division”, whereby a team splinters and forms a new break-away team, has been one of the significant features of growth within the sports. This is seen regularly in softball and now more often in baseball. Sometimes, the breakaway comes from a few players on the original team wanting to organise their own activity, sparked by a personal desire to play a formative organising role. Sometimes, this can just be down to wanting to provide an environment that can offer the breakaway players more appropriate playing opportunities.


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BSUK communicates well with players who are about to experience life changes and acts as a point of continuity for recently lapsed and ready-to-return players. However, more work is planned to develop this understanding, identifying players who are about to move town, move job or set up a family, and offer appropriate alternative forms of play should they want them. Players in both sports are required – most comply to this requirement – to register themselves on their respective sport's website. Player registrations systems exist on www.britishbaseball.org and www.britishsoftball.org and there is a plan to collect improved information about participants' jobs and life habits. Year-to-year playing habits (through team memberships and through tracked performance in the sports) will also be analysed and players who are lapsed or changing their playing habits will be communicated with in an appropriate fashion. BSUK staff will also work with clubs and leagues to ensure that appropriate playing solutions are offered for those who are no longer able to make the same time commitment to the sports as their life priorities change.

Where the sports experience overcrowding – such as when a team recruits too many players or a club or league runs out of capacity to house all the players that are interested – BSUK provides regular and hands-on support for that organisation to extend its infrastructure to accommodate the interest. Where this isn't possible, alternatives are sought, such as directing excess players to alternative playing options (most applicable in London and Manchester) or encouraging teams to be formed by these excess individuals, with support and tools offered by BSUK staff to achieve this goal and to ease the process of becoming an organising volunteer and player.

Internal measures – such as tracking the number of teams playing the sports, referenced elsewhere in this document – monitors the overall health of the sport and players can be tracked with a reasonable level of depth and continuity through online player registration systems. While there is a small amount of transference of existing players into new development teams, this is mostly to do with changing lifestyles or the offering of a more appropriate experience. In counting the number of teams, there is a criteria that the team can't be made up of more than a few players who play in multiple teams in order to be counted. This is our means of ensuring that, in counting the number of teams, we obtain a reasonably true reflection of participation numbers.

One of the negative drivers that affects retention in slowpitch softball is having enough women to form a team. With 42% of the softball community being female in a sport where the rules require 50:50 participation, female players can make or break teams. If a team finds difficulty retaining or recruiting enough women, this presents a critical threat to its continued existence. This issue is felt most within corporate teams, but is also experienced elsewhere.

BSUK tackles this issue pro-actively by taking three approaches. First, by offering male-only playing opportunities through our single-sex tournaments. Teams can access this format on a number of occasions during the season in the form of one-day and two-day tournaments. Second, by promoting the recruitment and development of women. Sometimes, women may feel less inclined to participate because they do not feel their skills are sufficient and they might be seen as letting their team down. This is countered by offering women-only development sessions for existing and new players. Third, BSUK believes that it is important to enforce our value of genuinely co-ed participation. The rules of co-ed slowpitch softball require teams to have five men and five women on the field at any one time, but some corporate leagues adjust this rule to respond to female recruitment problems. We do not believe that this is a sound approach and we will work closely with these leagues to help them understand that this adjustment creates a less appealing environment for female participation and undermines the genuinely co-ed nature of the sport. It creates a vicious cycle whereby women are less likely to be involved and teams are less motivated to recruit or provide an environment where women are treated as equal and are valued. There is a long-standing belief in British slowpitch softball that the men on opposing teams tend to cancel each other out and that the women – not the men – define the strength of the team. We believe that this approach is conducive to retaining and strengthening softball in this country.

http://www.britishbaseball.org/

http://www.britishsoftball.org/


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Becoming Regular Participants

As outlined above (in How Do People Participate in Our Sports?), the majority of people who participate in baseball and softball do so on a weekly basis through the season. There are some people who take part in the sports less regularly – such as once a year at a company softball day or a social event – but the majority of people in our sports do participate regularly. In our proxy measure that monitors the number of teams, teams may only be counted if they play on a minimum of six occasions. This, for us, is a marker to define legitimate teams and there is an assumption that there will be additional practice and play dates in addition to those six occasions.

BSUK has worked with the Federations to encourage teams to extend the regularity of their participation in the sports, by creating and promoting weekend tournament playing opportunities for those teams and players who only take part once during the week in league play. Tournaments are, we believe, an experience that people enjoy and that helps teams to bond socially and become more sustainable. Specific efforts have been and will continue to be made to encourage teams forming within Higher and Further Education environments to take up tournament play within existing competition structures; our experience to date has shown that this is more likely to lead people to become lifetime members of the softball community. In baseball, BSUK has supported new formats such as Spring and Fall Leagues, and promoted localised mid-week league play, to supplement the standard home-and-away weekend competition.

Why People Leave The Sports

For more information about the types of people who play the sports and why they might leave, please click here.

The most common reasons people leave baseball and softball are listed below. Except for a tendency for baseball players to move to softball, the reasons are generic and would likely apply to all sports. However, even if generic, it has still been productive to consider how we can plan to mitigate against this . There are a number of reasons that retention or a return to our sports is fairly high. The team and community dynamic is very strong in our sports and means that players who live generally maintain ties to the sport and therefore re-engage more easily.

While issues around work (longer hours, change of job, etc) are universally common, two things mitigate against players leaving the sport. The first is that softball particularly is ‘portable’. There is evidence to suggest that people who play in company based teams will often seek to start a team at a new company when they change jobs both because they enjoy it, and because softball has been an effective networking vehicle. Secondly, the majority of softball played (midweek, local to work) has been designed to fit people who work long hours.

It should also be noted that both baseball and softball are sports that are relatively easy to return to after a gap due to pregnancy or injury as it is possible to play at an appropriate level, and to contribute effectively, even when fitness is reduced.

As stated above, as the team dynamic is key to retaining people in the sports, this is the basis of each of our growth programmes. Additionally, much of our work in New Adult Structures is geared around the workplace, or is set up to work for people with limited free time, and should therefore help to counteract the reasons that people leave sport generally.


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Baseball Why do people leave the sports?

Commitment levels take a toll.

Fed up with the organisation or structure of the sport.

Move city.

Change of life priorities.

Have a baby / set up a family (usually a brief break).

Job commitments – long working hours.

Injury / age.

Their team folds.

What do they do when they stop playing?

Move to softball.

Go into coaching or administration.

Find another sport.

Find another team.

Other activities.

Softball Why do people leave the sports?

Change company.

Move city.




Injury / age.

Their team folds.


Find another sport.

Other activities.

Find another team.

Not many go into administration or coaching.


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Opportunity and Potential

The potential and opportunities available within the next four years are made up of a combination of the elements of our sports – our strengths and weaknesses – and the ability of BSUK to influence positive change within the sports. As discussed above, BSUK is in a strong position to affect change, by supporting the Federations to offer strong playing opportunities nationally, by working directly with clubs and leagues to develop the sports' offer and by building strong new partnerships that lead to new playing organisations being set up.

Our sports are very relevant to the modern landscape. Slowpitch softball, in particular, offers a well-developed social sport that can be played in just about any park, with minimal equipment and no prior experience required. Softball – now very well established in the country with over 650 teams playing each summer – is our modified social sports offer. With the challenges of modern life, we think that ours are sports that many people will choose to play, even if they don't currently know the sports are played here. As we have a strong playing offer for a wide range of men and women, we believe there is an opportunity to extend what we offer into new or developing areas of work. Some of these opportunities include:

New places. The sports aren't currently played in as many towns or cities as we would expect. This means that there are a significant number of urban and suburban populations which, based on our experience in other parts of the country, are likely to respond well to the sports being offered.

New sectors. The charity sector is an emerging market for us. Since 2009, the majority of slowpitch softball growth has been in this sector, with a new league of 72 charity sector teams in London and a charity / company league formed by Wickes Homestores to raise funds for their charity of the year, Leukaemia Lymphoma Research. Softball is being offered as fundraising activity by Mencap and we believe that there are strong opportunities to further develop this work to create more charity teams and to harness charity work with companies to form new company teams.

Extending entry points. There are few mixed-team sport options within universities and we believe we have a strong offer to make to students who are often keen to try something new. Our sports offer a chance for people – or groups of people – to come together, play sport, get fresh air and socialise. Continuing to develop our university offer will, we believe, lead to more people joining softball at a younger age. For baseball, a sport that is more dependent on previous experience, we can provide an entry point to appeal to men, in particular, who either don't like or used to play cricket.

The LGBT community. Softball, in particular, is a friendly environment, open, inclusive and sensitive to the challenges faced by LGBT people. The largest softball club in the country is the Rainbow Raiders, a strong sporting organisation within the London LGBT community, and there has been successful work with other LGBT organisations in Manchester and Brighton to form new teams or to encourage people to join existing teams.

Our sports are well placed to give a wide range of harder-to-reach people a chance to choose a sporty lifestyle and we have a strong tradition of appropriate modification to meet the challenges of modern life. While the profile of the sports in this country means that there is little explicit latent demand, we believe the sports offer something for nearly everyone. The real opportunity within the next four years is to extend our sports to reach new audiences.


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Challenges

The process of setting our long-term vision, reviewing our impact over the current funding cycle and assessing where we want to go in the next cycle, has required critical analysis of the challenges that might prevent us reaching our goals. In the course of this analysis we have looked carefully at both the internal and external obstacles to success and considered how these can be addressed or mitigated.

Internal - Organisation

Since the creation of BSUK in 2000 our key strength has been the high rate of return on the investment into our sports. This has fundamentally been achieved through our decision to invest primarily in staff, and specifically staff who can deliver across multiple programmes and areas of work. This has allowed us to be flexible and respond to strategic changes. However, our relatively limited resources have required that we have a lean staff structure with too few staff to deliver against challenging targets without regularly over-stretching our workforce. Additionally, when unforeseen circumstances occur that impact on our staff resource, we are ill-equipped to respond.

Limited resources have also meant that we are not able to pay market rates to bring in much-needed expertise in certain areas such as commercial, business development, marketing, legal and high-level coaching. We lack the resources to effectively develop our workforce or pay competitive rates to retain staff. At times we have difficult decisions to make about whether to invest in vital shared services or to buy into development work on the ground.

Since 2000 BSUK staff have operated either from our head office in London, from their homes or occasionally from local office resource provided through CSPs. BSUK's head office space is rented from Major League Baseball at a highly subsidised rate. Currently, seven BSUK staff work in a space originally designed for five people, and additional staff are required to deliver against our 2013-17 strategy, so there is a clear need for additional office provision.

Internal - Governance

Governance and organisational systems are a real strength of BSUK. In recent years a great deal of focus has been put into this area to ensure that BSUK is a well-governed, effective and transparent organisation. There is still work to be done to ensure that we continue to progress, and a key challenge to this progression is our governance structure. BSUK functions as the development agency for the British Baseball and Softball Federations and the three organisations work in partnership. Both Federations require significant work to address their governance and improve their systems and processes. This work will not be accomplished by the volunteer Boards themselves, and has continued to be beyond the capacity of BSUK to manage. Because of the symbiotic nature of the three organisations this issue is now impacting on BSUK's effectiveness. BSUK's agreed mission to increase participation by (among other things) building a quality infrastructure is challenged by our lack of resource to make necessary strides in this area.

Internal - Baseball and Softball Infrastructure

All of BSUK's offers to the market are underpinned by a need to develop facilities, quality coaches and stronger clubs and leagues. Much has been achieved to date through capital investment and our focus on clubs and coaches in the current Whole Sport Plan. In order to deliver on our proposed 2013-17 strategy, there is work to be done to improve the facilities where people play, further develop clubs and deploy more suitably trained coaches to deliver on the ground.


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External - Profile

Raising profile has also been identified as a key factor in our mission to increase participation. Currently, this an area that presents us with many challenges related to our lack of expertise and resource. In order to deliver against our mission we have recognised that we need to be able to reach our target market more effectively to communicate the offer that is likely to bring more people into the sports. BSUK has made significant strides in this area, particularly capitalising on the effective use of social media and on-line communication tools, but in the next four-year period it is clear that we need to take our marketing approach to the next level.

Within our marketing strategy we have identified the value of events in raising profile. Additionally, staff at BSUK always consider opportunities to build on any investment. In the 2009-13 period we have received capital investment to enable us to develop a dedicated site for baseball and softball at Farnham Park in South Buckinghamshire. It is our intention to capitalise on this investment by staging a high-profile event in 2013 which ties in with our marketing strategy. Relative to larger sports' events, the scale of our event will be relatively modest, but it will serve to raise awareness of our sports and highlight opportunities. This is not something we can drive forward without additional investment.

External - Sports Sector

A number of external obstacles to success have been highlighted in our planning and consultation work. One of these is our place in the sporting landscape. In order to access opportunities and effectively communicate our sporting offers in a crowded marketplace, we need to maintain a strong engagement across the sports network.

There are a number of sports that operate in the same territory – summer, seasonal, played in park – and in order to reach the consumers to whom our offers will directly appeal we need to be able market ourselves effectively. We are obviously out-matched in competing with large traditional sports such as cricket, and so need to stake our claim against other modern summer sports such as touch rugby and ultimate frisbee.

We suffer from having limited facilities, which means that we have little or no community presence in most locations. As a primarily urban sport, we often struggle to have sufficient playing provision. An example would be Regents Park, where over 100 slowpitch softball teams are based and where over 70 games are played each week. Each of the leagues that use the park could add teams but are prevented from doing so by the lack of additional space and no viable alternatives.

Additionally, the softball season is artificially constrained to running from May-August only because in most places where the game is played, the alternating winter sport is football, which is generally given absolute priority.

External - Environmental

A number of the remaining challenges that we have identified are not confined to our sports, but still require us to plan for them. Lifestyle changes such as longer working hours, home working and recession need to be factored in to our offers to our target consumers. As summer sports, baseball and softball are also subject to the vagaries of British weather. This would be more easily mitigated if we had the freedom to extend our season through greater access to facilities.


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BSUK's Pen Portraits

As part of our understanding the market context, we have gone through an exercise of capturing a description of the types of people that most regularly participate in our sports, which we are calling Pen Portraits. These portraits are a condensed version of the intelligence gathered from our regional staff based on their direct experience of working with participants.

This simple summary of the type of participant most likely to engage with baseball and softball has been an effective mechanism for ensuring that our programmes are designed with the pen portrait understanding at the centre. In the 2009-13 cycle to some extend form followed function in that we made certain assumptions about the type of person we were trying to reach. Now at the end of the cycle we have been able to test out our assumptions and change our approach where necessary.

It should be noted that our assumptions and our testing of these did not differ significantly which has meant that our 2013-17 plan has really been a continuation of our work in the previous cycle with some minor adjustments.

Click here for Sport England Market Segements and BSUK Programmes analysis.


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Section 4: Programmes

Introduction to Growth

BSUK has made the majority of its day job over the 2009-13 funding cycle the growth of the sports, resulting in the largest growth spurt that baseball and softball have enjoyed in many years. Much of the planned activity has been based on already-established work practices and approaches and a developing understanding of how to influence growth across the country.

Our plans to achieve our growth targets are based on our market understanding of which type of people are likely to play our sports (as described in the Pen Portraits above), and our programmes are based on our interpretation of how best to reach these people. Underpinning this, our marketing and communications strategy is directed at reaching these people and making our offers accesible.

In order to influence growth, a conscious and calculated decision has been taken to monitor and evaluate our efforts based on the number of teams playing the sports. While it is not an exact science to then work out the number of participants, it is a strong health-of-the-sports' participation indicator.

Teams are the primary form of groupings of players.

Teams can be formed within existing leagues or clubs, but can also be in more informal structures. We count all existing teams, whether affiliated or not, formal and informal.

Looking at participation within teams means that we know that members of that team are likely – but not guaranteed – to play regularly, in line with common playing activities that we've identified across teams. With a few minor examples, the number of teams closely reflects the number of people playing and monitoring this means that we have a firm handle on how many people are playing regularly.

Our sports are team sports and many people start and continue to play because of their team mates and organisers. When someone leaves, the team is motivated to either replace them or continue to be in touch with

New Areas of Work

Talent The purpose of our bid for Talent funding is to be able to provide a seamless progression from community sport to the talent pathway that allows athletes to reach their full potential at whatever level they can attain. is This a vital area of work for retaining athletes within our sports and is currently a critical gap in our sports' provision. This gap works against our being able to operate as we should as part of high-level credible international sports. The inclusion of this area will lead to more talented athlete, working regularly with better coaches and reaching their full potential.

Governance As BSUK and the Federations work in partnership it is of critical importance that all three organisations have effective governance. Currently, the Federations lag behind BSUK in this area. As good governance is an essential component of the sustainable development of sport it is imperative that we support the Federations in developing into professional, strategically focused and transparent organisations.

Seasonal Coaching Expertise

In order to develop our talent development pathway and to create more qualified coaches, we need to be able to bring in high-level coaching expertise on a short-term seasonal basis. The focus of our current staff provision does not allow for this need to be met through staff resource.

The London Baseball and Softball Week

The plan to stage a week-long event at the newly-developed Farnham Park and Milton Keynes baseball and softball facilities forms part of our marketing strategy for raising our profile and allows us to reap additional value from our facilities investment.

Venue-based hubs

Building on the facility investment BSUK received in 2009-1,3 we plan to use the newly established sites at Farnham Park and Milton Keynes to develop strong local links and local community play at hub sites.

Up-scaling charity work

Building on effective work in the charity sector in 2009-13, we are seeking to further develop our offer to this sector to significantly increase participation. Built on a concept of large-scale national companies raising funds for charitable donation through playing softball, we plan to roll out this work on a bigger scale in 2013-17.

New disability work

PLANNED FOR LATER

BSUK plans to begin working with relevant equality partners to develop an offer for people with learning difficulties with the aim of these participants joining existing competition structures. This focus is based on our market understanding that there are limited sporting opportunities for people with learning difficulties. This work is planned for later in the cycle.


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them. Monitoring teams also means that there is a mechanism for mitigating against drop-out.

We can extrapolate out the average number of team members using our on-line registration mechanisms and thereby work out the number of players playing within these environments.

This means that the number of teams is what really matters to us in terms of the health of the sports. Applying an above the line / below the line model, we can place above the line the element most important to us in terms of growth – i.e. the number of regularly playing, organised teams. We draw the line at a minimum, whereby a team needs to play on at least six occasions, have an identity, collect some kind of fee / contribution and have a designated organiser. Activity that does not qualify for this can be seen as 'below the line' and therefore a mechanism for increasing participation, but not an increase in its own right.

The most difficult element of this model is finding ways to move activity from below the line to above it – in essence building the infrastructure in which people can play regularly and making sure that they are doing so. Marketing underpins the work below the line, speaking to people who might want to play our sports. Communications runs through all that we do, helping people above and below the line understand what is on offer and how it relates to them.


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How We Plan to Grow

Growth work needs to remain flexible and responsive to a wide range of people in a rapidly changing landscape of personal habits, interests and competing pulls on people's available time. Our sports have grown up both in this country and internationally by being highly adaptive and responsive. We believe – and have outlined above – that there are opportunities to extend our entry points to the sports to university and college age students, to develop more adult leagues (particularly in softball), to increase the number of teams operating within baseball clubs and softball leagues and to increase the number of young people playing in community settings.

We have some strongholds in the sports where both baseball and softball are played. Previous prioritisation of these areas, in order to develop from a firm base of people – and therefore workforce – will continue. Our current four priority regions of London, the South East, the North West and the Midlands will continue. We believe there is an opportunity to extend into the M4 West and Yorkshire areas, capitalising in the same way we have to date on an existing base of play. With the creation of our two new dedicated facilities in Milton Keynes and Farnham Park, both in Buckinghamshire, we will prioritise these two areas – which we are calling Epicentres, for want of a better phrase. Epicentres are, for us, facility-led hubs of activity, where we will encourage an extended range of play using all the tools and relationships available to us.

We will continue with our club- and league-centred services, begun in the 2009-13 period, whereby we work regularly with each of the organising structures in our sports – in baseball with clubs and in softball with leagues – to develop the quality of their organisations and the quantity of teams within them. This service will be offered to all clubs or leagues regardless of whether they are in a priority area or not. However, sometimes this will mean that a staff member is not within easy reach, something which we will work hard to mitigate where possible.

Another key feature of our plan is to concentrate our efforts on the workforce – mostly volunteer – that is responsible for the delivery of our sports. Having an appropriately-sized and skilled workforce is vital to us, especially as we are sports continually fighting to be more established in this country, which is our single biggest challenge in terms of growth. The workforce has the largest impact on the quality of our delivery, recruitment and retention and the participant experience. Perhaps surprisingly, we do not have problems recruiting players – our sports offer interesting and exciting playing opportunities that appeal to far more people in any given area than we could handle (should our marketing reach them all). Our biggest challenge is building quality structures in which those people can play. It is in new growth areas, where the workforce is light, that we have the biggest challenges to forming new teams.


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Strategic Approach to Areas of Growth

Our approach to development is to work from the strongholds of the sports, concentrating development around existing clubs and leagues, thereby making use of existing workforces and local playing areas. This approach has proved successful in the current cycle, where outcomes have been easier to deliver when we have been able to use people already involved in the sports to grow new teams.

Our sports are well suited to centres of population such as cities and larger tows. Our intention to harness this is reflected in our longer-term strategy, where we intend to build up from the three main cities in England: London, where the majority of our playing base is; Manchester, our second main city in terms of baseball and softball play; and Birmingham, where we feel there is potential for significant growth. Working out from these areas, connecting activity along the main motorways, will be the key approach to our regional prioritisation over the next four years.

The charts (adjacent) show where our hotspots have developed over the last four years and where we intend for the sports to grow. New focus areas in the M4 West region and Yorkshire will pick up opportunities presented by conditions that are similar to our other priority areas. The Bristol area has developed well in the 2009-13 period, with stronger and more active baseball and softball organisations taking a pro-active role in the area's wider development. Bristol, home to over 40 softball teams, is the largest softball community in a city other than London. The formation of a new baseball club in Bristol has seen baseball returned to the city and the club is making great strides in terms of organisational structure and development outlook and reach. With adjacent new and embryonic programmes in nearby towns such as Swindon and Gloucester, the area is, in our opinion, ripe for new and significant growth.

Yorkshire also has potential to develop. From a strong, corporate-based softball league in Leeds to baseball clubs in Sheffield, Harrogate and the former home of British baseball in the Humber region, it presents a base from which growth can be achieved.

As of 2012

Planned Growth by 2017


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Regional / Local Focus (Epicentres)

Organising Idea

Develop three new hubs of development in Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire), Farnham Park (Buckinghamshire) and in the North West, offering a comprehensive range of new playing opportunities.

Insight

The Baseball and Softball Facilities Strategy 2011-17 has identified strategic priorities for baseball and softball centres. Two of these sites have been located and will be established by April 2013 – one in Milton Keynes and one at Farnham Park. A third strategic priority to have a centre in the North West of England will be established within the 2013-17 period. Located well for the existing playing community, these sites also present opportunities to develop strong local community play as hub sites. Each is located near a city where some play exists, but where there is strong potential to extend play opportunities. Milton Keynes is a key new development priority for BSUK due to its size, population demographics and proximity to London and the South East (where the majority of baseball and softball is played). Farnham Park, located close to Slough and to Aylesbury, presents the chance to create new playing opportunities for a diverse range of people.

Offers / Activity

Enhance facility development through Capital Investment:

o Provide bespoke staff support.

o Employ a new Regional Development post to lead development planning and partnership building, prioritising the two sites within Buckinghamshire.

Support local clubs to become developed, progressive and well-connected local community organisations:

o Use local club development plans as a starting point to create strong and example-setting club models through hands-on staff development activity.

Develop strong local partnerships:

o Work closely with Bucks Sport CSP, Berkshire Sport CSP, Milton Keynes Council, South Bucks District Council and Slough Town Council to develop strong local partnerships.

Set up local leagues with strong community and education links:

o Work with local businesses to develop new adult softball leagues, including corporates leagues and charity-based activity.

o Grow local Higher and Further Education play and use the site as a hub for as much activity as possible.

o Establish new Little Leagues on each site, reaching into local schools and youth groups, maximising doorstep sports club opportunities and activation programmes such as Sportivate.

http://baseballsoftballuk.com/document/bsuk-facilities-strategy


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Route to Market & Delivery – Who Will Do This?

BSUK staff will develop strong local partnerships, linking where appropriate to local clubs and ensuring the sites are used as hubs of activity.

CSPs, LAs, education institutions and companies will work in partnership to deliver a comprehensive sports development programme in each area.

Local volunteers and a workforce (not yet recruited) will be in place, delivering a high-quality participant-focused experience.

Outcomes

Established and well-recognised local community centres, offering playing opportunities for a wide range of new participants, playing in new community leagues.

A model of development for other clubs and new locations in the future.

When

Staff support in Buckinghamshire will be in place from April 2013 and will continue throughout the four-year cycle. Staff support in the North West will start in April 2014 and continue for the remaining three years.

Club development support (see Club) will continue throughout the cycle.

Local development plans, community link programme work with education institutions and the formation of Community Youth Leagues (14yrs +) will begin in April 2013 and continue throughout the four-year cycle.


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Relationships

Direct Delivery

BSUK has been developing a balance between influencing development and directly delivering it. The former relinquishes some control but is more likely to lead to longer-term sustainable involvement. Direct delivery is a more secure route to market and guarantees a level of quality provision and strong links to extended playing opportunities, but needs to be weighed against the resources it consumes. It is our intention to directly deliver only where this is necessary and based on sound development reasoning. This is most likely to be in delivering Hit the Pitch programming.

Clubs

A club- and league-centred approach to development has become a standard operating practice in BSUK's work. Placing the needs of clubs and leagues at the heart of our programming means that we have built strong relationships with the majority of baseball clubs and softball leagues, relationships that can be harnessed to develop participation in the sports and the necessary infrastructure improvements needed to handle such growth. It is our intention to work closely with clubs and leagues to understand what their potential is in terms of size and how to reach it.

Delivery Partners

County Sports Partnerships. We will continue to work closely with CSPs to develop a clear local understanding, maximise collaborative work, harness local economies of scale and build strong club-to-community links through the Sportivate programme. We will also work closely on supporting, educating and developing local workforces of volunteers and coaches.

Local Authorities. LAs are very important local partners and we will continue to work with them to identify common goals and to develop localised sports activity. We will collaborate on access to and enhancement of local facilities, promoting appropriate improvements to provision to ensure that the sports' needs are being met, while maximising revenue generated from local facilities.

Companies, Workplaces and Charities. We will work with workplaces to offer solutions to their community social responsibility, team building, staff development, healthier workplace and charity fundraising agendas. This means finding win-win scenarios where they are able to use regular participation in softball to meet their goals, supported by our development work.

Education Institutions – Higher, Further and Schools. We will work with education institutions to build baseball and softball into their offer for pupils and students, linking where possible to local clubs and leagues that can provide localised support and hands-on help. This will be achieved by understanding the role our sports can play in enhancing learning and helping students to be healthier and more socially acclimatised.

StreetGames. We will work with StreetGames and other national and local partners to develop strong offers for otherwise hard-to-reach younger groups of participants, working towards doorstep clubs and locally-owned playing structures.

Youth Sport Trust. We will continue to work with the YST to develop strong in-school provision, linked to local playing opportunities in clubs and leagues.


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Licensed Partners

There are none.

Suppliers

BSUK currently works with two or three suppliers to offer affordable and appropriate equipment and attire for our sports. We are in the process of reviewing these relationships to leverage greater commercial support from companies that are involved in the sports and to develop enhanced value from these partnerships.

Process Partners

BSUK collaborates with a number of Process Partners. These relationships add substantial insight to our work and, in many cases, provide valuable support to staff members and work programmes. Sport England continues to offer support through direct involvement in our Development Strategy Committee and our Facilities Steering Group. SportscoachUK works closely with our national coaching lead and has a representative on our Coaching Steering Group. Regular reviews are carried out with Sport England's Communities Directorate and key representatives from the County Sports Partnership Network to monitor and evaluate the relationship between BSUK and CSPs. We connect well with full-time Coaching Development Managers housed in CSPs through our on-staff Regional Coach and Club Development Officers. We work well with the Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation and feel that there is much potential in working collaboratively. Over the past year, relationships have been formed with a number of LGBT groups including Brighton Lesbian and Gay Sports Society (BLAGSS) and Pride Sports. We also work closely with the London Raiders Softball Club, our largest single club, made up exclusively of LGBT members.

Influencers

Charities

Workforce

Sponsors / Commercial

Companies

Suppliers – see above.

Added Value / In-Kind – MLB, Little League, product providers.


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Relationship Maps

Relationship Maps are a tool for identifying, prioritising and clarifying the roles BSUK plays with partners and other organisations.


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Programmes Overview

Growth - New Adult Structures

Growth - Existing Adult and Youth Structures

Growth - New Structures for Young People

England Talent Development

Activity Hit the Pitch

Workplace Leagues:

◦ Charity fundraising

◦ Industry leagues

◦ City corporate leagues

◦ Emergency Services Leagues

◦ Workplace Challenge

Education Institution leagues

New adult community leagues

Leagues at other sports' clubs Swing By Offer to Leisure Trusts, private providers.

Sustaining Participation Club-Centric Development:

Strong organisations.

Identify and offer critical support to clubs or leagues most in need.

Growing Participation Beginners Baseball and Softball:

Player retention.

Infrastructure development.

Player recruitment.

Extending club or league offers.

New local programmes Local leagues developed through Little League and Play Ball. Connection to schools Sportivate. Matalan School Sport Programme. School-Club Links. Non-traditional play Door Step Clubs. Stick Ball. Wiffle Ball.

Concentration on most talented 13-19yr olds.

Hands-on support for wider group of talented athetes.

Develop competition structures for talented players.

Develop talent curriculum.

Develop athlete profiles linked to talent curriculum.

Talent identification and recruitment.

Environments Workplaces Higher and Further Education Local community Other sports' clubs Leisure Trusts and private providers

Clubs Leagues Workplaces Higher and Further Education Local community Other sports' clubs Leisure Trusts and private providers

Clubs Leagues Teams The Academy Classrooms Schools Other Education institutions

Clubs Leagues Teams The Academy Classrooms Higher Education Further Education

Infrastructure

Staff

Workforce

Club and League Development

Marketing

Facilities


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Growing New Structures

Hit the Pitch - overview

Growing Existing Structures

Club / League Growth

Beginners Activity - overview

Target Audiences Could be: Taster sessions, pick-up games, Indoor Softball, Go Mammoth, Corporate Days etc.

Could be: League Development sessions, Beginners Baseball and Softball, Indoor Softball etc.

Player A - New workplace Y Hit the Pitch

Workplace Leagues:




◦ Emergency Services Leagues

◦ Workplace Challenge leagues (through CSPs)

Higher Education leagues

Further Education leagues


Leagues at other sports' clubs, partnering with the RFU, hockey, lacrosse etc.

Swing By

Programme offer for Leisure Trusts and private providers.

Club and League Growth

Develop new growth strategies for clubs / leagues to include more teams:

Integrate other growth areas (Higher Education, Further Education, New Adult Leagues) with club / league work.

Develop a customer-facing approach.

Recruit and support key volunteers / enablers.

Organise pick-up games.

Run Beginners Baseball and Softball programmes.

Player B - Experienced workplace Y Y

Player C - Fan turned player Y Y

Player D - Experienced the sports in another country Y

Player E - Lapsed cricketer / rounders player Y Y

Player F - Relocated professional urbanite Y Y

Player G - Reluctant participant Y

Player H - 'Give it a Try' Y Y

Player I - Receptive student Y Y

Women Y Y

Workplace and Young Professionals Y

Ex-Pat Communities Y Y

LGBT Communities Y Y

Students Y Y


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Target Audiences

Player A - New Workplace

Player B - Experienced Workplace Y Could be talent-identified in workplace softball to join a higher-level club with better coaching. Could attend Academy Softball sessions and national team trials in fastpitch or slowpitch.

Player C - Fan turned player

Player D - Experienced the sports in another country

Y Could be talent-identified in club softball to join the talent pathway if eligible for British nationality, either through Academy Softball and/or national team trials in fastpitch or slowpitch. Could be trained for a coaching role within The Academy or national team structures.

Player E - Lapsed cricketer / rounders player

Y Skills and training habits acquired in playing rounders or (more likely) cricket could mean that Player E could move onto the softball or baseball talent pathway given more experience and good coaching, which could begin with The Academy.

Player F - Relocated professional urbanite

Player G - Reluctant Participant

Player H - 'Give it a Try' Starting a new sport at university or college age makes it difficult to become an elite performer, but exceptionally athletic students might do so given the relatively small talent pool for baseball and softball in the UK. A referral to The Academy could provide such performers with a chance to progress.

Player I - Receptive Student Y

Women Y Talented women players tend to stand out within British softball and tend to progress quickly in an environment with high-level coaching, such as The Academy (for fastpitch) or the GB Slowpitch Development Squad programme.

Workplace and Young Professionals Y See under “Experienced Workplace” above.

Ex-Pat Communities Y See under “Experienced the sports in another country” above.

LGBT Communities Y Members of LGBT communities could fall into any of Categories A-I.

Students Y See under “Receptive Student” above.


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New Adult Structures

Organising Idea

Develop new clubs and leagues reaching new participants, based in new areas or markets.

Offers / Activity

This area can be broken into two programmes. The main new adult structure programme is Hit the Pitch, our offer for setting up new programmes. This will be delivered through a number of environments, including education institutions, workplaces, local communities, local clubs and organised groups. The other programme, Swing By, will be directed at Leisure Trusts and private sport and fitness operators, based on a franchise model.

Hit the Pitch

Workplace Leagues:




◦ Emergency Services leagues

◦ Workplace challenge leagues

Education Institution leagues


Leagues at other sports' clubs

Swing By

Offered to Leisure Trusts and private providers.

Young People 14-25 70%

Adults 26+ 30%

Talent 0%

Outcome

Year 1 29 teams, 551 participants




TOTAL 117 teams, 2,229 participants

Cost

SEng BSUK

New Adult Leagues £30,000

Workplace and Charities Relationships Management

£40,000

Higher Education £40,000

Further Education £35,000

TOTAL £145,000

When

All aspects of work will begin from April 2013 and will remain at the forefront of development focus for the first two years of this planning cycle as a minimum. Through continual review, these development plans will be assessed with regard to purpose and success.


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Approach

Workplace activity. Organisations will be partnered to develop a sports offer for their employees. This will include working with charities offering corporate fundraising activity, working with CSPs with Workplace Challenge programmes, working with Local Authorities and local commerce to form city leagues and working with industries to offer new industry leagues (e.g. Emergency Services).

LGBT Development Work. Work will be done with LGBT structures to develop leagues in targeted geographic areas and around national events.

Leisure Trusts and private providers of sport. Our current pilot work will be developed to offer local, easy-to-access opportunities. This includes extending involvement with virtual and social sports clubs such as Go Mammoth.

Local partnerships. Work will be carried out with CSPs, LAs and other sports' clubs (such as rugby, lacrosse, hockey and netball) to offer new community leagues.

Education Institutions. Work will be done with Higher and Further Education to offer sports activity to students and staff.


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Existing Adult and Youth Structures

Organising Idea

Develop existing clubs and leagues to reach their full potential in terms of 14+ participation by supporting them to sustain current levels of participation and to build additional teams within their existing structures.

Offers / Activity

Extensive support will continue through our Club-Centric approach, where hands-on development support is offered by members of BSUK staff. This will focus on a number of areas:

Sustaining Participation

Strong organisations. Work with clubs and league will continue to ensure that they are fit for purpose and offering strong participant-focused baseball and softball. This includes maintaining Clubmark as a minimum operating standard and development tool and offering good practice advice and tools. This will be facilitated through strong relationships between the clubs and leagues and BSUK staff, underpinned by strong volunteers (see Workforce), good coaches (see Coaching) and appropriate and sport-specific facilities (see Facilities).

Identify and offer critical support to clubs or leagues most in need. We will respond to new club or league formation enquiries with strong support and tools for facilitating the formation of new clubs or leagues. We will identify early and offer critical hands-on life support to clubs or leagues showing signs of potentially folding.

Growing Participation

Player retention. Work with clubs and leagues to understand how to minimise the drivers that might lead people to leave the sport(s) and put into place forward-thinking plans to address this, sign-posting alternative opportunities or offering ways of staying in touch with the sport(s).

Infrastructure development. Work with clubs and leagues to develop infrastructure better able to cope with a growth in participation. This will primarily include supporting clubs and leagues with advice and tools for forming new teams by recruiting and up-skilling club / league volunteers.

Player recruitment. Offer programme support through Beginners Baseball and Softball programmes and link clubs / leagues to programmes such as Hit the Pitch and Swing By and to Young People structures to generate growth.

Extending club or league offers. Support will be offered to help clubs or leagues develop programming extended to new age groups, offer both baseball and softball, reach women and girls (through softball) and connect to new communities and groups.


Adults 26+ 30%

Talent 0%

Outcome





TOTAL 108 teams, 2,052 participants

Cost

SEng BSUK

New Team Set-Up £5,000

Equipment Loan Programme

£7,000

TOTAL £12,000

When

Ongoing throughout the cycle.


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Approach

Each baseball club and softball league will work closely with a designated member of staff to identify needs and development potential and to carry out agreed actions. This will be monitored with live data management systems and tracked through our routine assessment of the health of existing sports structures in the form of a bi-annual club and league Health Check.


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New Structures for Young People

Organising Idea

Develop a strong youth community base, offering high quality local play supported by good coaching and with good links to the local community and schools.

Offers / Activity

New local programmes. Develop local leagues and youth clubs by providing local volunteers with support through our Play Ball and Little League programmes.

Connection to schools. Develop in-school programming through existing programmes (such as the Matalan YST programme) and offer school-club link support through the schools network, the Schools Games programme and our development staff working with clubs and leagues. Use will be made of existing play in schools to develop awareness and understanding of the sports (74% of secondary schools offer softball, according to the latest School Sport Survey).

Non-traditional play. Continue work developing a street or playground doorstep club offer based on our Stick Ball and Wiffle Ball formats in order to offer non-traditional playing opportunities to young players.

Approach

Maximise partnerships

◦ Use existing relationships with Major League Baseball and Little League to develop a strong support package for local volunteers.

◦ Work with Street Games, Shadowball and other national and local youth organisations to develop programmes for non-traditional environments and hard-to-reach young people.

◦ Connect work being carried out within the school sector (with, among others, the Youth Sport Trust) to the community programming outcomes sought.


Adults 26+ 0%

Talent 0%

Outcome





TOTAL 50 teams, 950 participants

Cost

SEng BSUK

New Local Leagues £30,000

Non-Traditional and Door Step Club Offer

£10,000

TOTAL £40,000

When

This work will be continuous throughout the cycle.


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Organising Idea

Provide a seamless progression from community sport to a talent pathway that allows athletes to reach their potential at whatever point on the pathway that may lie, with the aim of enhancing the quantity and quality of players available for national team selection and retaining talented players in the sport beyond their time as elite performers. See BSUK’s 2013-2025 England Talent Development Strategy.

Insight

Baseball and softball are recent Olympic sports that maintain a realistic chance of being restored to the Olympic programme. Considerable progress has been made in developing the sports' England Talent Pathway since 2001, making good use of investment from UK Sport that ended in 2007. This investment has been reflected in competition results achieved by the GB Baseball and GB Softball national teams ever since and both teams are competing at World Championship level in 2012 (see here). A relatively modest Talent investment in the 2013-17 WSP cycle could capitalise on earlier public investment and put both sports in a position to progress if and when they are restored to the Olympic programme.

Current Talent Development

Talented young players are reaching high levels (with minimal resource support) through targeted development opportunities at The Academy. Over the past ten years, 16 baseball players from Academy Baseball have been placed in US high school or college programmes or with teams in high-level European leagues, and six Academy Softball players have been placed in US college programmes. During the same period, seven Academy Baseball graduates and 16 Academy Softball graduates have gone on to be selected for their senior national teams (see here).

The Academy runs national and regional sessions and reaches a wide range of developing players (see here). Currently, The Academy is open to all, but is attended primarily by players who have demonstrated talent potential in club environments. This open policy has created strong links with clubs, who play an important role in identifying talent and who routinely encourage their best young players to attend The Academy for an enhanced learning experience. This has had a positive effect on home-grown talent in both baseball and softball and is building a future generation of more polished and knowledgeable players, most of whom continue their playing careers in this country and have a positive impact on the standard of domestic play.


Adults 26+ 0%

Talent 100%

Outcomes

Expand the number of athletes (meeting minimum talent standards) from both sports engaged in our talent development pathway.

Expand the structure of Regional Academies and provide a range of qualified part-time and specialist coaches working with talented athletes.

Communicate the aims and methodologies of talent development activities throughout the sports to enhance the links between clubs, coaching and competition, driven by national team needs.

Formalise structures for promoting young GB players to US college programmes and increase the number of players who are accepted by US community colleges and universities.

Send an increasing number of players to Major League Baseball's European Academy.

Establish defined roles for players who drop off the talent pathway so they can continue to contribute to the sports.


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Current opportunities for Talented Players

Both GB Baseball and GB Softball are competing at World Championship level in 2012 and have well-developed junior squads underpinning the senior programmes (see diagram on Page 54). Good opportunities are provided for talented players to perform at the highest levels. The national team programmes, buoyed by British nationals who have developed in other countries, are creating credible teams competing at the highest level of International Federation play. This provides talented home-grown players with the challenge of reaching high standards in order to represent their country (for details of selection criteria, click here). The platform is there for talented players to realise their aspirations – what's missing is the concentrated support needed to prepare them for the challenge.

Selection to GB national teams, especially at senior level, involves fierce competition from players who have developed in other countries. This drives players in England (and occasionally from the other Home Countries) to seek development opportunities through The Academy and has encouraged many to consider, as the next step in their playing careers, the move to North American college and university programmes, where there is an intensity of coaching and competition not yet available in the UK.

Offer / Activity

A Talent Development Programme that takes a three-pronged approach to preparing young players to realise their potential:

Direct and concentrated support to a handful of the most talented 14-19yr olds at the top of the talent pathway, supporting their development towards becoming contributory players on the world class performance stage.

Extended hands-on development for a wider pool of talented young players through The Academy, introducing minimum standards for talent identification and developing appropriate curriculum to extend their skills and game awareness.

Improved competition structures, some of them linked directly to The Academy, to facilitate a higher level of domestic play for players on the talent pathway.

Cost

SEng BSUK

System Building £60,000

Talented Few £40,000

Enhanced Support for The Academy

£40,000

Domestic Competition Enhancements

£10,000

TOTAL £150,000

When

Throughout the cycle, starting in April 2013.

Bespoke personal development for the best 14-19 year olds

The Academy Developing a

pool of talented athletes.

National and Regional Tiers

Improved Domestic Compettiion


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Talent Pathway

North American Development High School, College, Pro

AGE 12yrs 14yrs 16yrs 18yrs 20yrs 22yrs 24yrs 26yrs 28yrs 30yrs 32yrs+

Seniors National Team Selection to World Class Programmes

U23 (Baseball) GB

U18/19 GB

U16/15 GB

U13 (SB)

Bespoke personal development for the best 14-19 year olds

The Academy Developing a pool of talented athletes.

National and Regional Tiers

Improved playing opportunities within domestic competition


Clubs and Leagues

Teams


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For evidence related to this section, including previous talent development achievements and competition results, please click here.

BSUK regards the inclusion of Talent funding within its Sport England Whole Sport Plan award to be of vital importance to the future of both baseball and softball, because it is only through such funding that:

Full athlete pathways will become available throughout our sports in England, supporting the twin-track rationale of helping each athlete to reach his or her full potential and feeding more talented and developed athletes into our world class programmes.

Talented English athletes will be better able to fulfil their potential and realise their aspirations within our sports, giving us a better chance of retaining such athletes and of their becoming 'players for life'.

Even if direct public funding for baseball and softball national teams is not restored, some of the disadvantages currently suffered by Great Britain (GB) teams relative to our European competitors will be mitigated. We will be better able to improve performance standards and maintain or improve our significant achievements over the past decade in international competition, enhancing Great Britain's standing in world baseball and softball through talented English athletes.

There will be a positive knock-on effect throughout the sports, not just at performance and elite levels, but on standards of coaching, competition and performance.

Our intention is to make talent development a 'golden thread' running through Clubs, Coaches and Competition, working with clubs to develop a player-led approach, working with the coach education programme to develop high-level coaches and working with the Federations to develop competition structures that will aid the development of athletes on the talent pathway and support the needs of national teams.

Our talent development work will coincide with, and will in part be based around, new dedicated facilities for both sports that will open in 2013 at Farnham Park near Slough and in Milton Keynes, through capital funding from Sport England and other partners. During the period 2013-17, we will upgrade these facilities as national training centres and as sites for international competition, and we will develop an additional regional epicentre in the North of England.

Talent development is a vital part of international sports like baseball and softball, which were recently Olympic sports and have high-level international competitions in which GB teams have achieved significant results. Given the considerable investment that Sport England is making in baseball and softball in terms of Grow, Sustain and facility creation, the talent pathway is the next logical step to retaining participants beyond our Grow and Sustain initiatives in creating a more complete development offer.

Assumptions

The measures below that will demonstrate the effectiveness of BSUK's England talent pathway relate in large part to the need for our World Class programmes in baseball and softball – in this case the national team programmes – to drive the approach to talent development. The emphasis on specialist coaching for the players at the top of the pathway, building competition structures designed to give them more experience at a high level domestically and abroad, providing relevant sports science support and prioritising the placement of our best prospects in US college programmes and at the MLB European Academy are all geared to increase the quantity and quality of players who can make an impact in international competition in baseball and softball.


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At the same time, however, the current open nature of the Academy system (which we intend to maintain for part of the 2013-17 cycle to build the numbers on the pathway), our dependence on clubs for talent identification and our aim of embedding coaching principles from The Academy curriculum throughout the club structure in both sports demonstrates that our talent development programme will have strong connections to our sporting community.

Measures

Strategic Outcome for Each Year

Measurement 1

Programme Area Measure

Year 1

(13/14)

Year 2

(14/15)

Year 3

(15/16)

Year 4

(16/17)

External placement of athletes at the top end of the English talent pathway

Baseball players selected for the MLB Academy 1 2-3 3 4

Baseball Players Selected to play in US colleges 0 (0) 2 (2) 3 (1)* 5 (2)*

Softball Players Selected to play in US colleges 5 (2)* 6 (2)* 6 (2)* 7 (3)*

* The larger number is players who will be in college placements in that year; the number in brackets is the number of players that will be selected in that year.


Measurement 2


Year 1

(13/14)

Year 2

(14/15)

Year 3

(15/16)

Year 4

(16/17)

The total number of participants in The Academy across baseball and softball

The reduced number of players in Year 4 will reflect a move towards higher entrance standards and a general concentration on fewer athletes with more talent

276 335 350 310


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Measurement 3


Year 1

(13/14)

Year 2

(14/15)

Year 3

(15/16)

Year 4

(16/17)

System Building

Strategic implementation of new systems to build the infrastructure of The Academy programme

Research and design curriculum for talent development.

Provide mobile strength and conditioning facilities for Academy athletes.

Provide mobile video analysis software and hardware.

Identify clubs to act as hubs for Regional Centres of Excellence.

Establish systems for promoting English players to US colleges and universities.

Launch and implement the new English Talent Development curriculum within The Academy and build it into coach development courses.

Build athlete and player profiles.

Provide enhanced support in club and coach development for those clubs in both sports functioning as Regional Centres of Excellence.

Systematise the talent identification programme within baseball and softball.

Complete and apply player profiles within The Academy.

Provide enhanced video analysis with online support and feedback to Academy participants.

Review effectiveness and awareness of the English Talent Development curriculum in club and coach development throughout the sports.

Review effectiveness and reach of college placement programmes.

Extend talent identification programme to include recruitment from other sports.


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Measurement 4


Year 1

(13/14)

Year 2

(14/15)

Year 3

(15/16)

Year 4

(16/17)

The Talented Few

Programme for this section of the Academy will include:

Specialist coaching support provided to pitchers and catchers.

Specialist coaching support provided for hitting.

A regular cycle of competition trips to Europe to provide additional game experience.

Auxiliary support provided in strength and conditioning, nutrition, mental performance and life-style coaching

A section of The Academy will cater for the needs of the highest tier of the talent pathway, those athletes who project as most likely to progress to senior national teams and World Class performance. The number of athletes promoted to this section across baseball and softball each year will be:

12 18 25 35


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Measurement 5


Year 1

(13/14)

Year 2

(14/15)

Year 3

(15/16)

Year 4

(16/17)

Competition Enhancement

Improvement of competition structures within and linked to The Academy.

Re-launch baseball National Academy Series Weekend

Launch a 16-21 youth baseball competition format.

Launch a third senior division in the Great Britain Fastpitch Softball League.

Re-launch winter Indoor Fastpitch Softball League.

Increase the number of teams in the 16-21 youth baseball league by 20%.

Widen the baseball Academy Series to include regional play.

Begin annual North v South Baseball All-Star games in the following age groups:

– 10-13

– 14-16

Increase the number of teams in the U-14 and U-17 Divisions in the Great Britain Fastpitch Softball League by 25%.

Baseball North v South All-Star games expanded to include the 17-21 age group.

Launch an U-19 Division in the Great Britain Fastpitch Softball League.

Launch new baseball competition formats for 16-18 and 19-23 age groups.

Increase the number of teams in all youth divisions of the Great Britain Fastpitch Softball League by 25%.


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Measurement 6


Year 1

(13/14)

Year 2

(14/15)

Year 3

(15/16)

Year 4

(16/17)

Enhanced Support for the Talent Pathway

BSUK will provide additional on-the-ground support for The Academy, the talent development pathway and the “talented few” over the four-year cycle, including:

Importing seasonal and specialist coaches to focus on high-level pitching, catching and hitting skills in both sports.

Providing financial support for baseball players attending MLB European Academy try-outs.

Providing financial support for systems to promote English baseball and softball players to US colleges and universities.

Making BSUK staff coach time available for baseball and softball Regional Academy sessions at Centres of Excellence.

Organising and leading competition trips abroad for players in the top tier of The Academy.


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Section 5: Scale of Impact

Impact on Active People Survey

The number of participants in the sports will increase by 5,000. Applying seasonality (ours are predominantly summer sports), the number seen in Active People will be a seven months equivalent – so seven-twelfths. This ratio was agreed with Sport England at the start of the 2009-13 cycle. This will see Active People, over the course of the four year cycle, increase by 2,917 once-a-week participants.

The current AP baseline, as of October 2011 is 7,200, so the net scale of impact of this programme on Active People will be 10,248.

Current Active People data does not allow for a break down of this figure into 16-25yrs and 26yrs+. Active People remains a challenge for baseball and softball because of the seasonality of our sports (they are played over a maximum of 7 months). This affects our 1 x 30 indicator, as participants may be active in other sports for the remainder of the year and may speak to these instead at the point of contact. Added to this is the fact that our sports have an insufficient sample size for Active People which makes our proxy measures, agreed with Sport England, the more accurate indicator.

Active People

Measure Baseline Year 1

(13/14)

Year 2

(14/15)

Year 3

(15/16)

Year 4

(16/17)

APS Number 7,200 7,962 8,724 9,486 10,248

Team Growth by Years

Baseline Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4

984 1,053 1,222 1,191 1,259

Note: the table above shows cumulative growth, factoring in any attrition of teams.


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Team Growth by Programme

New Adult Structures Existing Adult & Youth Structures New Structures for Young People

200 Adult 117 83

75 Youth 25 50

Participant Growth by Year and Programme

Year 1

(13/14)

Year 2

(14/15)

Year 3

(15/16)

Year 4

(16/17)

Total

Teams

Total

Participants

New Adult Structures

Teams 29 29 29 30 117

Players/Team 19 19 19 19

Participants 551 551 551 570 2,223

Existing Adult & Youth Structures

Teams 28 27 27 26 108


Participants 532 513 513 494 2,052

New Structures for Young People

Teams 13 13 12 12 50


Participants 247 247 228 228 950

Total Teams 70 69 68 68 275

Total Participants 1,330 1,311 1,292 1,292 5,225


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Assumptions

As participation in baseball and softball is currently too small to be measured effectively using the Active People Survey, the tables above reflect the measures of participation that have been agreed with our Relationship Manager over the 2009-13 cycle. Baseball and softball are team sports in which the number of participants can fluctuate to some degree. For this reason, the most important measure of growth within our sports are the number of teams and clubs, rather than the number of participants. We have agreed a different average number of players per team based on the environment in which they play. Most adult teams are rated at 19-20 players per team, whereas youth teams by the current definition, are calculated at 14 players per team.

Within the 2013-17 cycle it is expected that most new teams will fit the 20 player average model. We have therefore calculated our participant rates at 19 participantes per team. This may mean that there is some minor fluctuation up or down in our actual participant numbers.

It should also be noted that the team environment is an important mechanism for maintaining consistent participant numbers. While turnover of players can regularly occur for the reasons referenced in the Market Context section, it is unusual for a team to cease to exist. Therefore when individual players leave a team, the remaining players will recruit new players in order to continue to participate in their sport as a team. What this means is that is likely that over the course of a season, the actual number of participants is much higher than the average we count

Approach

The approach to be taken is not expected to change dramatically from that of 2009-13, with the continuation of a twin-track strategy that encourages existing structures (leagues and clubs) to grow and establishes new structures (clubs and leagues). We have had particular success working through what we call a “Club-Centric” approach, working regularly with existing baseball clubs and softball leagues on development initiatives, specifically with the aim of forming new adult and youth teams. This approach has also been successful in improving the playing experience for people within those organisations.

New structures will continue to be planned through Higher and Further Education institutions as well as through our work to form new adult leagues in the community for new teams and players.

Recently-formed programmes and areas of work will continue, including:

New Participation Programmes (Hit the Pitch, Beginners Baseball, Beginners Softball, Team-Up).

Club, League and Player Programmes (Clubmark, The Academy, Summer Coaches, the MLB Envoy Coach, Clinics, Club-Centric Approach).

Workforce Development (Pitch In, Coach Education).

Further core activity will include facility development, strengthening governance (BSUK's as well as that of the British Baseball and British Softball Federations), marketing and communications and the development of a new commercial strategy.

Our work will continue to place strong emphasis on our core values, including the inclusion of women and girls (maintaining at least a 42% ratio in softball), increasing the percentage of LGBT participants and starting to engage with participants with learning disabilities


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Measurements

Baseball and softball participation barely shows up on Active People (see external link) – participation in the sports is picked up, but data fluctuates dramatically and is therefore only an indication of participation levels. The seasonal nature of the sports, played mostly in the summer months, means that the survey does not reflect the number of people playing each year, but rather this number reduced by between five- and seven-twelfths. Therefore, an alternative measure needs to be put in place to monitor and evaluate the growth of the sports. Looking at the lowest common organising structures of each sport, BSUK has put in place a system to track the number of teams playing the sports regularly. In order to qualify, a team must play on at least six occasions, have a team identity, a named leader or captain and collect money in some form. Teams, whether affiliated or not and whether supported directly by BSUK or the Federations, are counted, and their existence tracked on a quarterly basis by our staff. This measure is internally verified by staff and by our Development Strategy Committee (DSC).

Review and Oversight of Progress

On behalf of the BSUK Board, the DSC is also responsible for receiving quarterly reports on progress against targets in our How Are We Doing? reports and annually in an Annual Development Report. The DSC meets four times a year to receive quarterly reports and review progress. Where under-performance against targets in any of our interventions or project areas exists, the DSC also reviews Recovery Plans – plans put in place to rectify shortfalls – prepared by the national lead for that area. The DSC also helps to plan our development approaches and reviews how we are going about achieving our development targets.

Quarterly, half-yearly and annual development reports are also reviewed by the BSUK Board.

Lines of Responsibility

BSUK has put in place performance management systems that divide our targets up by person, creating clear lines of responsibility for each regional staff member through to the national leads, the Head of Development and on to the DSC and the BSUK Board. This is broken down by intervention and project area and means that each development staff member has a clear understanding of the growth that they are targeted to influence. These numbers represent net growth, the figures by which the sport needs to grow in terms of numbers of teams. The number of participants that BSUK is working to grow are turned into team numbers and some over-programming added. This represents the personal targets for each regional member of staff. Where growth is achieved, it is offset against any attrition of teams, and staff are therefore responsible for their area of work achieving a total number of teams playing.

Regional Development Managers (RDMs) have, broadly speaking, been tasked with increasing the number of teams in new organisations – working through Higher and Further Education Institutions and with the sports development network (County Sports Partnerships, Local Authorities, companies, charities, LGBT groups and the like) to influence this new work. Regional Coach and Club Development Officers (RCCDOs, sometimes shortened to Regional Coaches) are responsible for the growth of existing clubs and leagues by supporting and encouraging existing structures to increase the number of teams within their organisations. This includes forming and growing youth community teams and leagues.

These targets are then aggregated to national roles, responsible for strategies for growth and for progress against targets nationally. The RDMs' targets feed into one National Development Manager, who is responsible for new growth – specifically in HEIs, FEIs and New Adult Leagues. This role also is responsible for our growth in youth community teams. The RCCDOs' targets feed into our National Club Development Manager, who is responsible for the growth in adult club membership

http://www.sportengland.org/research/active_people_survey/aps5/idoc.ashx?docid=537fdb5c-ee7e-4d88-92dc-13701ddfa295&version=2


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numbers and numbers of teams. All regional staff are line-managed by a second National Development Manager. These three national staff report directly to the Head of Development, who has overall responsibility for the growth of the sports. The Development Logistics Manager, a national role, has the task of data collection and evaluation, both internal and external, and is responsible for having in place reliable measures of progress against targets.

Regional and national staff are performance-managed against these targets and their work is evaluated based on progress.


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Retention and Attrition of Participation

As outlined here, the system in place for monitoring the number of teams handles attrition and retention of players by looking at the structures in which they play. We know that between 14 and 20 players make up each team because we have calculated the average based on our on-line registration numbers (which cover a large percentage of teams), split by type of team. So, new adult league teams average 20 players a season, as do HEI teams. Existing club structures, including baseball and softball, average 19 players a team and FEI and youth teams average 14 players per team. These numbers correspond with our understanding of how teams are formed and how much involvement they have from players. A club playing more regularly is more likely to form a second team or another playing opportunity than a new adult league or a corporate team. Similarly, youth teams, which we have encouraged to form into local leagues, are more likely to divide into more teams when they reach an average of 14 players. Having this understanding better informs our ability to extrapolate participation from the number of teams.

What Happens When a Team is in Danger of Folding?

Monitoring the existence and condition of teams means that we know that although a team might have lost some players from the previous year, they've also managed to recruit to replace them. When teams start to fall below a critical mass (of approximately 12-14 players), they become at risk of not continuing to play. Through our Point Person system, these teams are quickly identified. In many cases – mostly in softball – the loss of a team is a natural step caused by the loss of some key players and there is a general acceptance that a new team will be formed from group, often through joining with another team. Softball teams are easily formed as organised groups of people (rather than community clubs) and they tend to come and go, with players regularly joining another team or forming a new one. In baseball, the loss of a team is treated as a greater concern. Baseball is organised into more complex club structures and places a greater organisational burden on its volunteers, so the loss of a team is often a health indicator of the club's organisation and volunteer engagement. Through the Point Person system, baseball clubs or softball leagues that are diminishing with regard to the number of teams in their organisation are identified quickly (usually within two months, as this is the minimum period between development conversations with each club or league) and direct hands-on support is offered to address organisational weaknesses, recruit and up-skill volunteers and support the organisation through what might be a tough period. BSUK handles relationships with a manageable number of key organisations and is able to offer very personalised and direct support for local organisations going through change, using all available tools at our disposal, including relationships with County Sports Partnerships, Local Authorities and other local organisations and institutions.

How We Monitor Club and League Health

Twice a year, we compile a Club and League Health Check report, which uses live data maintained by our club / league Point People about the health of the organisations they work with. This is defined by a simple R.A.G. system, whereby 'red' means that the organisation requires immediate close support in order to keep going or to maintain levels of participation, 'amber' means that the organisation is working on a year-to-year basis, without long-term sustainability and 'green' means that they have systems in place that provide confidence that they will continue to be in existence for years to come, despite any predictable changes in volunteer personnel. For an example of our Club and League Health Check, click here.


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Monitoring and Evaluation as a Risk Management Tool

Our internal monitoring and evaluation is the key to managing our most significant risk: not achieving targeted growth. In keeping a regular and close eye on growth progress, we are able to respond quickly to emerging shortfalls and under-performance. In breaking down our targets by intervention and then further into each of our project areas, we are able to identify exactly which areas are over-achieving and which are under-achieving in terms of growth and make assessments about the best course of action to rectify problems. This also enables us to keep a balanced development approach, using all available avenues for growth to their full potential. It also encourages a powerful fluidity to our development work, whereby we do not lock ourselves into programmes and approaches without fully understanding and regularly reviewing how well they are working. For an example of M&E, click here.

School Sport Survey

Data collected within the School Sport Survey shows that 74% of secondary schools currently offer some form of softball and 1% offer baseball. Although useful in knowing how many schools are offering the sports, it's not possible to extrapolate more concrete information about the regularity, participation levels, gender demographics or quality of the sports on offer. However, this does demonstrate that the sports are popular in schools and often played, particularly in secondary schools. This provides our community youth programming with a solid participation base and a starting point from which to build strong school-to-club links to new and existing youth community clubs.

Overall, 16% of all schools offer baseball and / or softball.

Feedback

There are a number of feedback loops that BSUK uses to gauge success and progress, ranging from consideration of an individual participant's experience through to the success of our overall development programme in terms of targets achieved. Local sessions are frequently reviewed through satisfaction response forms filled out by participants, which gives us an understanding of the quality of activity provided on the ground. For each activity, a review is conducted by regional staff to monitor and evaluate the success of the sessions in relation to our development goals (setting up new teams) and to consider whether the sessions have been appropriately structured to cater to the individuals involved.


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Regular quarterly reviews are carried out within the priority regions to evaluate progress towards regional targets and to assess the development work necessary to achieve the organisation's outcomes. These reviews are carried out by national development staff, working closely with regional staff to understand the positive and negative drivers affecting their work.

At a national level, quarterly progress reports are prepared, known as the “How Are We Doing Report” (a sample report is included in the Evidence Portfolio here). These reports are peer-reviewed by National Development staff before being considered by our Development Strategy Committee and Board. They are compiled using various information, including regional reviews, team numbers data (new teams, existing teams, team attrition) from across the country, Sport England's Active People and Satisfaction Quota of Sporting Experience (SQSE) data and BSUK’s Balanced Scorecard. This information forms the central element of our regular analysis of progress and frequently leads to affirmative or corrective action taking place. On a number of occasions, a Recovery Plan has been put in place to address shortfalls or areas that are lagging behind others. An example of this is in the Evidence Portfolio here.

BSUK's regional staff have a close handle on local session provision and regularly work either directly or through local providers to monitor progress. With this reach to grassroots provision, BSUK is able to maintain a firm grasp on the progress of development work across the country. This is, we believe, a real strength of our organisation and provides confidence that desired outcomes are being worked towards with clear and effective approaches.

Different approaches to feedback based on size of outcome against different levels of locality


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Estimating Impact

Calculating the impact of planned activities

BSUK has taken a decision to monitor, as our primary measure, the number of teams playing the sports regularly. As outlined elsewhere in this document, this is monitored through a robust analysis of all teams playing the sports (whether affiliated or not). Participation numbers are then extrapolated, based on calculated averages of players per team based on format.

However, this means that we do not have a mechanism for monitoring turnover of players. The mechanism measuring the number of teams does, in itself, handle the question of retention and acquisition and therefore determination of turnover is more difficult. However, inserting figures for the number of teams that we have grown by and lost, we're able to put the following analysis tool to use.

Here is an analysis of retention and acquisition in both baseball and softball:

Change year on year

Both baseball

and softball

Retention in baseball and softball Acquisition in baseball and softball

Inside your influence

90%

Outside your influence

10%


75%


25%

Current Rate

(actual for 2009-12, projected for 2012-13)

86% 0% 351

6,318 players

Expected Rate 0% 0

Target / Planned Rate

(actual for 2009-12, projected for 2012-13)

86% 320

5,760 players

Will equate to growth of 275 teams, 5,000 players

The projections above will equate to an increase in the number of teams by 500 over the next four years. This means that a total of 570 new teams will need to be formed to achieve this growth, allowing for anticipated attrition rates. For the details on retention and acquisition, please click here.

Talent Development

Talent Development measures are contained in the England Talent Development section: click here.


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Section 6: Infrastructure

BSUK's approach to infrastructure (non-programme-specific delivery roles) has been to develop a flexible multi-skilled workforce that can adjust focus and operate across multiple programmes as needed. This has enabled us to make strategic changes relatively quickly and to adjust the emphasis on programmes throughout a funding cycle as necessary without necessitating staff turnover. All development staff have targets across multiple programmes.

In accordance with our strategic plan to achieve our outcomes by extending delivery into two new geographic areas and to establish venue-based hubs or epicentres with strong local links, we have taken the decision to add a regional staff member.

As stated above, efficiency and cost-effectiveness is achieved by assembling a staff team that can work across a number of interventions (see organogram). The delivery of our outcomes of new adult and youth participants as well growing the number of participants in our existing structures is planned through BSUK's infrastructure staff. These staff also contribute to the areas that underpin this delivery: workforce development, club and league development, marketing and capitalising on our facility investment (detailed at the end of this section).

Our 2013-17 plan is closely aligned to the previous delivery period, and our clear understanding of what can be achieved with our current staff structure. This plan is a logical continuation of the work that has been done in 2009-13 and is based on successful delivery in this cycle and our understanding of how to continue to drive participation. The proposed increase in the number of regional staff is not just to enable work in additional regions, but also to address the fact that our staff provision has been significantly overstretched. Moving forward with insufficient staff would continue to expose us to the risk that an unexpected occurrence, such as long-term sick leave, would lead to under-delivery.

We currently have no programme-specific delivery roles, though we are looking to add support in this next period to bring specific required expertise to the organisation. This will enable us to focus more effectively on key areas of governance, talent development and developing our corporate and charity softball offer.


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Structure

Our development department has two clear focus areas: one is New Playing Structures and the other is Competition, Club and Coach Services. These focus areas are each led by a National Development Manager (NDM) who has overall responsibility for the delivery of target outcomes in that area. Below the NDMs are a team of regional staff, spread geographically, who carry out direct delivery to ensure targets are met. The regional staff in new playing structures are partnership-focused and work to establish new environments for baseball and softball activity. The remaining regional staff have club development and coach-mentoring skills and are focused on achieving participant growth within existing structures. Regional development staff will also intersect with our work in England talent development and in the corporate and charity sectors. Both focus areas and the related staff teams cross over in the areas of young people and workforce development.

Financial Overview

The costing of our infrastructure staff needs has been a relatively straightforward exercise as it is simply an extension of our current infrastructure model. BSUK has always maximised its investment into staff resource to meet challenging delivery targets. The upside of this is cost-effectiveness, but the corresponding downside is the lack of a safety net for unforeseen circumstances. The proposed extension to our infrastructure depth will better offset this risk.

As mentioned, BSUK has traditionally focused its resources primarily in staff. We have long recognised that staff can maximise the return through partnership working, unlocking alternative local investment and growing a volunteer workforce. This approach has allowed us to provide excellent value for money as additional resources and capacity are directly brought into the sports. The decision to primarily invest in staff has required a choice to invest less in resourcing direct delivery programmes. Instead, we rely on staff unlocking additional investment for this purpose in an increasingly difficult climate. It is clear from surveying our staff that this has at times hampered delivery. For this reason we have carefully reviewed and costed each of our infrastructure programmes (see below), using the same rigorous focus on need and outcomes as we have for each of our external offers.

Sport England £1,926,104 NGB Funding £0 Partner Funding £229,400

Total Cost £2,155,504


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Workforce

Workforce is a generic terms that covers a range of key volunteers in our sports who contribute in every area from the occasional volunteer at club level to a person working as a trained coach. The workforce is critical to the success of every facet of the work of BSUK and represents the bulk of the staffing of every area of activity. While the term ‘workforce’ covers all volunteer roles, we have considered, costed and broken down this section into general workforce and coaching specifically. The point of this separation is to illustrate both the general workforce plan as well as the ‘added value’ of our coaching focus.

Volunteering and Leadership

Organising Idea

A better quality experience, led by good volunteers and part-time informal leaders.

Workforce development (WFD) is the linchpin of our development activity. Supporting the people who will work on the ground is critical to the maintenance and growth of the sports. Key to this growth is to focus support on those who will encourage people to play and help them to deliver a high-quality, participant-focused and appealing experience. This in turn will lead to a more rewarding experience for the workforce.

Insight

Our feedback from development programmes and club sessions is that enjoyment of the sports often stems from the deliverer (workforce) who introduces the sport to the new participant. In such a crowded sports landscape, this first impression and 'enjoyment factor' is key.

The workforce outside of BSUK's core full-time staff consists of unpaid volunteers or part-time/casual coaches and umpires who help deliver a range of programmes either in schools, colleges, universities, corporate/workplaces, leisure centres and club settings. These people are often employed in another job or have other commitments, so for them, being able to access training and to be recognised for their work is crucial. To facilitate this, we will provide clear routes for entry into the workforce and progression within the two sports. There should be a clear ladder of development, including access to a suite of suitable training.

By breaking down our vision of what we want to achieve from the workforce, five steps can be outlined in the adjacent diagram.

Who

Identify who we want to recruit as our workforce and where they will deliver.

↓

What

Clarify what is expected from the role.

↓

Skills

Clearly outline the skills needed for the role.

↓

Improve

Provide training so that the workforce can improve in the role.

↓

Reward and Recognition

How do we reward the workforce and ensure they want to remain in the sports either as staff, volunteers or

participants? This step also involves an evaluation of the programmes and methods used.


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As non-traditional sports, there is a need to find, train and deploy a workforce that is not always closely familiar with our sports. Moreover, an increase in the number of volunteers inherently leads to increased participation, as they engage others to participate, play themselves or spread the word.

It has become clear in such environments as FE, HE and New Adults that it is the 'people' who have the biggest impact in driving participation. In light of this, BSUK will develop an 'Activator' role and associated training. This may also involve joint work with other NGBs such as the ECB, where there is some crossover in the principle of the sports.

We plan to continue to pilot the University Softball Officer (USO) volunteer role. The ability to create teams from introductory sessions and programmes can be traced to a key driver or activator and therefore the role, by definition, falls within the BSUK workforce.

In playing experience and satisfaction results, there is a shortfall in activators who can deliver on umpiring and facilitating of sessions, which would fall under the 'Activator' role.

Close contact with clubs and leagues also shows that more volunteers are needed to support club / league stability and growth.

BSUK will aim to establish a strong link with an external organisation / charity that provides opportunities for the unemployed or those seeking volunteering experience. This will help create a consistent flow of new people to the sport to feed into BSUK's Pitch In volunteer programme.

Online systems for training and tracking volunteers will be implemented. This will also include a logging system for volunteers, allowing BSUK to set up an effective reward and recognition scheme (see Pitch In programme).

Offers / Activity

Recruit:

Leaders.

Coaches.

Activators (Coach / Umpires).

Volunteers – national and local.

Establish link with external volunteer agent or similar body, with Pitch In being a service to direct groups to (e.g. Prince's Trust).

Extend links with Do-it, making use of the V-Base tool.

Build a coaching tutor and co-ordinator workforce (mostly volunteers) to recruit, train and aid the deployment of coaches throughout the system, supporting BSUK regional staff.

Training:

Provide SLUK sport-specific Leader awards.


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Provide specific BSUK Leader awards delivered over four years.

Develop an Activators' (coach / umpire) course, including role outline and training.

Train club administrators (see Club).

Train club coaches (see Coach).

Train national volunteers (see Governance).

Deployment:

Hit the Pitch.

Leisure Centre setting.

Higher and Further Education environments.

New Adult Leagues.

Club and league roles.

Development:

Clarify opportunities for progression, a route for the workforce.

Communicate effectively through up-to-date databases of coaches, facilitators, volunteers and casual workforce.

Provide and subsidise workforce courses and support applications to other organisations for further funding (prioritised for people who commit to certain levels of delivery).

Develop an online learning / resource centre.

Develop an online skills and activity log.

Support a vibrant Youth Panel, engaged at the heart of the sports.

Reward and Recognition:

Reward and attainment scheme.


The work will be coordinated and implemented by BSUK staff (Workforce and Volunteering Lead).

WFD to run through all development work areas managed or delivered by BSUK staff.


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Relationships will be developed with key stakeholders – e.g. SkillsActive, Prince's Trust, AOC, Youthnet.

Outcomes

The capability to deliver our programmes and achieve our planned outcomes.

“I have much more help with running my club – there are enough people around to do the work I used to and they're really good at it. It helps me to concentrate on the things I need to.” – Club Volunteer in 2017

Bigger up-take of the sports by students, drawn into the sports by HE and FE activators.

Hit the Pitch will be widely run by skilled Activators, providing a fun playing environment that people want to keep playing in.

There will be more year-round activity, championed by enthusiastic volunteers.

Workforce satisfaction will be higher and progression and training opportunities (face-to-face and online) will be clearer.

The volunteer database will be bigger and broader, with Pitch In volunteers recruited, rewarded and retained for their work across the spectrum of BSUK delivery.

There will be a greater number of qualified Leaders in baseball and softball (200 each year over four years), primarily focused on youngsters entering the sports and then progressing to other qualifications in coaching, officiating or volunteering in universities or in workplace leagues as well as in community engagement, such as with StreetGames volunteers / staff and in leisure centres.

When

Workforce training courses (not including club volunteers or club coach training) will be implemented from April 2013.

Promotion activity will start in April 2013.

Deployment (expenses, tools, resources, attire etc) of a developed workforce will take place throughout the four-year cycle, growing from April 2013.

Databases and online systems will be in place by October 2013.

The BSUK Youth Panel will continue to operate throughout the four-year cycle.

A workforce Rewards and Recognition Scheme will begin in October 2013.

Cost

SEng BSUK

Training Courses £15,000

Promotion Activity £8,000

Deployment £5,000

Database and Online Systems

£5,000

Youth Panel £2,000

Rewards Scheme £5,000

TOTAL £40,000


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Coaching

Organising Idea

Identify and assess need and use the recruit, train, deploy system to satisfy those needs. More and better coaches across all strands of work, fulfilling the Right Coach, Right Place, Right Time vision.

Meet the workforce demands for baseball and softball coaches through the identification of the needs of clubs, leagues and programmes in all areas of development.

Insight

Coaching plays a vital role in developing the playing experience. Coaches, more than any other people in the sports, can have the greatest impact on the playing experience. Introducing people into the sports, they can provide a positive, non-threatening and confidence-building entry experience. Working with existing players, they can challenge and influence poor behaviour and habits, improving the playing environment, attitudes, approaches and player interactions, along with developing necessary and helpful skills. They help everyone reach their potential, whether working with beginners or with talented athletes. Everyone makes choices about the level at which they want to participate. If the quality of coaching on offer is of higher value than that of other sports, because it's more accessible, cheaper, better etc, it is more likely that people will choose and remain with our sports.

Offers / Activity

Develop the coaching system for baseball and softball in line with the National Coaching Framework:

o Extend the coach education and development programme to include higher levels of the coaching pathway to support player development along the England talent pathway.

Recruit, train and deploy coaches and coach educators for development programmes and for baseball and softball clubs based on identified need. Right Coach, Right Place, Right Time:

o Recruit coaches from within the baseball and softball community and pro-actively recruit coaches from outside the sports.

o Develop and deliver an effective Activator course.

o Develop and deliver effective, efficient and well-attended training and learning opportunities for coaches and coach educators.

o Build a coaching tutor and coordinator workforce (mostly volunteers) to recruit, train and aid the deployment of coaches throughout the system, supporting BSUK regional staff.

Ways of Working:

o Ensure that appropriate coaching is embedded at all levels of baseball and softball league competition throughout the UK.

o Use The Academy, the England talent pathway and club environments to develop better coaches.


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Recruitment and coach development will be done in partnership with the CSP Coaching Networks and sports coach UK programmes.

We will work with partner organisations offering coach tutoring to aid development and recruitment of coaches (such as Sports Structures).

Outcome

Enable BSUK to deliver agreed outcomes as the deployment of appropriate coaching has a significant role to play across each of our programmes.

Talented athletes will benefit from player needs analysis which higher level coaches will be able to carry out. Individual needs will be met, with the result that players will perform with greater strength, accuracy and situational awareness. The talent pool will increase in size and depth.

New players will learn the fundamentals of the games from coaches who are competent, qualified and up to date in their coaching methodology. They will benefit from speciality coaches as the growing coaching workforce will include those who specialise in coaching children, teaching the fundamentals and coaches with specialist skills in hitting, pitching and catching.

Coaching can help improve the playing environment and will enhance the perception new people have of the sports.

More women coaching in the sports will encourage women and girls to play alongside men and boys or in single-sex teams where the competition structure supports this. More women coaching means that a club can understand the needs of and cater for the whole family, thus increasing club membership and opportunities for social activity so that playing the sports can become a way of life for those who want this rather than a diversion. This is a common pattern among successful baseball and softball clubs in Europe.

There will be more young people playing, with coaching directed at empowering young people to play – particularly those who have not found their sporting outlet through more traditional sports.

Cost

SEng BSUK

Development of Coaching System

£6,000

Coaching Courses and Licenses

£6,000 £36,000

Coach Education Workforce

£8,000

Coaching Support £80,000

TOTAL £100,000 £36,000

When

Coach development is an activity that will run throughout the four-year cycle.


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Club and League Development

Organising Idea

Secure the core of the sports – baseball clubs and softball leagues – by developing, strengthening and supporting them to provide an exciting experience for players and volunteers.

Insight

Clubs and leagues sit at the heart of the sports, organising and supplying the most stable and regular participation opportunities. Sometimes, the strength of a club structure means that members value belonging to the club above the activity being undertaken. This is an example of the power and attraction of clubs. Focusing development activity on these organisations will boost the playing experience, strengthening the appeal of the sports and delivering participant-focused playing opportunities.

To increase participation we need strong clubs and leagues that new participants can join. The clubs and leagues, in turn, need to be able to engage with additional numbers. Some clubs and leagues continue to be quite closed to new people and new audiences, appealing mainly to 'people like us' or like-minded members. In these cases, recruitment is difficult, participation growth complex and long-term sustainability low. This work will address the organisation of these clubs and leagues to ensure they are welcoming and well organised and will proactively develop growth possibilities, working within the local community and with wider local stakeholders.

A well-managed club is organised and can meet challenges.

A well-structured club has the ability to share the workload around a number of volunteers.

Strong and healthy clubs provide a good base for sport to be played and can be the focal point for attracting new participants.

Strong communication between BSUK and clubs / leagues will enable this.

Offers / Activity

Consolidate and strengthen existing clubs and leagues, improving their administration, development outlook and links to the community:

o Use Sportivate to develop community and school-club links.

o Develop a system for retaining and rewarding volunteers.

o Maintain a Club-Centric approach, with Point People on staff working regularly with each club / league:

Continue providing information and support to clubs and leagues.

o Use facility enhancements as an incentive and tool for club development.


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o Use 'epicentres' as an example of good practice for club development across all key areas (finance, development work, structure etc).

o Develop the financial strength of clubs:

Encouraging CASC to be taken up.

Encourage clubs to embrace multi-sport possibilities.

o Use Clubmark to create a minimum operating standard for clubs with and without youth sections.

o Use Team Up to create a knowledge base for organising effective clubs.

o Continue providing a CRB service.

Develop new growth strategies for clubs / leagues to include more teams:

o Integrate other growth areas (Higher Education, Further Education, New Adult Leagues) with club / league work.

o Develop a customer-facing approach.

o Recruit and support key volunteers / enablers.

o Run Beginners Baseball and Softball programmes.

o Organise pick-up games.


Support from BSUK staff, helping club / league volunteers.

Some support from CSPs and LAs, delivering support directly to clubs in terms of training and possible local partnerships.

Community Volunteering Service links – to help support the recruitment of volunteers into clubs.

Support from KKP.

Outcomes

This will enable delivery of our programmes particularly in terms of Existing Adult and Youth Structures.

Improved relationships between BSUK and clubs / leagues, empowering clubs / leagues to become bigger and more effective at delivering the sports.

Clubs and leagues will have better links to the community and will be more welcoming to a broad range of new members.

Cost

SEng BSUK

Literature and online tools

£8,000

TOTAL £8,000


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Volunteers will be more highly skilled, with their status and contributions to the sports well recognised.

Stronger sports, with improved local structures, will deliver more appealing, quality playing opportunities.

Clubs and leagues will have a more solid platform to develop their place within the community – physically and in terms of community engagement / visibility.

Tools and resources will be well-used and will lead to the growth of these organisations. Clubs / leagues will feel that growth is 'easy to achieve' because of the support offered.

When

Resources to be set up and released by October 2013.

Equipment scheme and new team start-up support will be offered from 1 April 2013.

Volunteer Reward and Recognition will take place in each of the four years, as will development conferences and volunteer training courses.

Staff and partners will continue to work with clubs and leagues throughout the four years.


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Marketing

Organising Idea

Increase participation in baseball and softball by effectively marketing the sports to attract new players, coaches and volunteers into our sporting community, while helping clubs and leagues maintain existing membership thresholds.

Develop an appealing, professional and new-participant focused introduction to the sports, targeting people who will be experiencing them for the first time.

Promote the sports and enhance their profile and mass appeal by making use of modern forms and channels of communication.

Insight

Baseball and softball are unique products in the marketplace of British sport. By charting a focused strategy for how we package the sports and communicate participation offers to the wider public, we will be able to attract participants who:

o Find the international stature of baseball and softball alluring.

o Are unsuccessful in more traditional sports such as football, cricket and rugby.

o Are younger and therefore more likely to participate in baseball and softball for years to come.

Ideas:

o Success of the Baseball Club House concept.

o Strength of new media communications within both communities.

o First impressions are important and we have a great opportunity to make a good one (as most people have not yet experienced the sports due to our current low profile in the sporting landscape). Raising the profile of baseball and softball is critical to building awareness and demand.

Offers / Activity

Access new audiences,directing them towards playing and volunteering opportunities by investing in social media: advertising BSUK development programmes and opportunities on Facebook and building our core of Twitter followers.

o Ongoing website Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) work to ensure that interested participants reach BSUK, BBF and BSF landing pages and are able to find specific details of upcoming baseball and softball sporting opportunities.

Develop a relevant and interesting playing offer for new participants. Our Hit the Pitch programme should be widely recognised as a strong and customer-facing entry point for the sports, offering a solution to participation that considers personal investment of time and money, travel time, hard-to-source equipment, the burden of pre-formed teams etc.


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o Partner with quality uniform and equipment suppliers to provide cost-effective options for new players in our sports.

Strengthen local baseball clubs and softball leagues to welcome new participants and keep existing ones by providing customisable marketing and recruitment resources in a user-friendly and modern online portal, supported in person by staff.

o Strengthen a sense of pride and achievement within current participants so that they encourage and are part of the community of the sports by generating consistent and relevant news content, through various modern communication channels, presenting the sports as exciting and interesting, both internally and externally.

o Grow the Hot Corner e-newsletter by investing in online advertising to sign up new subscribers, and pay for domestic baseball and softball event and issue-based reporters to generate news content for Hot Corner and other BaseballSoftballUK communications channels.

Engage new participants and anchor them to the sports by utilising direct communications at key, identifiable touchpoints.

o Ensure that new players and workforce volunteers receive clear and timely welcome materials and 'next steps' guidance about their player pathway following their first point of contact, which will either be through a website enquiry or taking part in a baseball or softball taster session.


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o Tether these new participants to the wider baseball and softball community by quickly providing friendly, teammate-focused channels of inclusion, such as subscription to BSUK e-newsletters, invitations to upcoming events and engagement in social networking groups.

o Reconnect with new participants via planned, time-specific follow up to development sessions, competitions and social gatherings, whilst being careful not to inundate participants with unnecessary or unwanted messages.

o Maintain close ties to our longtime participants and those that have left the sports, working to enhance their involvement by interesting them in new roles and responsibilities within the baseball and softball community (e.g., coaching, umpiring, etc).

Raise the profile of baseball and softball by effectively leveraging our promotions, press engagement and a prominent domestic events programme against the awareness and perceptions of the sports in the UK.

o Strengthen our understanding of how our sports are viewed in this country by using market analysis tools to identify common perceptions and misconceptions, referencing (but independent to) Sport England data.

o Stage high-profile baseball and softball events to build awareness of the sports among the general public and draw interest from national and regional press outlets. Highlight achievements in other areas of our work, such as facilities development, via domestic and international competition opportunities such as the London Baseball & Softball Week, scheduled for 1-7 July 2013.


BSUK Marketing, Communications and Events Manager.

BSUK Development Staff.

External marketing and web development (site, SEO, social media) agencies.

Outcomes

Ability to deliver our planned programmes and achieve projected participation numbers.

The profile of our sports in this country will be raised, with a positive impression left about the sports. High-profile events, like the London Baseball & Softball Week, will increase our standing and awareness among the domestic population and international governing bodies and agencies.

Hit the Pitch will be a successful and recognised brand, introducing many new people into regular play across the country.

The number of people who are exploring the possibilities of playing will have increased and will be regularly monitored as part of a review and feedback cycle.

Cost

SEng BSUK

Accessing New Audiences

£12,000

Developing the Playing Offer

£16,000

Marketing and Recruitment Resources

£8,000

Developing Modern Communication Channels

£8,000

Market Analysis £6,000

Events £15,000 £150,850

TOTAL £65,000 £150,850


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People playing the sports will feel more pride about their involvement and will encourage others to become involved.

When

The majority of this work will happen seasonally, specifically the elements focused on attracting new players in the January-June period each year. Some work will be undertaken to communicate in the off-season to help promote continued involvement and feedback.

Market analysis is a one-off activity, to be conducted at two points in 2013 – April / May and post-season in September / October. This may be repeated every four years and consideration should be given to a follow-up being conducted in Oct 2015 – Jan 2016.

Marketing work should be done on an invest-and-review basis, with the effectiveness of individual campaign-spends monitored live via online analytics and development department attendance / growth results.

London Baseball & Softball Week will be staged on 1-7 July 2013 to include domestic and international and adult and youth slowpitch softball, fastpitch softball and baseball play.


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Facilities

Organising Idea

The right facilities provided in the right places at the right time, at an affordable price. We want to build and enhance a range of facilities capable of effectively hosting local, regional, national and international baseball and softball competition and development activity, and provide guidance and support to influence the development of local facilities to increase satisfaction with the sporting experience and grow participation in both sports. See the BSUK Facilities Strategy 2011-17.

Insight

Participation increases achieved within the 2009-13 period and projected for 2013-17 mean that there is a growing participation base within the sports. This base is extending the number of groups that play in parks (eg, in softball leagues) as well as the number of participants playing in well-organised club and league structures. As there is a significant influx of new participants into the sports, there will also be a corresponding movement of these participants through the player pathways into more demanding structures, and along with this will come greater demands for sport-specific facilities. This means that work on developing facilities will need to continue in line with that started in the 2009-13 period, focusing on finding and accessing new park facilities and developing new and appropriate sport-specific facilities for the existing – and expanding – playing community.

Offers / Activity

National Facilities. Enhance developments at the two current “Epicentre” hubs in Milton Keynes and Farnham Park and to extend to a third in the north of England. This will be the sole use of the applied-for Exchequer Capital.

Local Facilities. Continue support to local club and league facilities by supporting applications, where strategically sound, to Sport England's alternative capital Exchequer and Lottery funds.

Resource and know-how. Build a resource of technical information, advice, sources of materials, facility costs and maintenance for use by facility operators.

Access. Work to ensure the appropriate access is given to facilities as necessary, including working with the Royal Parks to increase capacity (to allow demand to be accommodated), working with universities and colleges to provide appropriate tournament venues and brokering access for newly-forming clubs and leagues.

National Training Facility, Milton Keynes. Work with MK Council and other national sports based in the city to develop a strong centre for the development of players, coaches, administrators and volunteers.

What players say...

“No dedicated softball diamonds are slowing the increase in participants in the sport. We have to compete with other sports for playing area.”

What players say...

“Recent grants for improving facilities at several baseball clubs in the country has been a real boost. The effect has been very positive and we have had great growth in the number of players joining the club. But we need to improve facilities further if we are to continue to make such positive steps.”

http://baseballsoftballuk.com/document/bsuk-facilities-strategy


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Approach

Develop a knowledge base for developing facilities, including guidance on grant funding, planning permission, project management, field development, technical specifications, procurement, engaging suppliers, lease negotiations etc.

Work with Local Authorities and national partners (such as the Football Foundation, Rugby Football Union etc) to develop multi-sport club facilities.

Prepare a bid to host the 2016 World Baseball Classic Qualifier.

Further develop the National Training Centre site at Milton Keynes.

Support clubs and leagues in developing appropriate facilities through national funding schemes (such as Places People Play, Protecting Playing Fields, Mayors Fund and similar).

Complete Phase 2 of the Farnham Park (South Bucks) facility project.

Extend access to Regents Park


BSUK staff will do the majority of this work, supporting club / league volunteers, building partnerships with other organisations and delivering strategic facility development plans. They will do this in conjunction with:

o Support from Sport England's regional staff teams and CSPs.

o Partnerships with other sports, specifically football, rugby, lacrosse, netball.

o Support from the Institute of Groundsmanship in offering education courses.

o Partnership with Major League Baseball (on the World Baseball Classic Qualifier bid) and the International and European Federations for baseball and softball.

o Collaboration with Little League Baseball and Softball International.

Cost

SEng BSUK

National Facilities (Exchequer Capital)

£300,000 £300,000

TOTAL £300,000 £300,000

When

Farnham Park – Phase 2 will commence in 2013/14.

Milton Keynes – Phase 2 will commence in 2014/15.

Northern Epicentre – Phase 1 will commence in 2016/17.


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Section 8: Core costs

Core Cost Overview

BSUK's approach to its core costs and back-end functions is geared to maintaining a delicate balance between providing an exceptional service in terms of administration, financial management, governance and employee support and doing this in the most cost-effective and streamlined way possible. Since we were first established in 2000 we have been 'housed' in the offices of Major League Baseball and pay a rent much below the market rate. We have regularly sourced cheaper IT and administrative solutions, such as only using open-source software. In order to get to where we are today we have relied on the willingness and dedication of the people who work in our sport, many of whom work numerous additional unpaid hours and bring skills to the table that are not represented in their salary. However, since 2007, our salary structure has been aligned to Unison's national pay scale which guards against arbitrary payment decisions and maintains a cost-effective workforce.

Now, in 2012, we have reached a plateau of sorts where the balance is at risk of not being sustainable. We are outgrowing our office space and can no longer rely on assistance such as our staff being able to store equipment at their homes. In order to support the level of maturation that BSUK has reached, there are significant steps that we need to take to continue to progress.

Even though we are seeking an increased investment into our back-end functions, our guiding principle will continue to be to operate as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible. Additional funding to this area will enable us to make choices for the good of the organisation, such as buying into the Sport & Recreation Alliance shared services scheme without having to sacrifice front-end delivery. Additionally, investment in areas such as staff development will help reduce staff turnover and create a more effective staff team. We have some partnership funding in this area and the significantly subsidised rate that we are charged for a serviced office has an additional value of around £25k over what we pay. Additionally, we have negotiated Service Level Agreements with our member Federations for a level of administrative services that brings in an additional £7k each year of NGB funding.

It should be noted that the core costs included in this plan are specifically for the delivery of our 2013-17 Whole Sport Plan outcomes, rather than the servicing of a wider strategy for our sports. Additional delivery against our wider strategy is being driven through our member Federations and volunteers, and / or relies on back-end economies of scale such as our website provision. In short, there is no increase to our core costs in order to drive other objectives. We have costed our core provision by identifying the costs currently involved in functioning as a going concern, and then have considered what additional provision is needed in order to continue to develop as an organisation – this is the list above.

Core areas that need greater investment are the following:

Increased office provision.

Increased storage capacity.

CPD opportunities for staff.

Provision to develop governance.

Ability to buy into shared services such as HR and Child Protection.

Website development.

Recruitment costs.

Increased IT provision.


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Financial Overview

Overall we are seeking a £350k increase in investment into our core costs over the next four years. The main components of this increase are contained in the box above, and this includes a a 2 year provision of a staff member to drive our governance work. Additionally there ia an 11% increase in salary costs across 5 staff members to cover the cost of salary increments due in the next four years. It should also be noted that in a number of areas we are planning to spend less in this period than the last or are remaining at roughly the same level. BSUK has always taken the responsibility of spending public monies effeciently and frugally very seriously, and has reviewed the genuine need for each projected cost with care. As is demonstrated, we have only a small amount of partnership funding contribution in this area and so our genuine financial need is apparent. It should also be noted that as our organisation matures in outlook, core costs will escalate. Expenditure in areas such as CPD and access to shared services may increase the cost of running the organisation, but time has shown that this approach can drive effectiveness and lead to savings in other areas such as staff turnover and related costs.

And as referenced above, we have reached the point that some of the cost-cutting we have made in the previous two 4-year cycles is unsustainable, and may in fact be creating an obstacle to greater results at the delivery end.

Sport England £1,620,404 NGB Funding £0 Partner Funding £14,000

Total Cost £1,634,404


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Governance

Organising Idea

Adhere to all seven principles of the Voluntary Code of Good Governance.

Insight

In 2011 BSUK signed up to the Sport & Recreation Alliance Voluntary Code of Good Governance. BSUK has consistently focused attention on improving its governance, and the seven guiding principles provide a clear framework for this work going forward. Therefore, our strategy is to adhere to all seven principles within a set time-frame.

Recent discussions at Board and Governance Committee meetings have identified some of the specific actions needed to adhere to the Code. Additionally, these meetings have recognised that a key factor in future success is the need to develop and improve the governance of the Federations that are members of BSUK. This has been reinforced by Sport England’s recently launched requirements concerning Representative Members of the Board. In order for the Federations to be in a position to make Board appointments based on the open recruitment and skills’ analysis requirement will necessitate focussed work in this area.

Because of the symbiotic relationship of the three organisations (BSUK, BBF and BSF), and the fact that the Federations are the two members of BSUK Ltd, the focus on BSUK governance cannot happen in isolation.

BSUK has always been clear that focusing on good governance is the right thing to do, for two key reasons. The first is that NGBs operate in a complex environment with many different stakeholders, and, in the case of BSUK, are in receipt of public monies. It is therefore imperative that we can demonstrate professionalism, strategic focus and transparency. The second is that good governance is an essential component of the sustainable development of sport. This focus is of course reinforced by the importance – and link to funding – placed on mechanisms such as Self Assurance (see here) and the on-site audits required by Sport England and on the work in this area by numerous organisations including Sport England and the Sport & Recreation Alliance.

Our focus on governance, as well as the specific requirements laid out by Sport England, have reinforced the need for us to address the governance of our three connected organisations to ensure that the sum of the parts operates consistently. Additionally, we have made a commitment to both Federations to work to ensure their long-term sustainability (with or without BSUK), and this requires that we reach a point where the Federations can drive good governance without support.

Analysis of Approach

It is proposed that the outcomes in this area be primarily driven by creating a temporary post (2 years), with some additional support for training and updating BSUK’s governing documents. This proposal has been considered against an alternate approach of managing this work through a consultant. Our conclusion is that our proposed approach would demonstrate much better value for money. Based on the low-end of industry-standard rates (i.e. £350 per day), for the same cost we would access 36 fewer days resource. Coupled with this is the added value of a post that will enable on-going consistent support to volunteers, as well as work to specific measurable outcomes. We strongly feel that our planned role represents a better use of these resources.


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Offers / Activity

BSUK, BBF and BSF consistently demonstrating the 7 principles of the Voluntary Code for Good Governance:

o A full-time two year post to support governance work across all three organisations.

o Establish mechanisms for recruiting representative Directors based on skills and through an open recruitment process.

o Establish clear recruitment procedures. Extend network to make use of equality partners to allow for a broader reach. Maintain register of possible candidates.

o Use Board sub-committees in order to increase the pool of available talent and better plan for succession.

o Identify the training needs of Board members and source appropriate training opportunities.

o Support the Federations Boards to set a vision, mission and purpose that aligns with the principles of the partnership with BSUK.

o Embed standard processes and policies across the Boards and sub-committees.

o Review and monitor Federation governance through the Self-Assurance system.

Who Will Do This?

This work will be led by BSUK Operations staff, including the new temporary position of Governance Officer, as well as by Federation volunteers.

Outcome

Effective and related governance systems across all three organisations.

Sustainable Federations with sound processes and planned succession.

Strategically-focused organisations with the result of enabling more efficient delivery on the ground. Evidence of the connection between governance and delivery has been demonstrated in the 2009-13 cycle. The BSUK Board has set a clear strategy and this has been kept on-track and on-target by the monitoring and evaluation processes that have resulted and which clearly tie delivery to strategic outcomes.

Economies of scale from the three organisations working in concert.

Cost

SEng BSUK

Staff, NI, Expenses £73,000

Governance Training £6,000

Governing Documents Legal Support

£8,000

TOTAL £87,000

When

The work of system-building, establishing processes and upskilling the Boards would be carried out in years’ 1-2 of the 2013-17 cycle, after which the process of embedding this work should be manageable through BSUK staff and Federation volunteers.


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Commercial

Organising Idea

Resource our wider Strategic Plan, decrease our dependence on government funding and provide partnership funding by increasing our commercial revenue.

Insight

We have a long-term objective to lessen our dependence on government funding, and have historically taken steps where possible to try to increase our commercial revenue.

In 2011-12, 92.5% of our income came from government funding streams, of which 89% was from Sport England. Throughout the last decade, BSUK has not been able to fund to any significant degree work that falls outside of the funded programmes agreed with Sport England. This has limited our ability to achieve outcomes beyond English community programming.

In light of this, we have formed a time-limited group led by two of our Independent Directors with relevant experience to work on our commercial strategy. The view of this group is that BSUK does not have the necessary skills on staff to progress this and therefore the most cost-effective and productive way to move forward would be to outsource this work.

The agreed strategy is for BSUK to prepare a brief to go out to tender seeking organisations to bid to to audit our commercial properties and then pursue potential funding opportunities. Specifically, we would be looking to identify a partner or partners to invest in BSUK over a period.

As part of our Whole Sport Plan, we need to demonstrate additional partnership funding as well as to lessen our dependence on Sport England funding.

Offers / Activity

Outsource commercial and business development by going to tender on partnership possibilities to agencies:

o Audit properties.

o Write a commercial strategy.

o Consult on the development of our programmes into products and assets.

o Sell our products to potential commercial partners.

Turn our programmes into products and assets.

Sharpen our focus on the customer and developing consumer-based solutions.

Cost

SEng BSUK

Commercial Outsourced

£10,000

TOTAL £10,000

When

Tendering and appointment of a partner firm will take place in Summer 2012. This partnership will be active throughout the 2013-17 cycle and beyond, and will be regularly reviewed by the Board.


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Create a long-term commercial strategy for BSUK.

Who Will Do This?

The BSUK Board will lead the appointment of a commercial agency.

Once appointed, the commercial agency will work as per above.

BSUK staff will support this commercial work, specifically the Marketing and Events Manager and the Charities and Corporate Relationship Manager.

Outcome

There will be funds in place to resource our wider Strategic Plan.

BSUK's turnover will increase and its dependence on Sport England funding will decrease.

There will be an increased opportunity to use available funds as partnership funding towards achieving outcomes.

Funds generated may be more flexible in their use (and less tied to outcome delivery).

BSUK will have a commercial strategy directing our work and focusing our resources.

BSUK will be a more commercially-focused organisation with a greater commitment to operating as a business.


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Section 9: Financial Overview

BSUK is heavily reliant on Sport England funding. Currently, we bring in less than £65k of partner funding each year, although we are looking for ways to increase this amount over the next four years. However, BSUK is entirely focused on driving our development targets. Unlike traditional NGBs, BSUK functions exclusively as the development arm of two self-funding Federations (the British Baseball and Softball Federations). This unique arrangement means that the Federations use the income received from members to cover the cost of activities that are not explicitly geared towards increasing participation. The result is that BSUK is free to focus entirely on this area, and can fully apply any funding received externally or achieved internally on targets which are completely aligned with the outcomes we agree with Sport England.

The only exception to this approach is that in the 2013-17 cycle we are looking to provide some support to the governance arrangements of all three organisations. We see this as critical to our success because of the symbiotic relationship between the three organisations. BSUK has always been clear that focusing on good governance is the right thing to do, for two key reasons. The first is that NGBs operate in a complex environment with many different stakeholders, and, in the case of BSUK, are in receipt of public monies. It is therefore imperative that we can demonstrate professionalism, strategic focus and transparency. The second is that good governance is an essential component of the sustainable development of sport. This focus is of course reinforced by the importance – and link to funding – placed on mechanisms such as Self Assurance and the on-site audits required by Sport England and on the work in this area by numerous organisations including Sport England and the Sport & Recreation Alliance. Our consistent 'green' rating in the Self Assurance process over the past six years has demonstrated our commitment to governance. It is now important to continue to develop BSUK's governance, as well as to bring the governance of our partner Federations up to the same level.

Budget

Since BSUK was first included in the Whole Sport Plan process in 2005 we have taken the decision to primarily invest in staff. Our analysis has supported the view that in doing so we are maximising the impact of the investment we receive. Having the right staff in place has allowed us deliver planned work, develop and increase the size of our workforce (volunteers, coaches etc) and help unlock additional investment into the sports.

In this Whole Sport Plan we are seeking to slightly extend our staff provision to enable work in talent development, governance and a greater geographic reach. We continue to plot all staff costs against Unison's published salary scale so that our approach to salaries is consistent and transparent. As a result, the majority of our budget was straightforward to cost. Our remaining back-end (core) costs are based on maintaining our current spending level, and only increasing expenditure in the specific areas detailed in the Core Costs section.

Our costings for infrastructure programmes, as well as for our intended Commercial activity (under Core) are fully detailed in those sections. We asked the responsible staff to provide budgets for each of these areas which were fully interrogated for affordability, value for money and the effectiveness and purpose of these programmes.


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Assessment of Price

As stated at the outset, BSUK is heavily dependent on the investment we receive from Sport England and this extends to our need for the support of our core costs. For this reason, the per person (in terms of increased participation) cost of delivery includes a percentage related to our back-end systems. Because of the reality of this equation, we have concentrated on ensuring that our core costs are as efficient and cost-effective as possible. We have a heavily subsidised head office arrangement with Major League Baseball, and always look for low-cost solutions to necessary expenses such as open-source software, use of shared services and outlying staff working from home. We are aware that continuing to operate on such a tight basis is unsustainable, and at times works against efficiency. With a little further investment into areas such as staff development and HR support, we may achieve less staff turnover. Additionally, our current tightness of provision means that in the event of an unforeseen staffing issue, such as long-term sickness, we have no choice but to place additional demands on staff who are already stretched to capacity.

However, the per-person cost would improve considerably if we were to apply later in the cycle for funds to further increase participation. Having already covered our core and infrastructure costs within this plan, we could potentially deliver additional numbers for a much lower rate of investment. This would obviously provide a more cost-effective approach.

It should also be noted that doubling the size of our sports over the 2009-13 period has meant that it costs more to support and sustain this growth. In the process of identifying the growth that we can achieve going forward, we have increased our understanding of the importance of retaining people within our sports, and the associated costs of doing so.

We came into the 2009-13 cycle having achieved significant reserves and have had to contribute around £180k to the cost of delivery to sustain our structure in this period. This distorts the picture of what delivery cost in 2009-13 and leaves us needing to find a way to maintain and increase reserves to an appropriate level.

Comparison with Previous Cycle

In 2009-13 we received £2.7m, from Sport England. As stated above we were able to contribute £180k to our WSP costs, taking the total to approximately £2.9m. In 2013-17 we are seeking an investment of just under £4.2m in order to deliver 5,000 new participants. The difference in cost can be identified in the following key areas:

One additional staff position in order to extend the regional reach of our work (Yorkshire and South West).

A two-year additional governance post to work with BSUK and the member Federations to improve governance levels across all three organisations.

Provision to manage incremental increases to staff salaries and pension provision.

England talent development intervention.

Expanded focus on workforce, marketing and an epicentre focus (identified in the plan as key to driving participation).

Additional office provision (to enable outlying staff to use CSP or similar office space on an occasional basis).

Human Resources support (in order to buy into shared services).


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It should be noted that without the cost of talent development, facilities and governance support, the amount that we are applying for is £3.7m which would be an increase of £1m on our 2009-13 award in order to cover the core costs, infrastructure and programme costs.

Salary and Pension

BSUK currently has 16 full-time staff members at a total cost of £2,024,000 and are planning for the same number of staff in the next cycle at a cost of £2,256,000, therefore an additional £232,000 over 4 years. Broken down further this works out to a £14k increase per staff member, or an increase of £3.6k per person each year. The purpose of this additional salary provision is to manage increment increases due and to address any cost-of-living increases dictated by our pegging salaries to the Unison National pay-scale.

In the 2009-13 many of our staff positions were placed artificially low on the pay-scale for the type of work involved for reasons of affordability. This has certainly led to additional staff turnover, and so it is important for us to be able to review the appropriate salary bands for some positions. The increase we are seeking will not enable much movement, but will allow for some necessary improvements. This in turn should improve our staff retention levels which will be critical in achieving our delivery outcomes.

Additionally, we have taken the decision that we would like to introduce ‘portfolio’ work areas in 2013-17. The concept behind this is that staff can apply to take a lead in a specific area of work such as safeguarding, diversity, etc. that is not specifically part of an existing job description. This would have significant professional development value, and BSUK would like to support this by providing a small financial incentive for the additional work taken on.

We are also planning for a £19k increase in staff pension costs. This does not reflect a real change in the current pension provision, but rather reflects that we introduced a matched –contribution pension part-way through the current funding cycle, and have phased the level of contribution up to the current 3% over 3 years. From the point of introduction the BSUK Board was committed to the aspiration of offering a 3% contribution in part because of the low grading of salary positions and because this was the single benefit that BSUK could offer to staff. BSUK moved to the 3% offer in 2012-13 once the Board Financial Committee felt that it was affordable.

Value for Money

At the start of the current Whole Sport Plan cycle baseball and softball had a baseline of 10,000 players participating in the sport. We are currently on target to have grown to 21,000 in this cycle with an award of £2.7m, which can be broken down to a per-participant cost of £128. In 2013-17 BSUK is seeking investment of £3.7m (excluding England talent and facilities) to grow the sports to 26,000 at a cost of £144 per participant. We feel this amount represents excellent value for money as it will have grown the sport significantly and the additional investment will also enable vital development of the England talent pathway, improved governance and additional facility development – all of which will support the retention of new and existing participants within our sport.


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Financial Need

As described above, BSUK and the British Baseball and Softball Federations have a unique structure. As part of our 2007 restructure, BSUK evolved into the development agency for its two member Federations. Since that time, BSUK has been entirely focused on the delivery of targets agreed with Sport England, while the Federations are responsible for national teams and the activities of affiliated clubs, teams and leagues. This clear separation of remit ensures that BSUK has a singularity of focus on the objects for which it receives investment. It also serves to mitigate against the risk of change at the Federation level. However, it also means that our need for Sport England investment is high. As BSUK functions entirely as a development agency it has no access to the membership income derived by the Federations. Equally, BSUK is not in a position to drive significant commercial investment, though we would like to explore this arena by approaching external agencies to bid to deliver against a commercial strategy.

Partnership Working

We see huge value in achieving cost-efficiencies by working with other organisations. In fact, our entire structure – the bringing together of two NGBs – is built on this concept. BSUK has previously worked in partnership with the RFL and with a number of hockey clubs. In 2004 we looked closely at the benefits of sharing back-end functions with the National Rounders Association. At present we are in discussion with English Lacrosse about opportunities for shared working. We have previously bought shared Child Protection support services, along with other sports, and are keen to do this going forward in the area of Human Resources. This will enable us to increase our organisational effectiveness at a very low cost.

Approach to Additional Work in 2013-17 Period

It is intended that we will seek additional resource from Sport England to explore three new areas:

1. Charities Workplace Initiative. Further potential growth through a charities and workplace project (approx £650,000), which could lead to an additional 4,500 regular participants.

2. People with Learning Difficulties. BSUK has an appetite to develop an offer for people with learning difficulties. This would be for an additional 500 participants through targeted programming and would cost approximately £95,000.

3. Governance. In addition to the governance work outlined in this bid, there is more work to do to review the current structure of BSUK and the two Federations to ensure that risk is minimised and effectiveness maximised. This additional work would be an anticipated cost of £80,000.


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Whole Sport Plan Budget

CORE COSTS 2009-13 2013-17 Salaries, NI £822,617 £934,000

Temporary Staff £4,138 £20,000

Travel and Subsistence £41,826 £50,000

Staff Training £28,605 £56,000

Board Expenses £13,903 £18,000

General Office £26,400 £28,000

Insurance £11,000 £14,000

Pension Costs £20,000 £27,405

Property Costs including Office Costs £63,258 £130,000

Audit and Accountancy £47,093 £55,000

Finance Charges £14,060 £30,000

Communications £45,119 £42,000

Legal £4,519 £8,000

IT Infrastructure and Systems Costs £96,418 £66,000

Governance £87,000

Commercial £10,000

Storage £43,262 £60,000

INFRASTRUCTURE COSTS

National Staff £470,202 £426,000


Regional Staff £732,217 £910,000


Pension Costs £37,000 £48,405

Academies £45,552 £36,000

Coaching £52,000 £136,000

Workforce £40,000

Marketing £175,941 £234,500

Regional Programme Budgets £95,874 £140,000

Club Development £8,000

Regional / Epicentre Growth £40,000

NATIONAL PROGRAMMES £87,820

New Adult Structures £145,000

Existing Adult and Youth Structures £12,000

New Structures for Young People £40,000

England Talent Development £150,000

FACILITIES £300,000

TOTAL DELIVERY COST £3,136,015 £4,436,910 Sport England Contribution £2,706,934 £4,193,510

Partnership Funding £250,722 £243,400

BSUK Contribution £178,359


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Evidence Portfolio

Played in Every Park Strategy - Draft

Introduction

BaseballSoftballUK’s broader organisational strategy is built around a central mission – to increase participation – and a specific vision: to see our sports 'Played in Every Park'.

To that end, our staff are actively developing several areas of work that are not circumscribed by the planning outlined in our Whole Sport Plan 2013-2017. We believe these far-reaching goals are integral to the success of our sports and will contribute to participation growth and an enhanced profile for baseball and softball in the long term.

Key objectives in our “Played in Every Park” strategy include:

Producing quality events (and up-scaling existing events) as a means of boosting satisfaction among our participant community and exciting the general


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public about our sports and their unique offer.

Engaging school-aged children (14 and under) with enjoyable, skills-based baseball and softball activities and thereby forging a player pathway for tomorrow’s international stars.

Enhancing the nation's existing leagues and tournaments in order to bring Britain in line with the baseball and softball competition structures available in other countries.

Supporting Team GB. Despite a very successful recent history in international competition, our baseball and softball national teams receive no government funding whatsoever, and are increasingly in need of logistical and operational support, as well as a helping hand in finding and securing sustainable funding for their future.

Growing baseball and softball in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, which are geographic areas with rich histories in the sports and where several thriving leagues and clubs still look to BaseballSoftballUK and the Federations as their national governing body.

Enhancing the international stature of British baseball and softball by providing stable representation at overseas Congresses and events, helping other nations to view the United Kingdom as a viable partner and even a worldwide leader in the growth and development of baseball and softball.

Objectives

1. Increase regular participation in established teams to the point where baseball and softball are recognised as 'Played in Every Park'.

2. Produce professional and internationally talented players on a regular basis.

3. Achieve international recognition as effective and well-governed sports.


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Strategic Plan

WHEN WHAT WHERE HOW

Phase One

By 2017 Played in the big three cities – London, Manchester and Birmingham (and elsewhere).

The size of the sports will have tripled (since 2009) in terms of the number of teams regularly playing.

Geographic reach will be configured so that the sports are developed around the major motorway networks.

Along and around major motorways. Further develop current reach in NW, SE, London, Midlands. Develop new reach into:

Bristol / Bath and surrounds, Swindon, Gloucester.

Yorkshire – Leeds, Sheffield, York, Harrogate.

Use existing strongholds, develop new teams.

Scale up development by adding two new focus areas.

Clearly identify regional priorities, supported by hands-on work from regional staff.

Re-prioritise structure to develop new teams and programmes around Milton Keynes and Farnham Park.

Phase Two

By 2021 Played in many cities and some towns. Extend to NE and SW, specifically and first to cities. In latter stages, extend to cover East region. Extend to new towns in established regions.

Arms-length support of well-run organisations.

Close support of new areas, specifically the SW and NE.

Emphasis on spread within regions to new cities and towns.

Phase Three

By 2030 Played near you. Complete extension to East region. Regional staff in each region. Focus on new towns in all regions, particularly where they are close to other competition on offer. Respond to franchise interest, prioritising new towns and cities.

Two simultaneous strategies – a Jump Strategy to ignite and fuel critical momentum for growth and a Long Game Strategy to continue established rate of growth. Jump Strategy (big mobilisation phase)

Franchise models, offered and taken up locally.

Creating the new craze.

Emphasis on promotion and media profile. Long Game Strategy

Extend development reach, focusing more on new areas, specifically remaining towns not offering the sports.

Continue to provide arms-length support for existing clubs, coaches, competition and volunteers.

Phase Four By 2040 Played in Every Park


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Overview of Baseball and Softball

Baseball Softball

What are baseball and softball?

Baseball is a truly international sport. It has worldwide popularity and is played in one form or another in most countries around the world.

The International Baseball Federation (IBAF) is the global governing body and represents 118 national member federations.

The sport of baseball is thought to have originated in the United Kingdom as a derivative of cricket or earlier games such as ball-and-trap. Recently-unearthed historical evidence dispels many of the myths placing baseball’s origins in the United States. Of course, baseball is the “national pastime” in America, but it is very much a British sport. In fact, Great Britain won the first-ever Baseball World Cup in 1938.

Like other bat-and-ball sports such as rounders, baseball is a game

Softball is derived from baseball, and has developed over the years into two main formats: slowpitch softball and fastpitch softball, which are played widely around the world.

The International Softball Federation (ISF) is the global governing body and represents 127 national member federations.

In all kinds of softball the ball itself is larger (12” in circumference) than a baseball (9”), and the distance between the bases is shorter. This means that more pitches are batted into play and the style of defense differs dramatically between the two sports.

Fastpitch softball is a quick, competitive and challenging game. It is typically played by all-female and sometimes all-male teams. In North America and elsewhere, fastpitch is the predominant bat-and-ball sport for women and is a counterpart to baseball, which


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Baseball Softball

between two teams on a purpose-built playing area. It involves pitching (bowling) the ball to a batter (batsman), who attempts to put it in play by hitting (striking) the ball with a bat. Typical games last two to three hours. Given the fast pace of the action and the long duration of the match, baseball is generally a serious and competitive sport compared to more recreational versions such as slowpitch softball and rounders.

Baseball is recognisable the world over, and thanks to Hollywood and modern business parlance, the British population is au fait with the structure, sentiment and jargon of the sport, even if the game is not widely played in Britain (roughly 3,000 participants).

The strongest influence on the sport is exerted by Major League Baseball (MLB), which administers the elite professional league based in North America. MLB’s reach extends to all baseball-playing nations, however, with professional and semi-professional leagues operating in Asia, Europe and now Australia, and major worldwide investments in talent development and infrastructure, such as MLB's recent investment in BaseballSoftballUK’s facility development project in Farnham Park, South Bucks.

tends to be played by men. Like baseball, women's fastpitch softball was an Olympic medal sport through the 2008 Games in Beijing. And like baseball, the ball is pitched to the batter at a considerable speed, though the pitch is thrown overarm in baseball and with an underarm motion in fastpitch softball.

Slowpitch softball – as its name suggests – is a more accessible version of the game in which the ball is pitched underhand in a high, slow arc, giving the batter a very good opportunity to swing and hit the ball into play. It is easy for new participants to find success at the game even without previous experience or an athletic skill set. Slowpitch is easy to learn but also has many intricacies, making it complex enough to keep players interested and engaged. As a result, new players derive instant enjoyment from initial success and existing or returning players rarely lose their passion for the game.

Slowpitch is the most popular of the sports in the UK with roughly 13,000 participants, despite the game being relatively new to these shores. The first long-lasting softball organisation in Britain was formed just 28 years ago.

Slowpitch softball is very social and is mostly played as a co-ed game (50% men, 50% women on a mixed-gender team). It can be played recreationally or competitively. It is the sport for everyone.

Where are the sports played?

In parks and multi-sport venues.

British teams are spread across the country in most major cities and many rural towns.

Universities and schools.

In parks and multi-sport venues.

Softball is mostly played in city-based leagues but has also found some success in small towns.

Universities and schools.

When are the sports April to September, with winter/spring training in the other April through September outdoors, with quick-paced indoor


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Baseball Softball

played? months.

Youth play on Saturdays.

Adult play on Sundays.

There is a new trend towards local league play on week night evenings, particularly for team training and skill development.

Occasional tournaments.

slowpitch softball events throughout the winter months.

League play on week night evenings.

One- and two-day tournaments played around the country on most weekends during the season.

How are the sports structured in the UK?

British baseball is built around the club model, with single-team clubs and multi-team franchises providing the vast majority of active domestic participants. Clubs comprise the voting membership of the NGB.

Clubs/teams have home fields and games are played either “home” or “away”.

Geographic distances between teams can be quite large, often with 1-2 hours of travel for a Sunday league match.

The regular season is played over 12-14 weeks of the summer months and will consist of 14 to 30 games of three hours or more, often with doubleheader play (two games on the same day) to make the most of travel time and costs.

There is a growing interest in local mid-week leagues with shorter games of two hours or less.

Tournament play is infrequent but well-received by the playing population. UK teams will sometimes travel overseas for club tournament play, and foreign teams will come to Britain to take part in a tournament.

Spring (pre-season) Leagues are a growing trend in the UK as clubs strive for more annual baseball activity than is provided by the

Co-ed slowpitch softball is built around both a mid-week league and weekend tournament model. Slowpitch leagues are based on a divisional structure and league organisers are the primary points of contact with the NGB.

Slowpitch leagues are based at one or two central venues in each city or town, and teams travel to their league hub for game play.

League play is generally local and city-centred, and is played over 12-14 weeks of the summer with 12 to 20 two-hour games making up a season

Fastpitch league play, in contrast, is organised on a national basis and games are played as mini-tournaments on six Saturdays throughout the summer at a single location.

Weekend slowpitch tournaments are spread throughout the country from Canterbury to Edinburgh and both independent travel teams and league teams will journey long distances to take part.

Tournaments are either one-day or two-day events with a festival-like atmosphere and roughly five or six one-hour games per team per day.

At the end of the season, there are a number of National


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Baseball Softball

regular season.

The domestic season climaxes in youth and adult National Championship competitions played at different ability and age levels.

All players aged 10-23 are welcome to attend Academy Baseball sessions during the closed season, run from October through April at the sport’s National Training Centre in Milton Keynes, where high-level coaches can help talented players progress towards selection for national teams. The GB Senior Men’s Baseball Team recently finished second in Europe and has been invited to a qualifying tournament in 2012 for the prestigious World Baseball Classic tournament in 2013, run by Major League Baseball. GB youth baseball teams at Junior (Under-18) and Cadet (Under-15 levels) are moving up the European rankings.

Championship competitions at different levels of play, and for both co-ed and the less numerous single-sex slowpitch teams.

All players aged 10 to adult are welcome to attend Academy Softball sessions during the closed season, run from October through April at the sport’s National Training Centre in Milton Keynes, where high-level coaches can help talented players progress towards selection for national teams. The GB Co-ed Slowpitch Team has won eight straight European Championships, the GB Women’s and Men’s Fastpitch Teams have each qualified for the last two World Championships by finishing in the top three in Europe and youth fastpitch teams at Junior (Under-19), Cadette (Under-16) and Minime (Under-13) for girls and at Junior level for boys are contesting for medals in European Championships.

Who plays baseball and softball?

Age bands

Demographics

The Players (Pen Portraits / Market Segmentation)

How do people find the sports?

Have a familiarity through exposure in other countries or on television in the UK and found it after internet or local search.


Saw a game being played and was interested.


Have played it from young, or played softball at school (74% of secondary schools play softball).

Age bands

Demographics

The Players (Pen Portraits / Market Segmentation)

How do people find the sports?

Joined a company that has a team.

Have a familiarity through exposure in other countries and found it after internet or local search. Perhaps have seen baseball on television in the UK.


Saw a game being played and was interested. This includes seeing it played in an open urban venue such as Regents Park.


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Baseball Softball



Moved to a new city and found it as a new social activity.

Want to try a new sport or try something new. This includes people who have left or don't like cricket but are looking for a similar sport.

Commitment levels

High: lots of travel and practice is required.

Baseball is a primary sport with unclear links to secondary sports.

Why do people play the sports?

They love the sport.

For the team environment and associated social aspects.

To live the dream.

Why do people leave the sports?

Commitment levels take a toll.

Fed up with the organisation or structure of the sport.

Move city.




Injury / age.

Their team folds.


Have played it from young, or at school (74% of secondary schools play softball).



Found it through new social sports environments (such as Go Mammoth).

Moved to a new city and found it as a new social activity and as a place to meet new people.

Want to try a new sport or try something new.

Are a part of a multi-sport club, like hockey or rugby, that offers summer softball. This includes teams formed by teams or groups of people from other sports.

Commitment levels

Varied: there is high commitment among a big percentage in league and tournament teams but lower in company teams.

Softball is often a secondary sport, or at least a summer partner to a winter activity (hockey, badminton, tennis, golf, dodge ball etc).

Why do people play the sports?

Familiarity / link to US and baseball.

Driven by social bonds (from the softball community or from within a company).

Why do people leave the sports?

Change company.


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Baseball Softball


Move to softball.

Go into coaching or administration.

Find another sport.

Find another team.

Other activities.

Move city.




Injury / age.

Their team folds.


Find another sport.

Other activities.

Find another team.

Not many go into administration or coaching.


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Market Segments and Programmes

Using Sport England's profile data, the following table seeks to link the profile of physical activity participants with BSUK programmes, including both participation and volunteering.

Legend: HtP – Hit the Pitch HE – Higher Education FE – Further Education NAL – New Adult Leagues Co – Charity, Corporate and Workforce

HTP

HE

HTP

FE

HTP

NAL

HTP

Co

Swing-By

Leisure Centres

Club activity

Summary

Ben YES No Yes Yes Yes Yes Recent graduate for whom softball and baseball is a sport played competitively and socially with friends. Likes drinking and outlook on life is an extension of university days. In fact, as HE growth for BSUK continues, tracking these individuals is key for promotion of programmes outside of HE. Corporate and charity is a another relevant area, particularly around league or tournament play through HTP activity, as the competition element is an important part of sport for Ben. Due to Ben being very sporty, he will be more likely to try a new sport in a club setting. Distances will be less of an issue, so will travel to baseball clubs (for example) which are not always 'on the doorstep' in comparison to other sports.

For further information on 'Ben' click here.

Jamie Yes No Yes No Yes Yes As and when university activity is opened up to non-university students / community to attend HTP sessions, this is a time when Jamie would be a key audience around the HE site. Jamie is a male who likes to be part of a team, and so fits well with BSUK's HTP programme. Like Ben, the enjoyment side of the sport appeals to him. The friendly and open nature of the new adult and leisure centre activity for Jamie is reflected in the aims of the Hit the Pitch and Swing By programmes, where taking part for fun and socialising is the main priority. The urban and creative imagery appeals to Jamie, so the HTP HE and new adult activity materials should engage due to the eye-catching logo.

For further information on Jamie click here.

Chloe No No Yes Yes Yes The fact that Chloes are Image-conscious young professionals means they fit in

http://segments.sportengland.org/pdf/penPortrait-1.pdf



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with BSUK's leisure centre programmes. Although not designed specifically for fitness and losing weight, they are an alternative activity in a setting that Chloes commonly frequent. Not unlike Ben, who has recently graduated and enjoys the socialising and fun activities of sport, team sports are attractive to Chloe as a way to go out with friends, so softball and fastpitch softball in particular as a predominantly female sport would appeal. Club activity is popular with Chloe and form of competition is important in her sport. This suits the club sessions and league / tournament play of baseball and softball in the UK.

For further information on Chloe click here.

Helena No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Business woman who lives life in the fast lane. 5% of all adults in the age range 26-45 fit BSUK corporate and charity softball, an activity that would appeal as adult sessions or after-work league. Helena is keen to try a new sport and her motivations for sport are mainly just to enjoy (46%), so links closely to softball's social and easy-to-pick-up nature. The sport can be competitive, but BSUK-led programmes and club tasters are ideal for people like Helena across the UK.

For further information on 'Helena' click here.

Tim No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Similar to Helena, this is a middle-aged male settling down but keen to keep playing sport. Weekly softball and a club environment will suit Tim as it is something he can do with a partner or wife as a joint activity. Often, the physical activity precedes socialising with a beer and some food, which fits closely with the pattern of slowpitch softball across the country. Tims prefers to play in a team or club environment, which make them a good fit for club sessions, HTP new adult activity or corporate/charity league play. Like the profiles of Ben, Jamie, Chloe, and Helena, who we also identify as key groups, Tim undertakes sport primarily to enjoy it. We feel our range of programmes fits well with this attitude as there is flexibility in Hit the Pitch delivery and slowpitch softball in particular is easy to pick up.

For further information on Tim click here.





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Alison Yes Yes Alison is fairly active despite being a busy young mother who is taking a break from career. She does take part in team sports and thus fits with the team nature of baseball and softball. Alisons are known to play rounders or softball as they are easier to pick up. The Hit the Pitch daytime programme and Swing By programme based at a leisure centre, where she might also attend fitness classes, would be ideal for Alison, as 72% of this profile would like to do more sport. Moreover, with the two programmes identified as suiting Alison, attending sessions alone is less of an issue than for other segments. She would, for example, not be put off by leisure centre softball sessions or Hit the Pitch softball run as a community activity.

For further information on 'Alison' click here.

Philip Yes Yes Another important member of the BSUK audience, Phil has always enjoyed sport and now has more time and interest as his children have grown up and his job is well-paid and safe. Open sessions are something that appeals to this group so again the three formats of baseball, slowpitch softball and fastpitch softball are relevant here. Club sessions and membership would be pushed with Phil as he likes instruction and the club environment. Similarly, the corporate / charity programme may suit him as a team captain, and can be delivered around his work schedule and near the office. In this he is similar to Helena.

For further information on Phil click here

Elaine Yes Yes This profile is one which immediately slants towards the informal Hit the Pitch new adult activity or more likely the leisure centre-based sessions, as they contain less competitive club activity and are open and social. Elaines like to keep fit and a major factor behind their interest in sport is to stay healthy. While softball and baseball are not intense activities, they do provide some aerobic benefits and so satisfy this need. There is also the option with Elaine to promote Hit the Pitch 'Mothers and Daughters' or 'Mothers and Sons' sessions, as attending sporting activities with children is important to Elaine.

For further information on Elaine click here.





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Calculations for Retention and Acquisition

Below are the calculations behind our retention and acquisition figures. Please note that the numbers contained within this table are for numbers of teams (as opposed to players), counted through BSUK's internal monitoring system and based on identified teams playing on at least six occasions, with an identity (team name) and a named leader or captain – so real teams.

This information is based on three years of data, between the 2009 and 2012 seasons.

2009-12 Baseline Increase Attrition End position Retention = Attrition / (Baseline+Increase) %

Adult Baseball Teams 41 11 + 8 + 8 +17* = 44 0 + 2 + 2 + 2* = 6 41 + 44* – 6 = 79 6 / 85 = 7%

Retention = 93%

Adult Softball Teams 441 31 + 129 + 148 + 37* = 345 5+17+63+28*=113 441 + 345* - 113* = 673 113 / 786 = 14.3% Retention = 86%

Total 482 379 119 752 119 / 861 = 13.8% Retention = 86%

* Includes projected figures for 2012/13 year as of 1/4/12. Only teams already being formed are counted and this is expected to increase as 2012/13 progresses.


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Breakdown for Baseball and Softball

Below is the breakdown of retention and acquisition for baseball and softball:

Change year on year

Both baseball and softball

Retention in baseball Acquisition in baseball


98%


2%


100%


2%

Current Rate

(actual for 2009-12, projected for 2012-13) 93% 0% 27 0

Expected Rate 0% 0

Target / Planned Rate (actual for 2009-12, projected for 2012-13)

93% 54 Will equate to growth of 50 baseball

teams

Change year on year

Both baseball and softball

Retention in softball Acquisition in softball


90%


10%


90%


10%

Current Rate

(actual for 2009-12, projected for 2012-13) 86% 0% 308

Expected Rate 0% 0

Target / Planned Rate (actual for 2009-12, projected for 2012-13)

86% 513 Will equate to growth of 450 softball

teams


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Monitoring and Evaluation

How Are We Doing Quarterly Report

Each quarter, a report is prepared for the Development Strategy Committee (DSC) called the How Are We Doing Report. It considers progress against targets and covers a number of areas including progress against the Active People Survey, the Satisfaction Survey and, most of all, our own progress against our proxy target of increasing the number of teams playing the sports. Data presented to the DSC goes through a Peer Review process to identify gaps, shortfalls and to suggest strategies for addressing these, as well as identifying examples of good practice. This is summarised in an Executive Summary prepared by the Head of Development.


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Balanced Scorecard

Consideration is given to progress against our Balanced Scorecard. This scorecard is broken into four areas:

1. Delivery Targets, considering the number of adult baseball and softball teams, the number of youth teams and the number of adults playing once a week (Active People results).

2. Learning and Equality Targets, considering the percentage of affiliated teams with Level 2 qualified coaches, the number of BME players, disability players and the percentage of female players in softball.

3. Customer Experience Targets, considering Satisfaction with the Sporting Experience Survey (SQSE) results and the number of improved facilities.

4. Organisation and Finance Targets, considering budget deviation, variance from cash flow forecast, investment into facilities and the R.A.G. status achieved in the Sport England Self-Assurance process.

Sections also include narratives of the progress made.


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Number of Teams Progress

Progress against our team growth measure is also considered. This is broken down into project areas – Higher Education, Further Education, New Adult Leagues and Club Membership increases – and then into baseball, slowpitch softball and fastpitch softball. In order to qualify as regularly playing teams, there are minimum criteria.

Here is an example from the January 2012 report, considering adult team increases.

Teams formed or being formed are broken down into different categories and counted separately. If a new team has been formed and qualifies to be counted by the criteria below, it is added into calcluations as a team. Leads and potential teams are treated and counted differently. It is recognised that only a percentage will materialise.

For teams to be counted, they must have:

Played on at least six separate dates for HE, New Adult Leagues and Club Members and four dates for Further Education.

A team name.

A captain / leader.

Collected some kind of fee or money from their players or on behalf of their players.

This means that in many cases, there are teams that have been set-up that do not yet qualify to be counted as fully in existence.

Adult Growth Baseline

Totals By Format

Baseball 48 49 97 37 85 8 8 2 73 71 -14

Slowpitch 439 437 876 305 744 110 113 63 685 625 -119

Fastpitch 2 9 11 5 7 7 7 0 11 11 4

Grand Totals 489 495 984 347 836 125 128 65 769 707 -129

2013 Growth Target

2013 Total Teams Target

Y1-Y3 Growth Target

Y3 Teams Target

Y3 New Teams

Y3 Predicted

New Teams

Y3Attrition

Y3 Current Actual

Position

Y3 Predicted Final Total

Y3 Predicted Position

Adult Growth 2013 Target

Higher Education 6 143 96 102 0 2 0 16 18 -84

Further Education 0 122 78 78 11 11 0 38 38 -40

New Adult Leagues 0 138 102 102 26 26 0 111 111 9

Club Development 483 581 71 554 88 89 65 604 540 -14

489 984 347 836 125 128 65 769 707 -129

Total

Baseline

Y3 Growth

Target

Y3 Total

Teams

Target

Y3 New

Teams

Y3

Predicted

New Teams

Y3

Attrition

Y3 Current

Actual

Position

Y3

Predicted

Final Total

Y3

Predicted

Position


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Example: Recovery Plan (Higher Education)


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Example: Club and League Health Check (Baseball Clubs)

Twice a year, we compile a Club and League Health Check report, which uses live data maintained by our club / league Point People about the health of the organisations they work with. This is defined by a simple R.A.G. system, where 'red' means that the organisation requires immediate close support in order to keep going or to maintain levels of participation, 'amber' means that the organisation is working on a year-to-year basis, without long term sustainability and 'green' means that they have systems in place that provide confidence that they will continue to be in existence for years to come, despite any predictable changes in volunteer personnel. Below is an example of this information for baseball clubs, prepared for January 2012.

Club

Croyden BC

Essex Arrows BC

Essex Redbacks BC

London Mets BC

Old Timers BC

Richmond BC

Southern Nationals BC

Bolton BC

Cartmel BC

Halton BC

Liverpool BC

Manchester Juniors BC

Manchester Seniors BC

Oldham BC

Northwich BC

Bracknell BC

Guildford BC

Herts BC

Horsham BC

Kent Mariners BC

Oxford Kings BC

Southampton BC

Thames Valley Bisons BC

Windsor Bears BC

Health Status

Development Status

Additional Adult Team

Additional Youth Team

Adult League Set Up

Club Accreditation

Club Development

Coach Development

Facility Development

FE Programme

Grant/Income support

HE Programme

Player Improvement

Player Recruitment


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Programme Outlines

Hit the Pitch

Environment

Higher Education sector

Further Education sector

New Adult Leagues / Play (Companies, Organisations, Groups of People)

The social aspects of slowpitch softball are perfect for FE and HE institutions wanting to engage their students, and we know there is a clear demand from students who want to socialise, make friends and be physically active. New adult play will be based on organisational structures where there is a clear need for people to communicate effectively, develop relationships and address staff welfare issues. FE colleges, Higher Education institutions and businesses/organisations are a known commodity with key entry points to a captive market of potential new softball players.

Best Conditions and Approach

Use dedicated people working inside these key agencies, organisations or institutions.

These people must be effective communicators and connectors of people and systems.

Develop open and trusted relationships with and between key agencies, organisations or institutions.

Secure key strategic buy-in from the above stakeholders.

Take a Win-Win approach – how does the HTP programme address issues for all parties?

Work on the clarity of the offer – simplicity is everything.

Equipment, Facilities and Personnel

Standard softball equipment (bats, balls, gloves, bases).

Equipment loans.

Guide to playing the game.

Promotional materials.

Facilitators.

Coaches.

Method

Targeted engagement with the three key sectors.

HE – institution specific through sector agencies (BUCS). Look to develop play based on existing university systems such as Halls of Residence, tutor groups or courses and faculties as well as existing programmes of study such as coaching and sports-related courses.

FE – institution specific through sector agencies (AoC/BCS). Look to develop play based on existing programmes of study such as coaching and sports-related courses.

NAL – working through partners such as:

o Local Authorities. o CSPN. o Health Networks. o Sector-specific organisations. o Business networks.

Look to develop play based on the needs of these groups (for example: staff welfare, teamwork, social cohesion, communication).

Improve profile and reach of the Hit the Pitch brand and programme.


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Sense

A visible presence in the targeted settings will help grow the sense of engagement. For example, centre play on the area with the biggest footfall and ensure web presence.

People working in these settings will be talking about the activity positively, openly and with passion.

Precautions and Warnings

Don't rely on one person alone to drive this.

Don't under estimate the time it will take for people to get behind and support the programme.

Not everyone will see the benefits and opportunities this programme brings as quickly as you do.

Tips & Advice

Start small and expand later.

Be patient at the start and secure buy-in first.

Know that there are other people trying to do similar things – there is security in numbers.

Enhancements

Increase the profile and exposure of the programme. The more the merrier!


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Pitch In

Pitch In is BSUK's national programme to recruit, train, deploy and recognise volunteers in baseball and softball.

The programme is a national one which seeks to make the volunteering process with BSUK more clear, welcoming and rewarding. In sport, volunteers are crucial to the maintenance of clubs and new development in schools, colleges, universities and in the workplace and community. This is completely true for BSUK, and volunteers will continue to underpin our ongoing development work and club growth aims.

Environment

The Pitch In programme is aimed at any demographic. Research and current volunteer data shows that youngsters (including college and university students) and those unemployed or recently out of education or work are keen to engage in volunteering for a number of reasons including:

To improve skills and experience.

A new challenge.

Make a difference to their local community.

Take on more of a role supporting their club.

BSUK uses Pitch In to attract different groups into volunteering in baseball and softball by highlighting club, league and event volunteer opportunities.

Pitch In is BSUK-owned but relies on the input and contribution of a number of key stakeholders:

External promotion partners (CSPs, SkillsActive, Job Centre Plus, careers websites, volunteer centres, volunteer agencies, universities, colleges, schools).

BSUK Youth Panel.

CSPs.

Clubs / leagues.

External recruitment partner.

BSUK's current Youth Panel members will be the example for volunteering in the sports, showcasing how others can get involved and why they should. They will be the first of the Pitch In Ambassadors.


A national coordinator for collecting and posting volunteer opportunities, be it in school, college, university, workplace or club / league settings.

Pitch In promotional material adapted for different settings such as university, college and club environments. These materials will help expose the brand and the scheme in order to generate interest and drive potential volunteers towards opportunities within the two sports.

Clubs, leagues and other delivery partners need to communicate their opportunities to BSUK using the Pitch In online opportunity form, which automatically comes through to the national Pitch In coordinator.

The volunteer opportunities need to be posted promptly to the Do-it national volunteer database where interested volunteers can apply directly to the Do-it coordinator.

Ideally, local or national partnerships with agencies such as those dealing with unemployed, NEETs and recent graduates will be established, leading to a stream of potential new volunteers being aware of BSUK opportunities. This will help boost volunteer recruitment numbers.


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BSUK volunteer and career pathway to be drawn up and clearly presented through the Pitch In website to highlight how volunteers can develop in baseball and softball and, should they choose to stay in the sports, progress to coaching, umpiring or full-time work. This is key to ensuring that there is consideration to the volunteer.

Equipment & Facilities

The Do-it V Base recruiter tool will be used by the BSUK national coordinator to upload and promote volunteer opportunities.

Clubs have access to the Pitch In volunteer opportunity form online through the BSUK website.

An online logging tool is required so existing and new volunteers can log their hours as part of the Pitch In reward and recognition scheme.

Pitch In promotional e-flyers or videos.

Deliverer and venue for volunteer skills training.

Method

Existing and new volunteers to be collated in the Pitch In database. This will be operated and updated by the Pitch In national coordinator.

Volunteer opportunities to be submitted by clubs, leagues and events so that these can be promoted.

Pitch In coordinator to promote volunteer opportunities through the Do-it national volunteer website (700,000 users).

Ongoing local and national link-up by BSUK development staff so that a flow of volunteers from charities and other organisations can take place (e.g. Prince's Trust, Comic Relief).

Volunteer logging system to allow volunteers to log their hours and track any training.

Skills training ongoing for Pitch In volunteers both in a club and development environment.

Marketing materials for volunteering to be disseminated and shared with relevant external partners and internal staff to promote and enhance exposure of Pitch In.

Sense

BSUK wants volunteers to feel that they are a part of an initiative that will help sustain and increase growth in the two sports.

There is also the opportunity for reward and recognition, and it is hoped that this more wholesome approach will bring those who have had known involvement in baseball or softball into the two sports.

Pitch In Ambassadors to endorse opportunities and paint a picture of what it's like to volunteer in the sports and the benefits to volunteering in baseball and softball. This will tie in closely with testimonials and examples from such settings as universities, where University Softball Officers (USO) are in place as volunteers.

Tips and Advice

Volunteers need to be communicated with and thanked for their work. If not, there is a big chance they will feel undervalued and volunteer elsewhere.

Maintain a database of volunteers within the sports and their key information.

Utilise local CSP volunteer staff to help promote opportunities and learn about new ways to recruit volunteers or how to tie in with other existing schemes. CSPs will often have staff expertise in volunteering that will help support the Pitch In work.

Build relationships with clubs so that they know that Pitch In exists and their volunteer vacancies can be promoted centrally and for free.


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Precautions

There is no guarantee that volunteers can be recruited through the system identified above. It depends on how well the opportunities are marketed and how clearly they are outlined.

Follow-up from clubs and leagues is important for keeping volunteers interested and keen to take on the role again.

Time and other commitments may prevent volunteers from being able to guarantee their attendance at an event and last-minute

cancellations of roles can occur. It is important to plan for back-up support that can be called on when this occurs.

Alternatives

Use successful past practice by clubs when recruiting volunteers. As part of the Pitch In process, these are to be shared with other clubs as best practice and stored as an online resource in the BSUK website Pitch In section.


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Swing By

Be Active. Have Fun. Stay Fit.

Swing By is BaseballSoftballUK's programme for leisure centres and sports centres which is fun, relaxed, social and open to all – a growth programme in the fun and recreational sport of slowpitch softball.

The setting

The ideal setting is in leisure centres where there is an indoor sports hall and outdoor field space so that there is the ability for Swing By to be offered year-round as a easy pay-and-play format. Leisure centres have a large base of active people and are a site that people clearly associate with sporting activities and where people may be more receptive to a new sport. Other possible settings include school halls and universities.

The range of people attending leisure centres means that BSUK's target audience will be at this site. This ranges from working professionals wanting to play sport and stay fit during the week to the active recent graduate who likes to try lots of sports, meet new people and generally have fun.


To aid the successful implementation of the Swing By programme once a suitable environment has been found, the following are necessary:

Swing By Activators to run the sessions. This is crucial as this person has the key role of welcoming people and making the session fun, social and non-intimidating, so that participants will be happy to come back again when they are able.

The leisure centre needs to fully buy in to Swing By and what it's all about. This can be achieved through dedicated promotion and marketing on site and in the community and through identifying members of the leisure centre workforce who can be skilled as Swing By activators.

The leisure centre website will be central and should contain details of leisure centre Swing By sessions. Leisure centre contacts need to upload this information and be the first point of contact with BSUK to oversee the programme at the site.

Equipment & Facilities

Indoor and / or outdoor field needed at leisure centre site.

Front desk or till area in centre, where payment for the pay-and-play sessions can take place.

BSUK will provide equipment to leisure centres identified and signed up as Swing By centres. They will receive Swing By packs containing:

o 300 flyers o 20 Posters o 2 Swing By Activator T-shirts o Branded banners for the venue o Session register forms o 2 softball bats o 8 softballs o Bases o Pitch-marking sizes o Receptionist briefing sheet o Suitable generic marketing material needs to be designed and

distributed to centres for use in promotion. o Registration forms and briefing sheets will be produced and

sent to leisure centres for cascading to staff (particularly receptionists).

o Ideally, each Swing By centre will have one Swing By activator who will lead sessions.

Method

Steps for setting up a Swing By programme:


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Identify and build a relationship with the leisure centre site. This may involve looking at local area market segmentation and existing centre user demographics. Also consider previous similar programmes that have been successful at the site.

A Swing By questionnaire provided by BSUK should be utilised by the leisure centre to gauge interest and demand and as a guide on dates and timings for scheduled sessions.

Outdoor fields to be marked at Swing By centres/venues.

Sessions to be scheduled and dates and times set by centres. Schedules to be uploaded to Swing By pages on the BSUK website.

Centres to begin promotion of Swing By.

Sense

The Swing By Activators delivering the open sessions will be crucial. It is therefore important that the right person with the right skills is recruited and deployed. This person has the key role of welcoming people and making the sessions fun, social and non-intimidating so that participants will be happy to come back again when they are able.

It is also key that the right messages are communicated about 1) what baseball/softball is about and how it can be played indoors and outdoors; and 2) what the Swing By concept is about – i.e., not traditionally coached sessions but fun, casual and social games which help with fitness.

Key to the appeal for someone coming to a session is the welcome at reception and the presence of information / flyers on site that they can pick up and take away with them.

Tips & Advice

Be patient at the start and secure buy-in first.

Ideally, a key driver (person) needs to be in place at a leisure centre offering Swing By.

Be willing to try different things and experiment with, for example, times, days and frequency of sessions. The winning formula might not come straight away.

There needs to be clear information provided about local opportunities for continued play. If a regular participant wants to create a local team, then support from BSUK staff needs to be clear and provided.

Other sources of activators can be students, volunteers and volunteers from existing BSUK softball and baseball clubs that may be based near Swing By centres.

Precautions

Don't just rely on flyers and posters to promote this programme. It needs to be fully supported and promoted through BSUK and the leisure centre site. Ambassador participants should be utilised to support the centre staff in promotion.

Swing By activators need to be identified and hold the right skills to make the sessions appealing and enjoyable.

Regular contact between BSUK and the leisure centre(s) should take place to ensure progress is made and new ideas or issues are shared.

Enhancements

The programme, ideally, will be delivered through a network of leisure centres through an agreement with a leisure provider or leisure trust. This will allow for greater buy-in from senior staff and best practice to be shared among the participating sites.

A national marketing and promotion drive for the Swing By brand should be launched as a pilot in leisure centres once the programme is being delivered.

Alternatives

Hit the Pitch baseball/softball development programme.


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Baseball and Softball 4 Beginners

Baseball and Softball 4 Beginners courses allow new players to ease themselves into a new sport without being hampered by the need for a competitive edge. During a series of six sessions, players are allowed to develop at their own speed and are given an introduction to the sport which covers the basic skills, rules and simple strategies. Equipment and coaches are provided by the club, but are often supported by BSUK regional staff. This relaxed atmosphere has been found to be very beneficial to clubs in attracting new players, as they are not thrust straight away into the competitive world of baseball or softball play, but allowed to develop at their own pace.

Most people who are attracted to these programmes have not played baseball or softball before. They therefore need a very simple and comfortable introduction to the sport. In the past, new members have trained and been quickly introduced into the club's regular team, and find themselves in a very competitive atmosphere straight away, which can sometimes be overwhelming. The Baseball and Softball 4 Beginners programme allows new players to learn the game away from these pressures.

The course would be ideal for:

A new player who wants to try the game.

A new player who wants to play the game.

A player with limited experience who would like more practice.

Someone who may have played Teeball or Little League and wants to return to the game.

The club will normally allocate a coach to run these sessions and, depending on numbers, additional coaches can be drafted in. This person will be an enthusiastic and effective coach for beginners and should develop a comfortable atmosphere at the sessions.

A typical session will run for around two hours and will involve work on basic skills such as throwing and catching, the rules of the game and drills to introduce and develop defensive and offensive skills. Every session will also

include a game, beginning with modified rules at the beginning of the course but progressing to full rules by the end. By involving a game scenario, new players will hopefully pick up the rules quite quickly. Game play also provides a good learning environment for the particular quirks of the game.

The club field can be used, or a temporary field used for practice and the club field for games. Equipment should be provided by the club, although most BSUK regional coaches can provide support with their own stock of equipment.

The sessions should be advertised throughout the local area, and vehicles such as the club website, local press, local media, County Sports Partnership, Local Authority and local businesses can all be used to promote them. Electronic advertising and posters can also be used for promotion and club members can spread the word. Poster designs can be accessed from regional staff.

This course could be cyclical throughout the year, possibly run every three months. Further development of the courses could come when enough clubs have bought into the programme in a region to form a Regional Recreational or Development League, where people who have come through the courses can enjoy a competitive game against people of their own standard in other clubs around the region.

These courses are already being run in London and the Midlands, with a new mid-week London Recreational league being formed and a Midlands Development League proposed.

Why do we run this programme?

Sometimes, baseball and softball clubs can be intimidating to join. In sports with complex rules and advanced skills, where club members may have set playing positions and form a tight-knit circles of friends, it may be more difficult to join an established team or club than most people think.

The Baseball 4 Beginners (B4B) and Softball 4 Beginners (S4B) programmes offer an environment where new players can learn the


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skills and rules of the game at their own pace and create their own circle of friends within the club environment.

At the completion of the six-week course, the new participants can more comfortably integrate into the club environment.

Who uses this programme?

B4B and S4B courses have been run with clubs that have a solid base and infrastructure and are now looking to expand their membership, but perhaps need a vehicle to drive local interest and awareness.

B4B and S4B courses are not exclusive to their respective sports and baseball clubs might want to run a Softball 4 Beginners course to increase club membership through softball, while a softball club might run a B4B programme to increase their offer by attracting new members or retaining existing members who are keen to play baseball.

In 2011, S4B programmes were run by the Birmingham Bobcats, Leicester Royals and Milton Keynes Bucks.

In 2012, several clubs will be using the Baseball and Softball 4 Beginners formats to increase membership and the West Midlands Razorbacks will use the B4B programme to bring in new members to support them in their first year of existence.

London Mets are using the B4B programme to increase their membership in the London area.

How should we use this programme?

B4B and S4B are six-week courses aimed at people who have either never played baseball or softball before or whose experience is very limited. The programme is designed to be progressive. During Week One, the participants are introduced to the game, starting with how to put on a glove and the basics of throwing and catching, but by the end of the programme the beginners will be familiar with how a game is

played, the rules associated with the game and some of the more intermediate skills.

Funding can be brought down through programmes such as Sportivate and Sport England Small Sports Grants, or clubs can fund the activity themselves.

Ideally, the course should end with some form of output, with participants becoming full club members and playing in a mid-week recreational league.

Do's

Do have a coach who is enthusiastic and keen to engage new people. High level technical knowledge is not required, but great interpersonal skills and the ability to forge new positive relationships are a must.

Do provide equipment.

Do anticipate new participants with a wide range of learning and athletic abilities who might progress at different rates throughout the course.

Do find a way to integrate the new cohort of B4B or S4B graduates into the club.

Do explain and make the game simple to understand.

Do provide a learning environment that is friendly and welcoming to both female and male participants.

Do publicise widely. Use all forms of social media, traditional marketing, media outlets and word of mouth to promote the event.

Do plan your sessions in advance so that they progress appropriately across the six-week timeline.

Do encourage the social aspects of the sports and allow new participants to join in with other club activities.


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Don'ts

Don't expect new participants to have their own equipment.

Don't forget to include them in wider club activity. Even though this is their first time, you want them to be aware they are part of something bigger than themselves and the B4B or S4B course.

Don't assume that just because you are a baseball club you can only run B4B courses. Experiment and diversify your membership by running a Softball 4 Beginners course which might attract new members who had not previously thought about joining. Similarly, there is no reason why a softball club shouldn't run a Baseball 4 Beginners course.

Don't forget why you first started playing ... because it is fun! Make every learning activity a fun and engaging experience.

Don't overdo the technical elements of the game. New participants will learn quicker by doing and failing and then doing again than by listening to a coach talk about every minute technical detail.

The purpose of these sessions is to introduce new people to the sport in a friendly and supportive atmosphere, without the need for a feeling of competitiveness – to allow people to have an enjoyable experience that will entice them to continue playing the game.


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NGB and Funded Partner Assurance Programme 2011


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Baseball and Softball England Talent Development Strategy: 2013-2025

Where have we come from?

Baseball and softball are similar sports and come from the same roots. However, baseball dates back to the 19th century in the UK in an organised form, while the first governing body for softball was only created in the 1970s.

In 2000, the British Baseball Federation and British Softball Federation came together to create a professional agency called BaseballSoftballUK (BSUK). Originally a Managing Agency for the two sports responsible for most aspects of administration and development, including national teams, BSUK re-defined itself in 2007 as an agency primarily responsible for development. It did so because BSUK, not the NGBs, was the recipient of Sport England development funding, and with the advent of the Whole Sport Plan system, BSUK needed to concentrate on development interventions Sport England was supporting to meet objectives and targets.

While baseball and softball were Olympic medal sports (from 1992-2008 for baseball and 1996-2008 for softball), the senior Olympic teams in both sports received funding from UK Sport plus Olympic Solidarity funding from the IOC between 2001 and 2007. This allowed both sports to professionalise their nascent infrastructure for talent development, secure better coaching, widen their talent pool and achieve significant results in international competition that continue to this day (for details, click here).

But the withdrawal of UK Sport funding after baseball and softball were dropped from the Olympic programme for London, and Sport England's decision not to provide Talent funding for BSUK from 2009-13 has meant that talent development and national team programmes have had to be funded almost entirely by the participants (for details on costs and participant funding, click here).

The current success of Great Britain baseball and softball national teams was achieved through the public investment made from 2001-2007, supported by good strategic decisions and hard work, dedication and sacrifice on the part of players, parents and team staff. But the lack of financial support for talent development as well as for national teams is an unsustainable model for maintaining and improving international results and for providing a pathway for talented athletes in our sports.

Where are we now?

Thanks in part to the funding received from UK Sport for baseball and softball Olympic programmes from 2001-2007, and in part to the achievements of BaseballSoftballUK in developing enhanced coaching structures for both sports, we have been able to create, sustain and improve a talent development pathway, primarily for age-group players, in both sports.

The key component is The Academy, run by BaseballSoftballUK during the closed season (October through April) at our national training centre in Milton Keynes and through satellite Regional Academies in BSUK priority areas. BSUK has also invested some money and staff time in creating competition structures to support talent development.

Currently led by BSUK’s on-staff coaches, The Academy is open to any players who want to attend, and so offers a connection between community sport and elite levels. However, The Academy is attended mainly by players who have been or hope to be selected for national team pools at different age levels. Up to 120 players currently attend national Academy Baseball sessions and up to 70 players attend national Academy Softball sessions.

The Academy also includes a slowly-growing programme of coach-training and mentoring to provide a wider pool of coaches who can work effectively with talented athletes.


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Many young players in both sports have progressed through The Academy over the past few years, with improved performance levels that have seen some win college scholarships to play in the United States and earn selection to senior GB national team (for details, click here).

The fact that our age-group teams are moving up the European rankings, however gradually, is another indication of improved performance. Our talent development programme has been run on a shoestring, but is achieving results.

Where will we be in 2017?

Through Talent funding awarded by Sport England for 2013-2017, we will have:

Expanded the number of athletes from both sports engaged in the talent development pathway.

Expanded the structure of Regional Academies and provided a range of qualified part-time coaches working with talented athletes.

Expanded the youth league competition structure in the Great Britain Fastpitch League that began in 2012 and created a new 16+ baseball league as extensions of The Academy.

Hosted significant international competitions in England to provide more and better competition experience for players on the talent pathway.

Communicated the aims and methodologies of talent development activities throughout the sports to enhance the links between clubs, coaching and competition, driven by national team needs.

Formalised structures for promoting young GB players to US college programmes and increased the number of players who are accepted by US community colleges and universities.

Sent an increasing number of players to Major League Baseball's European Academy.

Established defined roles for players who drop off the talent pathway to continue to contribute to the sports.

All of this work will have coincided with, and will in part be based around, new dedicated facilities for both sports that will open in 2013 at Farnham Park near Slough and in Milton Keynes, constructed with capital funding from Sport England and other partners. During the period 2013-17, we will have upgraded these facilities as national training centres and as sites for international competition, and we will have developed an additional regional epicentre in the North of England.


Through Talent funding awarded by Sport England for 2017-21, plus other revenue and capital sources, we will have:

Changed the focus of the talent development programme to provide higher-level support for a slightly reduced number of athletes.

Increased the quantity and quality of the coaching workforce dedicated to talent development and national team programmes, including former talent pathway athletes who have moved into high-level coaching.

Increased the level of sports science and medicine provision available to baseball and softball athletes on the talent pathway and in national team programmes.

Increased the level of play in the top baseball and fastpitch leagues in England to the equivalent of those in Germany and the Czech Republic, the second rank in Europe.

Placed an increased number of athletes each year in US college baseball and fastpitch softball programmes at community college and NCAA Division II levels and an increased number of young baseball players in the MLB European Academy.


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Increased the number of dedicated training and competition facilities in regional epicentres, including in new BSUK focus areas.

Upgraded national training and competition centres to enable us to host European Championship competitions.

Acquired or built a BSUK-owned indoor training centre for baseball and softball, shared with other NGBs.

Hosted an increasing number of international competitions in England, including a World Baseball Classic qualifying tournament and a baseball and/or softball European Championship.


Through Talent funding awarded by Sport England for 2021-25, plus other revenue and capital sources, we will have:

Upgraded national training and competition centres to enable us to host World Championship competitions.

Hosted a World Championship competition in England.

Created full-time residential Academies for the top athletes on the talent pathway, based around a national training centre and our indoor training centre.

Increased the level of play in the top baseball and fastpitch leagues in England to the equivalent of those in Italy and The Netherlands, which are the best in Europe.

Placed an increased number of athletes each year in US college baseball and softball programmes, primarily in NCAA Division I and Division II schools, and an increased number of young baseball players in the MLB European Academy.

Appendix The competition achievements of baseball and softball national teams over the past decade have been significant:

In 2001, the GB Baseball Team was ranked tenth in Europe and the GB Women's Softball Team twelfth. There has been a steady upward progression since that point.

The Great Britain Women's Fastpitch Softball Team finished second and third at the last two European Championships in 2009 and 2011 and qualified for the last two Softball World Championships by right for the first time in the programme's history.

The Great Britain Baseball Team finished second in the 2007 European Championships and qualified for the Baseball World Cup for the first time since 1938, then finished first in a European Qualifier round in 2010. The team has been invited by Major League Baseball to compete in September 2012 in the qualifying rounds for the 2013 World Baseball Classic.

Both of those teams were eligible for Olympic qualification. In non-Olympic senior formats, the Great Britain Men's Fastpitch Team is currently ranked eighth in the world and the Great Britain Co-ed Slowpitch Team has won eight straight European Championships plus a Slowpitch World Cup held in the United States in 2002 by the International Softball Federation.

Going back to the Olympic formats, our age-group teams in female fastpitch softball (at U-19, U-16 and U-13 levels) and boys' baseball (at U-19 and U-16) are moving up the European rankings. A GB U-19 Boys' Fastpitch team attended European Championships in 2011 for the first time since 2004.

These are amazing achievements for sports with no resources for elite programmes since 2007, small talent pools and no public or media recognition. But these achievements were built on the back of public investment that stopped in 2007, and the programmes cannot be sustained at these levels without at least some support.


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Introduction

There are clear opportunities and potential for talent in baseball and softball in England, as evidenced by the recent results of GB Senior and age-level teams in both sports (and both formats of softball). With the exception of slowpitch softball, which has two national team players from Scotland, and women's fastpitch, which has one player in the national team pool from Wales, GB Teams in both sports and at all age levels consist of English players plus some players based overseas.

BaseballSoftballUK did not receive Talent funding in 2009-13 and modest UK Sport funding to both sports for senior national teams in baseball and women’s fastpitch softball ended in 2007, after the sports were dropped from the Olympic programme for London 2012. Despite the lack of resources, however, it was felt essential to put a talent development programme in place to support the considerable international success of national teams. This programme has been based around The Academy, organised and supported by BSUK since 2007 and staffed largely by BSUK staff coaches. The Academy, which holds separate sessions for baseball and softball during the closed season (October-April), has grown in terms of the number of players attending and quality of delivery since 2009.

Outcomes from the talent development programmes centred on The Academy have already been considerable in terms of player improvement and achievement. Jamie Ratcliff and Susie Hall are case study examples (see below) of the successes of these programmes, as are the number and quality of players coming through existing player development routes and going on to senior and age group national teams and to placement in US high school and college programmes and/or high-level leagues abroad. Our talent pool is punching well above its weight, and with proper resource will offer significant rewards for talented athletes, the sports and for the Sport England Talent Development programme as a whole, with the impact being felt locally through focused project work, nationally through The Academy and our national team programmes, and across the world through placements of our talented players in other countries.

Evidence to Support Talent Development Achievements in 2009-13 (unfunded)

1. Case studies from GB Junior and Academy players Susie Hall (softball) and Jamie Ratcliff (baseball). [click names to link]

2. Academy attendance: 2009-2012 (see here). Academy attendance has increased year on year in both sports.

The figures given in the attached document relate to attendance at monthly National Academy sessions that run from October through April. There are also Northern and Southern Regional Academies in baseball and Regional Academies located in London, Nottingham, Oxford, Horsham and Fakenham in softball that are run on four dates during The Academy season. With the odd exception, the same players attend local regional and national sessions.


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3. Expansion of age-group national teams. During the period 2009-2012 and previously, GB Baseball and Fastpitch Softball National Teams existed at the following levels:

Baseball Fastpitch Softball

Senior Men

U-18 Boys

U-15 Boys

Senior Women and Men

U-19 Women

U-16 Girls

U-13 Girls

Due to the increased number of players involved in The Academy, GB Softball introduced an U-19 Boys' Fastpitch Team in 2011 that competed in European Championships. GB Baseball introduced an U-23 Men's Team in 2012 to help bridge the gap between U-18 and senior play.

4. Selection criteria for national teams. Selection criteria for baseball and softball senior national teams are based on the highest possible standards: on Major League Baseball scales for baseball and on those developed by World and three-time Olympic champions Team USA for softball. For details of these criteria, click here.

5. Academy members playing in high-level domestic senior teams. One measure of the progress made by players on the baseball and softball talent pathway is the number of young players currently playing at a high level in senior domestic baseball and softball.

Although comparative figures over time are not available, there are currently 17 players registered to Academy Baseball playing in the National Baseball League (NBL) and on AAA teams, the two highest levels of senior baseball play.

With regard to softball, there are currently 10 players registered to Academy Softball who are currently playing in Division 1 of the Great Britain Fastpitch League (GBFL), the highest level of senior fastpitch softball play.


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6. Academy members playing on GB Teams. Another measure of the progress made by players on the baseball and softball talent pathway is the number of young players currently playing on GB teams at different age levels.

Although comparative figures over time are not available, there are currently 35 players registered to Academy Baseball playing on GB Baseball teams and 25 players registered to Academy Softball currently playing on GB Softball teams.

The following graduates of Academy Baseball and its predecessors have been selected to the Senior National Baseball Team over the past ten years:

Will Lintern

George Lintern

Richard Klijn

Michael Trask

Ryan Trask

Michael Johnson

Alex Malihoudis

The following graduates of Academy Softball and its predecessors have been selected to the GB Women's Fastpitch Team over the past ten years:

Kim Akehurst

Liz Keaveney

Jenny Edis

Laura Nicole Thompson

Laura Elizabeth Thompson

Sophie Froud

Jenny Ball

Helen Ball

Carol Beever

Shamar Ennis

Ali Parkerson

Steph Pearce

Amy Wells


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7. Coaching. One of the functions of the The Academy is to train coaches to work with talented players in both sports and monitor their development.

A total of 27 coaches have been involved with Academy Baseball over the past three years, of whom 18 are currently active. This represents an increase of four active coaches over the past year.

A total of 14 coaches have been involved with Academy Softball over the past three years, of whom 10 are currently active. This represents an increase of three active coaches over the past year.

An informal coach mentoring system is currently in place at both Academy Baseball and Academy Softball, but there are plans to put a more formal system in place for the next Academy season that begins in October 2012, associated with coach education provision.

8. Coach and Player Clinics. Two major clinics have been held during the past fouryears under the aegis of The Academy, with high-level coaches brought in from North America to work with Academy players and coaches.

In November 2011, a high-level baseball coaching clinic sponsored by the Confederation of European Baseball, BSUK and the BBF was run by Great Britain Baseball and Academy Baseball. Coordinated by GB Senior National Team Coach Sam Dempster, the all-day event featured high level instruction for club coaches on how to improve the quality of their players in three key areas: pitching, catching and hitting. The clinic also emphasised the importance of continual improvement and addressed some of the issues and challenges surrounding coaching in club baseball in the UK.

In October 2008, with partial funding from the American Amateur Softball Association (ASA) and the European Softball Federation (ESF), a four-day clinic for high-level coaches and young Academy Softball players was held in London and at the then-national training centre at Upper Heyford, delivered by World Champion Team USA Head Coach Mike Candrea and Team USA player Jessica Mendoza, then widely regarded as the best player in world softball. The clinic was attended by nine coaches from England along with four coaches from other European countries and by 25 Academy Softball players aged 14-18. The clinic was inspirational for both players and coaches, due in large part to the enthusiasm and empathy with which Mike Candrea and Jessica Mendoza approached the task of raising the level of play and understanding in an “underdeveloped” softball country.

9. Competition Structures. Specific competition structures in both baseball and softball have been or will be developed as offshoots of The Academy.

In baseball, there is large gap in our competition structure for 16-21yr olds. After finishing formal youth baseball in the UK, most players have three choices:

1. Try to compete for game time in the top tier of domestic baseball against adult players who are significantly more experienced and in some cases more able.

2. Play at lower levels of domestic baseball where the skill level is more appropriate but the environment is not always conducive to a quality experience, since the coaching, facilities and playing experience may be below what the player would have experienced in the 13-16 age group.

3. This often leads to a third option, which is to leave the game.


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In 2009 and 2010, a tournament called the Academy Series was staged in April, at the end of the sixth-month Academy season, involving a series of games between teams made up of players from the Northern and Southern Regional Academies. The Academy Series has not been staged in 2010 or 2011, but there are plans to revive it in 2013, as it helps to fill this gap.

A better solution, planned for 2013, is to start a 16+ league (16-21 or 16-23) to bridge the gap. This will not only enable clubs to retain players who traditionally have left after after youth baseball, but will provide a competition structure directly relevant to players on the baseball talent pathway.

In softball, an Indoor Fastpitch League was run in conjunction with Academy Softball during the winter in 2009 and 2010. Starting in the spring of 2010, BaseballSoftballUK contributed staff time and some funding support to revive a somewhat moribund outdoor Women's Fastpitch League run by Federation volunteers and tie it directly to Academy Softball. The league grew from five adult teams in 2010 to 12 adult teams in 2011, and 18 teams are likely in 2012, including two youth divisions at U-17 and U-14 age levels. Now called the Great Britain Fastpitch League (GBFL), the league has dramatically increased competition opportunities for players on the talent pathway.

10. Academy graduates in US college programmes. It has long been a programme goal of the English talent development programme in baseball and softball for young players to play college baseball or softball in the United States, since the level and intensity of training and competition is far beyond what they can experience in England.

It is another indication of improved performance on the part of athletes on the English talent pathway that the number of players being accepted with scholarship support in US community college and university programmes is growing.

In baseball, over the next four years, there are hopes of placing five to seven players in US colleges, which will double the number placed in the past.

In fastpitch softball, no British player had been accepted in an American college programme until 2007. Since 2009, however, that number has grown and in September 2012, four GB players will be playing in community college or university programmes at NCAA Division I and II levels, with two more having recently graduated from Division II schools.

This represents significant growth, especially given the fact that US college coaches do not have the wealth of statistical evidence and showcase appearances to hand when assessing English players that they have for North American applicants. Accepting and giving scholarship support to English players is something of an act of faith, but the reputation of players who come from the England talent pathway is growing in North America.

In baseball, another pathway available for young players is to play in American high school programmes, and a number of English players have taken this route.

And in both sports, valuable competition experience can be gained through placements at clubs in European leagues that play at a higher level than leagues in the UK.

For a full list of the young English baseball players who have been placed in US or Canadian college programmes, US high school programmes and/or European or other overseas leagues, click here.


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For a full list of the young English fastpitch softball players who have been placed in US college programmes and who have played in overseas leagues, click here.

11. GB Results in Senior International Competitions. Perhaps the most striking indication of the success of the unfunded England talent pathway that has been developed over the past ten years is the success of GB Senior Teams in the Olympic formats of men's baseball and women's fastpitch softball, buoyed by home-grown talent.

Ten years ago, the GB Baseball Team was ranked tenth in Europe and the GB Women's Softball Team twelfth. There has been a steady upward progression since that point.

The Great Britain Women's Fastpitch Softball Team finished second and third at the last two European Championships in 2009 and 2011 and qualified for the last two Softball World Championships in 2010 and 2012 by right for the first time in the programme's history.

The Great Britain Baseball Team finished second in the 2007 European Championships and qualified for the Baseball World Cup for the first time since 1938, then finished first in a European Qualifier round in 2010. The team has been invited by Major League Baseball to compete in September 2012 in the qualifying rounds for the 2013 World Baseball Classic.

Both of those teams were eligible for Olympic qualification through the Beijing Games. In non-Olympic senior formats, the Great Britain Men's Fastpitch Team is currently ranked eighth in the world and the Great Britain Co-ed Slowpitch Team has won eight straight European Championships plus a Slowpitch World Cup held in the United States in 2002 by the International Softball Federation.

Going back to the Olympic formats, our age-group teams in female fastpitch softball (at U-19, U-16 and U-13 levels) and boys' baseball (at U-18 and U-15) are moving up the European rankings.

These are amazing achievements for sports with no resources for elite programmes since 2007, no Talent funding from 2009-13, small talent pools and no public or media recognition. But these achievements were built on the back of public investment that stopped in 2007, and the programmes cannot be sustained at these levels without at least some support.

12. Costs of Competition Trips for GB National Teams. GB national team players (and their families) spend a great deal of money to compete so successfully for their country. Below are the costs of GB Softball Team trips in 2011 and the amounts paid by players and/or families and in some cases team staff. This is followed by projected costs for GB Baseball Team trips in 2012.


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SOFTBALL TRIPS: 2011

GB Women Total costs: £60,060 Contributed by players: £7,335*

* The GB Women's Team competed in both the World Cup of Softball (against the top four teams in the world) in Oklahoma City and then European Championship in Italy in 2011. The team started with £45,175 left over from sponsorship and donations in 2010, but this was a one-off situation and not typical. In 2012, the total costs to attend the World Championships in Canada are estimated at just over £41,000 and players will contribute £28,000.

GB Under-19 Men Total costs: £7,120 Contributed by players: £6,450

GB Under-19 Women Total costs: £17,200 Contributed by players: £15,400

GB Under-16 Girls Total costs: £6,335 Contributed by players: £5,640

GB Under-13 Girls Total costs: £3,900 Contributed by players: £3,400

GB Slowpitch Total costs: £17,085 Contributed by players: £6,150

BASEBALL TRIPS: 2012

GB Senior Men Total costs: £40,000 Contributed by players: £40,000

GB Under-23 Men Total costs: £30,000 Contributed by players: £30,000

GB Junior Boys Total costs: £20,000 Contributed by players: £20,000


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Measures of Success for 2013-17 (if funded)

Outcomes

1. Expand the number of athletes from both sports engaged in the talent pathway.

See attached document: Academy Attendance Projections (click here).

2. Expand the structure of Regional Academies and provide a range of qualified part-time coaches working with talented athletes.

Regional Academy Baseball structures will be established in all BSUK focus regions: initially the North West, Midlands, London and South East but expanding during the four-year cycle to the Bath-Bristol area and Yorkshire.

Regional Academy Softball structures will be established in all BSUK focus regions: initially the North West, Midlands, London and South East, plus Fakenham in Norfolk, where a stand-alone fastpitch development programme has been successful.

3. Expand the youth and senior division competition structure in the Great Britain Fastpitch League and create a new youth baseball leagues, both as extensions of The Academy.

Over the four-year cycle from 2013-2017, new youth baseball leagues at 16+ and 18+ age levels will be created as direct extensions of Academy Baseball, to provide appropriate competition structures for players on the talent pathway.

During the same period, the number of teams in the Great Britain Fastpitch League structure will be expanded in the existing age and divisional levels:

U-14 Division

U-17 Division

Senior

D3

Senior

D2

Senior

D1

2012 3 3 0 6 6

2013 4 4 4 6 6

2014 6 6 6 8 8

2015 6 6 8 8 8

2016 6 8 8 10 10


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4. Host significant international competitions in England to provide more and better competition experience for players on the talent pathway.

During the four-year cycle, we will:

Host the London Baseball & Softball Week in July 2013 to celebrate the opening of new dedicated facilities at Farnham Park and Milton Keynes. The event will involve a number of invitational tournaments including a senior and youth baseball tournament, a women's fastpitch tournament, a junior boys' fastpitch tournament and an adult slowpitch tournament. All will be open to teams from outside the UK and teams from Europe or further afield should make up a significant proportion of teams in all but the adult slowpitch tournament.

Host a World Baseball Classic Qualifier Round (in 2016 for the 2017 WBC).

Host at least one European Championship tournament in each sport.

Continue to run the London Cup International Women's Fastpitch Tournament as an annual event.

Expand an existing annual independently-run baseball competition, the London Tournament, to widen the number of teams taking part from outside the UK.

5. Send an increasing number of players to Major League Baseball's European Academy. During the 2013-17 period, we expect to increase the number of young British players proposed and accepted into Major League Baseball's high-level European Academy, as follows:

Year 1: 1 Year 2: 2 or 3 Year 3: 3 Year 4: 4

6. Establish defined roles for players who drop off the talent pathway to continue to contribute to the sports.

While players are still engaged in the talent pathway, an educational programme will be established to help them assume responsibilities as coaches, umpires, national team managers, club chairpersons, Federation Board members and other key volunteer roles.


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The Academy Attendance

Projections 2013-2017

Current

2011-12 Baseball Softball Total

Under-13 21 11 32

Under-16 52 15 67

Under19 30 17 47

Under-25 11 7 18

TOTAL 114 50 164

Future


Under-13 25 30 55

Under-16 40 18 58

Under19 40 15 55

Under-25 18 10 28

TOTAL 123 73 196


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Future


Under-13 35 40 75

Under-16 50 30 80

Under19 50 25 75

Under-25 25 12 37

TOTAL 160 107 267

Future


Under-13 50 50 100

Under-16 60 40 100

Under19 60 35 95

Under-25 25 15 40

TOTAL 195 140 335


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Future


Under-13 55 55 110

Under-16 60 40 100

Under19 60 40 100

Under-25 25 15 40

TOTAL 200 150 350

Future


Under-13 50 50 100

Under-16 50 40 90

Under19 50 30 80

Under-25 25 15 40

TOTAL 175 135 310

The figures for 2016-17 will register the move towards more restrictive Academy criteria and the start of a concentration on higher-quality training delivered to slightly fewer athletes.


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The Academy Past and Present Attendance

Previous


Under-13 10 10 20

Under-16 44 15 59

Under19 20 15 35

Under-25 - - 0

TOTAL 74 40 114

Future


Under-13 22 6 28

Under-16 39 19 57

Under19 24 16 40

Under-25 4 0 4

TOTAL 89 41 130


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Future


Under-13 21 11 32

Under-16 52 15 67

Under19 30 17 47

Under-25 11 7 18

TOTAL 114 50 164


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Case Studies

Softball Case Study: Susie Hall

Susie Hall, now 18, began playing fastpitch softball at the age of nine in a schools fastpitch development programme started by BaseballSoftballUK (BSUK) in 2002, to which elements of a talent pathway were soon added through a “School of Excellence” established so that girls who showed interest and ability could develop their skills through higher-level coaching and competition. This soon became the Softball Academy, now called Academy Softball.

Susie has progressed from The Academy through the Great Britain age group teams, and will play this summer for the Great Britain Junior (Under-19) Women’s Team in a European Championship that will double as a World Championship Qualifier.

Susie has also been offered a scholarship to study and play softball for the next two years at Frank Phillips Community College in Borger, Texas, making her the fifth home-grown British player since the GB Softball programme began in 1985 to play college softball in the United States. Sending young players to the US is a major GB Softball programme goal, since a US college programme can give them far more concentrated coaching and competition experience than they can currently gain in the UK.

Q: When and where did you start to play softball and how long have you been involved with the Softball Academy programme?

A: I started playing softball at nine years old in 2003 at Hampton Junior school, Richmond-upon-Thames, through a Grass Roots softball programme provided by BaseballSoftballUK. This programme helped a lot of the junior schools in my area to learn and play the game against each other.

In 2005 I entered the BSUK School of Excellence as part of the UK Cats team. We toured in Holland and I also joined the BSUK Academy training programme. I have attended the Academy every year since 2005.

Q: How has the Softball Academy helped you to develop as an athlete?

A: The Softball Academy has provided a structured programme teaching the basic softball skills and the fundamental rules of the game. The Academy has focused training sessions, where players can concentrate on learning and improving. The Academy has also helped me maintain and improve my fitness. Academy coaches introduced me to a club, Richings Park Softball club. This has enabled me to play competitive fastpitch and slowpitch games, including the European Cup in San Marino in 2010. This also means I have extra trainings between the gaps of each Academy session.

Q: How has the Academy helped you develop your knowledge of softball and develop sport-specific skills?

A: Through learning simple and complex plays depending on the age range that is being coached. I also attended a two-day introductory umpiring course that helped me learn the rules and gain more knowledge of the game and I have attended a one day Introduction to Coaching course delivered by Stan Doney, a BSUK Regional Coach and Club Development Officer who has coached both the GB Under-19 Women’s and Men’s Teams. Altogether, the Academy has helped develop


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solid skills, which has enabled me to obtain a 50% scholarship to an American college.

Q: Has the coaching at the Academy helped you to develop more than if you were reliant solely on club-based coaching? If so, why?

A: BSUK coaches are internationally successful coaches with world-wide experience and skills which they can pass on to us at Academy training. Local coaches do not have this depth of knowledge or experience, as I have realised from my extra club training. Without a good foundation in softball provided by the Academy, I would not have been good enough to progress into the Great Britain squad and play softball in the USA. In 2008 I became part of the Under-16 GB squad and I competed in the 2009 Under-16 European Championships and then the 2010 Under-19 European Championships. I also played for Richings Park Softball club in the European Cup in San Marino in 2010. In 2011 I travelled with the GB Under-19 Team to play in the Canadian Open Futures Gold Tournament in Vancouver, one of the world’s top tournaments for this age level. I now want to develop my softball further and spend some time playing in USA. To enable this I have got a 50% scholarship to play softball and study for a degree at Frank Phillips College in Borger,Texas from August 2012.

Q: Outside of softball, has your involvement in the Academy been a positive influence on your life? Please explain.

A: The Academy has helped me live a balanced and healthy active lifestyle and keep fit. It has helped me learn team work and dealing with pressurised situations. I have also developed some very close friends and friendships which I think will last for years.

Q: Has the Academy made your playing experience in softball more or less satisfactory? Please explain.

A: The Academy has provided me with training opportunities led by experienced coaches which I would not otherwise have had. The amount of game time and playing time was greatly increased through the Academy. Academy sessions are now held in Milton Keynes, which provides excellent facilities and enables training in all weathers. Indoor venues for softball are difficult to find where we can have a full pitch to play on.


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Baseball Case Study: Jamie Ratcliff

Jamie Ratcliff, now 18, began playing baseball in Kent with the Tonbridge Bobcats, one of British Baseball's most established and longest running youth programmes. Tonbridge had previously produced a number of young talented players who had advanced to play at the highest domestic level in the UK as well as representing Great Britain in international competition. Jamie looked to follow this tradition as he sought out higher-level coaching through the British Baseball Academy (now Academy Baseball) and was eventually selected to play for Great Britain at the Cadet (Under 16) level.

Jamie progressed through The Academy programme and also into the Junior (Under 19) National Team. Last summer was Jamie's last year with the GB Junior National team in which he pitched in key wins against representative teams from Venezuela. Now pitching in the National Baseball League, Britain's highest level of domestic competition, Jamie won the 2011 MVP of the National Baseball Championship following his stellar pitching performance leading his team the Southern Nationals to their first National Championship.

Jamie is currently pursuing leads to play baseball at the collegiate or university level in the USA. Currently Cal State University at Stanislaus a NCAA Division 2 university have expressed an interest in Jamie playing with them when he finishes he secondary school education in the UK. Should Jamie play at the collegiate level he will be the 13th UK based player to have played baseball in the USA. Having top British players play college baseball is a major goal for British baseball as the coaching and experience they receive will not only better prepare them for the world class programme but also contribute to raising standards in the UK upon their return.

Q: How has the Academy helped you develop as an athlete?

A: The Academy has helped phenomenally with my development as an athlete. It always gives me new drills and exercises to do which I can then take away and do in my own time as well, and gives me the opportunity to play and train with the best calibre players in the country.

Q: How has the Academy helped you develop as a pitcher?

A: The Academy has helped me develop as a pitcher through the coaches helping me with my mechanics, helping me to develop new pitches and again pitching against some of the best hitters in the country.

Q: How has the coaching at the Academy helped you to develop more than if you were reliant solely on club based coaching?

A: The Academy allowed me to work with some of the best coaches in the country. Although my club coaches have always been quite good, the coaches at the Academy have allowed me to take my knowledge and practices to a higher level that I would not have been able to reach at my club.

Q: Outside of baseball how has your involvement in the Academy positively influenced your life?


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A: Outside of baseball, the Academy has played a big role in my life. The experience, confidence and also determination that have grown from my time at the Academy have helped me tremendously in most aspects of my life, including school and work.

Q: Has the Academy made your playing experience in baseball more or less satisfactory? Please explain.

A: The Academy has made my experience in baseball far more enjoyable than it would have been without it. It has opened up lots of opportunities for me, including playing for the Great Britain squads and visiting some great places to play against higher level players, both in this country and abroad. Although I would still enjoy baseball if I had not been to the Academy, I would not have been given these fantastic opportunities which I am glad I took advantage of.


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Selection Criteria: Baseball

GB Baseball bases its selection criteria at the Senior level on the MLB scale. Players are rated on a scale of 2-8 in the following categories:

Position Players

Arm strength

Running Speed (60 yards)

8 – 6.4 seconds or less

7 – 6.5-6.6 seconds

6 – 6.7-6.8 seconds

5 – 6.9-7.0 seconds

4 – 7.1-7.2 seconds

3 – 7.2-7.4 seconds

2 – 7.5 seconds+

Fielding Ability

Quick feet

Range

Soft hands

Quick hands

Hitting ability

Bat speed

Consistently hits the ball hard

Knowledge of the strike zone


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Ability to hit a 90mph+ fastball

Ability to hit breaking balls

Ability to hit the ball to all fields

Hitting with power

How far is the ball consistently hit?

Pitchers

Delivery

Smooth and effortless

Control

Ability to throw strikes on a consistent basis

Velocity

8 – 98mph+

7 – 93-97 mph

6 – 90-92mph

5 – 88-89 mph

4 – 85-87 mph

3 – 83-84 mph

2 – 82 mph -

Catchers

Throws to 2nd base:

8 – 1.7 seconds -

7 – 1.7-1.8 seconds


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6 – 1.8-1.9 seconds

5 – 1.9-2.0 seconds

4 – 2.0-2.1 seconds

3 – 2.1-2.2 seconds

Selection Criteria: Softball

Offensive Performance

Batting

Batting statistics

Ability to make contact

Ability to make adjustments

Ability to hit the ball hard (power)

Situational hitting (for example: bunting, hitting to advance runners etc)

Consistency

Baserunning

Defensive Performance

Fielding

Hands

Arm strength

Throwing accuracy

Range

Consistency


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Judgement

Communication with other players

Instincts for necessary adjustments / positioning

Pitching Performance (if applicable)

Pitch speed

Pitch location

Ball movement

Variety and command of pitches

Situational pitching

Presence / demeanour on the mound

Ability to adjust to game situations

Communication with the catcher and/or other defensive players

Judgement

Communication with other players

Instincts for necessary adjustments / positioning

Physical Strength & Conditioning Performance

Needs to have physical strength to perform at international level.

Other Considerations

Teamwork – Willingness to accept a role that leads to team success.

Enthusiasm – Energy and support of team mates.

Versatility – Balance between offense and defense as well as the ability to play other positions to fulfil


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multiple roles.

Maturity – Ability to adjust to situations, dealing with adversity, accepting things that don’t go well and

reacting appropriately.

Team Composition – The intended direction for the particular team.

Academy Baseball Graduates in US College Programmes

COLLEGE PLACEMENTS

Will Lintern

The Academy programme helped Will to play university baseball in the US at Menlo College from 2003-2007. BSUK and the BBF also helped Will to play baseball in Germany in 2009 ahead of the Baseball World Cup.

Stephen Brown

The Academy programme helped Stephen play high school baseball in the US before going on to play university baseball at Stanford University from 2004-2008.

Michael Johnson

The Academy programme helped Michael to play high school and Junior College baseball in the US before going on to play university baseball at Cal State University of Stanislaus from 2008-2010.

Michael Trask

The Academy programme helped Michael to get accepted to the MLB European Academy in 2008 and then play baseball at Southeastern Community College in Iowa.

Ben Pearson


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The Academy helped Ben Pearson to play at Durham College in Canada in 2010 and in the German League in 2011.

James Pearson

The Academy helped James Pearson to play at Durham College in Canada in 2009.

Callum Woods

The Academy helped Callum to play baseball at Southeastern Community College in Iowa from 2009-2010.

HIGH SCHOOL PLACEMENTS

Dale Lattanzio

The Academy helped Dale to play high school baseball in the US in 2011-2012.

Chris Perry

The Academy helped Chris to play high school baseball in the US from 2009-2012.

Jonathon Cramman

The Academy helped Jonathon Cramman to play high school baseball at Chippewa Hills High School in the US in 2009.

OVERSEAS LEAGUE PLACEMENTS

Richard Klijn

The Academy programme helped Richard to get accepted to the MLB European Academy in 2008 and then earn a place at the German Academy in Regensberg before playing for and becoming the starting second baseman for the Regensberg Legionnaires.


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George Lintern

The Academy programme helped George to play baseball in Australia in 2007.

Ryan Trask

The Academy programme helped Ryan Trask to play in France and Switzerland in 2010.

Alex Malihoudis

BSUK and the BBF helped Alex to play baseball in France in 2009 ahead of the Baseball World Cup.

Sam Whitehead

BSUK and the BBF helped Sam to play in the German League in 2005.

Aeden McQueary-Ennis

BSUK and the BBF helped Aeden to play in Germany and Holland in 2005.

Academy Softball Graduates in US College Programmes

Laura Thompson (Towcester, Northants)

Vernon Community College, Texas (2006-2008)

Eastern New Mexico University – NCAA Division II (2008-2010)

Laura earned All-Conference honours in both years at Eastern New Mexico

Laura was involved in our talent development programmes as they evolved from the age of 1. She played in GB Teams from the age of 15 when she was selected for the GB U-16 team in the ISF Softball Junior World Cup in Florida. Laura was selected to the GB Senior Women's Team at the age of 17 (the youngest player ever selected at the time) and has been a starter and outstanding player ever since. She was also the first UK-based GB player to play abroad in a top European league. Laura played in the highest league in Holland in 2006, a placement made for her by the GB National Team programme.


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Morgan Parkerson (Hockwold, Norfolk)

Western Washington University – NCAA Division II (2006-10)

Morgan was only peripherally involved with our talent programmes. She was born and has grown up entirely in the UK, but her parents worked on the US Air Force base at RAF Lakenheath and she played school softball within their programmes.

Steph Pearce (Tolworth, Surrey)

Vernon Community College, Texas (2009-2011)

University of Bridgeport – NCAA Division II (2011-2013)

Steph is entirely a product of our evolving talent development programme. She took up the game through the Grass Roots Schools Fastpitch Development Programme BSUK ran in West London from 2002-2005, where she was spotted and invited to attend the School of Excellence established in 2003. She played club softball with the London Monkeys and went on overseas tours arranged through the School of Excellence. She has played for the GB U-16s and U-19s in European Championship competition and won the Best Batter award at the 2008 European Junior Championships before being selected to the Senior GB Women's Team in 2009.

Ali Parkerson (Hockwold, Norfolk)

Western Oregon University – NCAA Division II (2010-2014)

Unlike her older sister, Ali was developed through attendance from 2007-2009 at Academy Softball sessions at Upper Heyford as well as through the school softball programme at RAF Lakenheath. She has played for GB U-16 and U-19 teams before being selected to the Senior GB Women's Team in 2009.

Susie Hall (Hampton, Middlesex)

Frank Phillips Community College, Texas (2012-2014)

See Case Study. Susie began playing fastpitch softball at the age of nine in 2003 in the Grass Roots Schools Fastpitch Development Programme and was invited to attend the School of Excellence which later became Academy Softball. Susie has progressed from the Academy through the Great Britain age group teams, and will play this summer for the Great Britain U-19 Team in a European Championship that will double as a World Championship Qualifier. Susie has been offered a scholarship to study and play softball starting in September 2012 at Frank Phillips Community College in Borger, Texas.


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Sara Robb (Vienna, Austria)

Colorado State University – NCAA Division I (2012-2016)

Sara and her family, originally from Northumbria, have lived in Vienna for many years because of her father's employment, and Sara has played club softball in Austria, playing with adult teams since the age of 14. But she has attended a number of Academy Softball sessions over the past three years and was offered a place at a GB Women's Team training camp in Florida in 2010, the year she was first selected for the GB U-19 Team. After an outstanding performance for the GB U-19s at the elite Canadian Open Futures Gold Tournament in 2011, Sara has been selected to the Senior GB Women's Team this year to play in World Championships (she will also play for the GB U-19s this summer in the European Championships/World Championship Qualifier). She has been invited to try out as a walk-on when she starts university next year at Colorado State, a high-level NCAA Division I school.

Two more current GB Under-19 players who have developed through the Grass Roots programme, the School of Excellence and Academy Softball over the past eight years and have played in all three GB age-group teams – Amy Wells and Vicky Keswick – are hoping to play college softball in the United States from 2013.

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London W1T 4QJ

+44 (0) 20 7453 7055

+44 (0) 20 7453 7007 fax

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