BSUK, BBF and CEB to host special coaching clinic led by MLB Envoy Sam Dempster
Wed 26 Oct 2011
BaseballSoftballUK, in coordination with the British Baseball Federation (BBF) and Confederation of European Baseball (CEB), will host a special one-day baseball coaching clinic on Sunday 20 November in Milton Keynes.
Only a handful of places remain on this course - register today!
The clinic will be led by Sam Dempster, MLB Envoy and Head Coach of the Great Britain Baseball National Team. Coach Dempster has more than 30 years of baseball coaching experience, and has recently led Team GB to a European Qualifier victory in Israel and the Durham College Lords to a championship title in their Canadian Intercollegiate Baseball League. Dempster, who has spent the past five summers working as Major League Baseball's envoy coach to Great Britain, is making a special trip to the UK from Canada to instruct at the clinic.
Date, time and venue
The clinic will take place on Sunday 20 November 2011 in Milton Keynes.
The session will run from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm and will consist of theory-and strategy-based work in the morning in the Holiday Inn Express Conference Theatre, with a hands-on practical session in the afternoon in the MK Dons Academy Dome at Woughton-on-the-Green Sports Pavilion. The bulk of the day will focus on the coaching skills involved in helping pitchers, catchers and batters to excel in these roles over the course of a baseball season.
Holiday Inn Express
Eastlake Park
Tongwell Street
Milton Keynes
MK15 0YA
[map link]
Woughton-on-the-Green Sports Pavilion
MK Dons Academy Dome
Milton Keynes
MK6 3EA
[map link]
Register now for the BBF / BSUK Baseball Coaching Clinic
https://bsuk.wufoo.com/forms/w7x2r7/
The programme
MLB Envoy and Team GB Head Coach SAM DEMPSTER
Sam Dempster and the other coaches who will be involved in the clinic have identified three areas of the game that are often the most challenging for British baseball coaches and where the greatest impact could be made in a one-day instructional clinic: pitching, catching and hitting.
These areas of focus will be delivered in three one-hour rotations. All attending coaches will work on pitcher and bullpen management and the art of coaching and developing young pitchers. They will also put on a hitting coach’s cap for an hour, with a focus on effective batting practice as a means for improving players' ability to hit both for average and power. Finally, delegates will look at the most difficult position on the diamond - the catcher - and at the techniques involved in coaching receivers to raise their levels of stamina, endurance and mental agility behind the plate.
"The goal is to send coaches away with as much knowledge and confidence as possible in these three areas of focus," said BBF Coaches Commissioner Rob Rance. "That way, they can return to their club's winter training sessions with a new arsenal of coaching skills to help them evaluate player performance, identify and correct faults, and give their bullpen and batting lineup the best chance of success in 2012."
Clinic Schedule:
Venue: Holiday Inn Express, Eastlake Park, Tongwell Street, Milton Keynes MK15 0YA
09.45 Registration of Delegates
10.00 Welcome and Introductions - John Mills, BSUK
10.10 Practice Planning with Coach Dempster
12:10 Lunch (not provided)
Venue: Woughton-on-the-Green Sports Pavilion, MK Dons Academy Dome, Milton Keynes MK6 3EA
13.00 Hitting Rotation
14.10 Catching Rotation
15.30 Pitching Rotation
16.40 Concluding Advice and Support
17.00 End of Clinic
Clinic staff
Through staging this clinic, BSUK, the BBF and CEB are looking to provide opportunities for the British baseball coaching community to learn from some of the best coach educators in the nation under the guidance of GB Head Coach and MLB Envoy Sam Dempster.
All four clinicians have a combination of recent experience within the US collegiate baseball network and also with GB Baseball and the UK's domestic leagues. They are in regular contact with British baseball teams and have a thorough understanding of how the best of North American coaching practice can work in a UK context.
Sam Dempster is one of the Head Coaches in the MLB Envoy Coaching Programme. He has coached in Germany, England, Holland, Spain and Kenya, among other countries, as an Envoy Coach. In Canada, as Head Coach of the Durham College Lords, Dempster has compiled an impressive overall record of 302-182 with five conference championships. In 2010, Dempster was inducted into the Whitby Sport Hall of Fame. In January of 2007, he was awarded the Julio Puente Envoy International Coach Award by Major League Baseball at the American Baseball Coaches Association Conference. This prestigious award is presented by MLB for unselfish, dedicated and passionate work in growing the game of baseball. Coach Dempster is also an associate Canadian scout for Major League Baseball’s Milwaukee Brewers and was previously a scout for the New York Yankees.
Assisting Coach Dempster at the clinic will be Great Britain Baseball coaches Will Lintern (catching), Brendan Cunliffe (pitching) and Liam Carroll (hitting).
Will Lintern graduated from Menlo College in California as one of the school's top players in 2007. He is the Head Coach of the GB Baseball Junior National Team, a Regional Coach for BaseballSoftballUK and the Director of BSUK’s Academy Baseball programme. Lintern is currently working with baseball teams in the Midlands to drive both recruitment and development in preparation for the 2012 season.
Brendan Cunliffe played baseball for four years at Montreat College in Montreat, North Carolina. He is the Head Coach of the GB Baseball Cadet National Team and a coach at the BSUK Academy. Brendan hails from Southampton, Ontario, Canada and serves as the Development Logistics Manager for BaseballSoftballUK.
Liam Carroll is the BSUK Regional Coach and Club Development Officer for London. Growing up playing in Britain, Carroll made the move to America to study and play university baseball. He finished his degree at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV), coached college baseball there until 2010, and now works with the Great Britain Baseball National Teams and the BSUK Academy Baseball programme.
Cost and criteria
The special one-day clinic is open to any coaches currently working within affiliated BBF teams, junior or adult, as well as BSUK Coach Education tutors. Thirty places are available on a first-come-first-served basis, so register soon to avoid disappointment.
BaseballSoftballUK is hosting this clinic in coordination with the British Baseball Federation and the Confederation of European Baseball. The key organisers are BSUK National Development Manager John Mills and BBF Coaches Commissioner Rob Rance.
Cost to participants will be £25, which will include all clinic sessions and resources and videos of the clinical rotations that will be produced and distributed to attendees afterwards. Coaches will have the ability to review the videos online, download them to disk or receive a DVD so they can study the day's instruction throughout the upcoming baseball season.
This event is the first in a series of annual coaching conventions for baseball promoted by the BBF and run in conjunction with BSUK, GB Baseball and CEB.
Attendance at this event can be included as CPD for coaches registered on the BSUK Coach Register.
Registration and more info
To register for the BBF/BSUK Baseball Coaching Clinic please complete a short online form and remit payment by debit or credit card for £25:
For additional information about the clinic, or to find out about making payment via cheque or BACS transfer, please contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or call the BaseballSoftballUK office on 020 7453 7055.
The MK Dome has modern amenities and considerably more floor area than the gym at Upper Heyford
