April 15
April 15 Update
Inlyten Coaching Course - New Session Starting April 15 (Inlyten)
The next full course for Inlyten starts tonight! If you're interested in taking the course and furthering your coaching knowledge, reach out to SPMBA or myself. Once you register, you get access to all the content on the course (with the exception of weekly Q&A updates). It's a great course and beneficial for any coach in our program.
Coaching Association of Canada - CAC
The Coaching Association of Canada is the national body that governs all sport coaching across every sport in Canada. They look after the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) and have a directive to continue to push the development of coaches across the country. Their website houses the certification and coaching record (through The Locker) of each certified coach in Canada across every sport they coach. The CAC website, The Locker, and the Baseball NCCP website are the essential coaching websites for tracking, maintaining, and continuing your coaching education, in terms of official coaching certification programming.
Our elite coaches, the ones who are Regional Certified or Provincial Certified, have an obligation to maintain their certification. They need 12 professional development points over a three year period (after they have been certified initially or after the renewal of their certification) to stay certified. Certification is required to be eligible for important events like provincial and national championships. Full NCCP courses are worth 5 PD points. Other NCCP courses, such as the ones through the CAC, have PD values specified.
Regardless of your coaching status, there are a variety of NCCP courses offered on these websites for free or for minimal cost. These include:
Making Head Way in Sport
Safe Sport Training
Coaching Athletes with a Disability
Rules PD
Note: SPMBA has issued a special directive this year, due to the cancellation of the Community League season, that costs for coaching courses will not be covered unless absolutely required (for example, rep coaches that have not completed NCCP training for their respective age group).
Pocket - Organization Tool
One of my favorite resources is Pocket. Pocket allows you to save websites, articles, social media threads, Tweets, videos, and more to read or watch later. You can sort and categorize your saved content and go back to it at your leisure. I use it every day to sort through the vast sea of information available to us...and to keep these blog posts on track. Pocket can be added to your browser and your phone quite easily. I cannot recommend it enough! Pocket can be downloaded at:
Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL)
Here is a great thread (from a great person to follow on Twitter) from @BaseballBrit. There is only one baseball league in the world that is currently playing games and that is the Chinese Professional Baseball League, based out of Taiwan. @BaseballBrit provides a comprehensive thread on all things CPBL including the teams, the schedule, and ways to watch live baseball games.
@BaseballBrit is also a great follow because of his adventures throughout North America during the 2019 baseball season. He ventured to every MLB stadium (and many MiLB stadiums) through 2019 to explore and understand the game of baseball and the culture surrounding it. He attempted to attend 162 games (and came up a little short). This has spurred on a new project for 2020, a close look at the minor leagues, the cities and towns that these teams are the centerpieces of, and the issues forthcoming with the MLB's consolidation of the minor leagues.
Yours in baseball,
Coach Lovie
Baseball Development Lead
Sherwood Park Minor Baseball Association
baseballdevelopment@spmba.ca