 |
|
|
How Do I... Start A Team?
Below are some ideas and advice on getting a team together, learning the game, starting to play and then joining a league or finding other ways to begin playing baseball or softball.
For further help, contact BSUK.
Where can you find players for your team?
Most teams are formed from colleagues at the same company or organisation or by groups of friends. But if you're short of players, you can always put an ad in your local newspaper or notices at your local sports centre, local colleges or universities or in newsagents' shops.
If you're in or near London, you can put a free ad in the Sportsboard listings in Time Out magazine.
A team on the field consists of nine players in baseball and fastpitch softball and ten players in slowpitch softball. But in order to fulfil an entire league schedule, you probably need a squad of 15-20 players. Not everyone can play all the time: holidays or family and work commitments can claim a surprising number of players on a given day. So make sure you have enough players on your books.
Even if you're forming a recreational or social team, make sure that the word "commitment" is mentioned. Players must be aware that if they do not turn up for a game, they could be letting down other people who have made the effort to get there and who want to play. In short, your team will collapse if your players aren't committed to turning out as often as they can and to giving the team a certain amount of priority in their lives.
Softball Choices
If you’re forming a new softball team, you should start with a basic decision: do you want to play slowpitch or fastpitch softball?
Fastpitch is the more competitive form of the game and slowpitch is more recreational and easier to access and play – although the best slowpitch teams are certainly both competitive and highly skilled! There are slowpitch leagues all over the country, whereas fastpitch competition, mainly for women and girls, tends to take place in London and the southern half of the country.
Only women's teams (and one men's team) play fastpitch, whereas men's, women's and especially co-ed (mixed) teams all play slowpitch. Over 90% of slowpitch teams are co-ed – which means that both men and women play together in the same team, usually (but not always) in a 50:50 ratio.
So if you're just starting out in softball, chances are you'll want to form a co-ed slowpitch team. If you want more information about any of these options in your part of the country, contact the leagues listed on the Contacts page in the softball section of this website, or contact BSUK.
Learning the Game
Once you've got your team together, whether baseball or softball, you may want help to learn the rules and skills of the game.
BaseballSoftballUK can supply a coach to run a clinic for your team on rules and basic skills. To arrange this, contact John Mills for baseball or Hayley Scott for softball (see the Contacts page on the Home Page of this website).
The BaseballSoftballUK office can also supply both official rulebooks for both sports and user-friendly Beginners’ Guides to playing either baseball or softball.
Another good idea is to find an experienced player locally who would be willing to act as your team's coach, or at least run a few sessions with your team until you've picked up the basics. Your local league contact or the BaseballSoftballUK office may be able to suggest some possibilities.
And remember - as a way to learn both the skills and tactics of baseball or softball, there's no substitute for actually playing!
|
|
|
|
