ESF newsletter 2010, Jan

JANUARY2010

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ESF - EUROPEAN SOFTBALL FEDERATION - 11rue de Larchant - 77760 Recloses - France

Public Relations: Michael Schmidt - e-mail: [email protected] - www.europeansoftball.org

FIBS Coach Convention held in Rome from January 22-24John Tschida, Head Coach of the NCAA Division III University

of St Thomas in Minnesota in the United States, was the main

softball speaker at the 25th Italian Coach Convention held in

Rome over the weekend of January 22-24.

Tschida spoke about how to organize practices, the drills he

uses during batting practice and how to coach the infield to

defend the short ball. At the end of his presentation, Tschida

answered questions from Italian coaches.

Enrico Obletter, who won the Italian Softball League with Ca-

serta in 2009, spoke about the drills he uses to coach catchers

and improve communication between pitchers and catchers,

and the drills he uses to

improve power at bat.

Paola Marfoglia, a mem-

ber of Team Italy’s coach-

ing staff, spoke about

baserunning techniques

and strategy, while Liliana

Rossetti, Co-ordinator of

the FIBS program for Un-

der-16 players, described

her program for the 2010

season.

Italian international um-

pire Gianluca Magnani

explained the changes

to softball rules made by

the ISF Rules Commission

at the recent Congress in

Venezuela.

During the Gala Dinner,

Enrico Obletter received

the award as Italian Softball Coach of the Year, while Elisa-

betta Morresi was named the Best Young Coach and Maurizio

Cipriani, Team Italy’s coach in the early 1980s, received the

Valbonesi Award for his career.

The 2011 italian Coach Convention will be hosted by the city

of Bologna.

During its 25 years, the Convention has brought other great

softball names to Italy, including Donna Lo Piano and Dave

Pierce in the 1970s, Judy Garman in the 1980s and, more re-

cently, Suzie Parra and Joann Ferrieri. Totoni Sanna

If your federation would like to publish information on tournaments, clinics, etc. in this newsletter please send your information and pictures to Michael Schmidt at: [email protected]

FIBS Coach Convention held in Rome

2010 World Championship set for Venezuela

Malta uses slowpitch to give softball a firmer foundation on the island

Softball rulebook 2010-2014

New Online Tool

Nominations of Organizers are still open2010 ESF Competitions Calendar

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NEWSLETTER

IN THE ISSUE

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EUROPEANSOFTBALLFEDERATION

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4 Photo: Liliana Rossetti and John Tschida

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PLANT CITY, FLORIDA (USA) – The International Softball

Federation’s XII Women’s World Championship will be held

June 23-July 2, 2010 in Caracas, Venezuela. The official an-

nouncement follows ISF President Don Porter’s trip to the

new host site last week.

In Caracas the ISF president

met with representatives of the

federal government, including

Sports Minister Victoria Mata,

along with Venezuela Softball

Federation President Jesús Su-

niaga, finalizing details on a con-

tract for next year’s event, which

marks the 45th anniversary of the first ever softball world

championship.

The sports minister expressed her pleasure at taking on the

tournament and said that Venezuela President Hugo Chavez,

who has two daughters that play softball, is personally sup-

porting the event.

The world championship had originally been awarded to the

USA, however a decision was made to relocate the event

due to a date conflict with the Central American & Caribbean

Games in Puerto Rico that would have prevented three teams

that had qualified for the ISF event from having the opportu-

nity to play against the other 13 nations in Oklahoma City. Mr.

Porter said the ISF was talking to three other potential new

hosts before finally agreeing with Venezuela.

The new organizing committee has already indicated that the

world championship will receive national television coverage

and that international distribution is already being worked on.

The Venezuelan officials outlined plans to upgrade and reno-

vate existing facilities including the site of the 1983 Pan Ameri-

can Games softball competition, which will have a new main

stadium in time for the ISF tournament. Practice facilities will

also be readily available for the teams too.

The ISF president said he is, “more than satisfied with these

new arrangements” and expressed his “full confidence that

Venezuela will be a great host for the softball world and our

marquee event.”

events

2010 World Championship set for Venezuela

The Malta Baseball and Softball Federation, which currently

has observer status at the ESF but hopes to become a full

member at the 2010 congress, has been trying for many years

to develop fastpitch softball on the island, but without any

lasting success.

Now the Federation is having better luck starting out with

slowpitch, and hopes to use this as a basis for developing

fastpitch in the future.

Malta Softball President Mario Debono said, “At first our fast-

pitch activity was successful and we had up to four full female

teams. However, the momentum never seemed to keep going

for more than 18 months or so, with most girls moving on to

another sport.”

Up to that point, the Maltese had never really thought of try-

ing to promote slowpitch. But during a general meeting late

in 2008, at which both baseball and softball representatives

were present, the discussion turned to softball development.

“The problem that we identified,” Mario Debono said, “was

that we could never find enough female players and others

whose interest in softball lasted more than a few months.

Then they moved on and we wound up with barely enough

players to form two teams. It was at this meeting that the

baseball representatives made the suggestion that they would

provide their own resources (administrators, coaches and any

male players that would be willing to play softball) and we

Malta uses slowpitch to give softball a firmer foundation on the islandshould start with co-ed slow-

pitch tournaments through-

out 2009. In this way, even if

the female players lose inter-

est, there will always be some

activity going on that new play-

ers can join at anytime.”

And the signs are that this scheme has

been working. Over the past 14 months, the number of par-

ticipants in slowpitch, both male and female, has steadily in-

creased.

Mario Debono said: “We hope that by having continuous slow-

pitch activity going on, we will eventually be in a position to

develop fastpitch on a firmer footing.”

Malta has now requested a weekend Slowpitch Clinic from the

ESF, which will should be delivered on February 6-7 by Duncan

McLean and Sara Vertigan. The clinic will cover the rule differ-

ences between slowpitch and fastpitch, slowpitch pitching and

umpiring a slowpitch strike zone, slowpitch umpire mechanics,

basic softball skills and slowpitch strategy and tactics.

Slowpitch clinics will also be run early this year in some dif-

ferent countries.

Any federation interested in hosting an ESF Slowpitch or fast-

pitch Clinic should contact ESF Development Commission on

[email protected]. Development Commission

16 countries will compete in Caracas at

marquee women’s event

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umpire

Photo: Franco Bagattini - www.fastpitch.it

Photo: Franco Bagattini - www.fastpitch.it

Marlies Struyvé, ESF UIC informs:At the ISF congress 2009 a total of 65 rule change proposals were

submitted to the 2009 ISF Congress Playing Rules Commission for

consideration. Of these 11 were withdrawn, 10 were rejected, 25

were approved, 16 were approved with an amendment and 3 were

referred to the technical code.

The most significant changes relate to:

• there is no charged conference anymore when a coach crosses

the line, and after talking to the pitcher decides to substitute

the pitcher (rule 1 sec 17);

• the pitcher may leap (rule 1 sec 20 and sec 61; rule 6 sec 3).

• the rune ahead rule for fast pitch will be 15-10-7 (rule 5 sec 5);

• the intentional base on balls may now also be asked by the

catcher and coach (rule 6 sec 8);

The new rule book can be found On the ISF website http://www.

internationalsoftball.com/index.asp at rules & standards - playing

rules - slow/fast/modified

Softball rulebook 2010-2014

Yesterday the world governing body announced the launch

of ISF UmpSchool. Done in conjunction with RuleBox Soft-

ware, the new initiative is a Web-based resource that um-

pires – whether ISF-certified or not – can utilize as a tool to

become a better on-field official. For a registration fee of just

USD$ 15.00 a year, users can gain online access to the

2010-2013 Official Rules of Softball, the ISF Umpire Manual,

the Case Book, practice tests, and several other study and

preparation materials.

ISF UmpSchool can be accessed by single-clicking on the ad

for it in the right-hand column on any page in the Umpiring

section of the ISF’s official website www.ISFsoftball.org or

by going directly to www.ruleboxsoftware.com/isf.aspx

New Online ToolISF umpire

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events

On February the 5th-7th, 2010 in Antalya, Turkey will take

place the XXXV ESF General Congress. All Congress

documents are available for download on the website

www.europeansoftball.org in the special section for the Con-

gress.

We remind to our members that only accredited Delegates

may represent Federations at the Congress. Federations shall

send duly filled in Credentials to the ESF Secretary General

(form available for download on the website).

Here the LIST OF 2010-2011 COMPETITIONS. In red and

blue colours (re. item 7) are marked the Competitions

for which the Nominations of Organizers are still open until

the Congress.

1 - Exact Dates To Be Announced 2 - Together with ECWA 3 - Dates To Be Approved

4 - Together with EChWA 5 - Bid will be open at the Congress if the EC Motion 08 will be adopted

6 - Final Approval By The Congress 7 - Nominations Open Until The Congress

EChEW – Championship Elite Women NO NOMINATION RECEIVED 1-7

EChU22G – Championship U22 Girls PRAGUE (CZE) Aug. 2 - 7

EChJG – Championship Junior Girls VIENNA (AUT) Jul. 25 - 31

EChMG – Championship Minime Girls ANKARA (TUR) Jul. 5/6 - 10

EChM – Championship Men HAVLICKUV BROD (CZE) Jul. 26 - 31

EChCS – Championship Coed Slowpitch AMSTELVEEN (NED) Jul. 6/7 - 10

ECWA – Cup Women A HAARLEM (NED) Aug. 16 - 21 6

ECWCWA – Winners Cup Women A HAARLEM (NED) Aug. 16 - 21 2-6

ECWB – Cup Women B NO NOMINATION RECEIVED Aug. 16 - 21 7

ECWCWB – Winners Cup Women B NO NOMINATION RECEIVED Aug. 16 - 21 7

ECMA – Cup Men RONCHI de LEGIONARI (ITA) Aug. 23 - 28 7

ECWCMA – Winners Cup Men PRAGUE (CZE) Aug. 23 - 28 7

ECCS – Cup Coed Slowpitch LJUBLJANA (SLO) Aug. 3 - 7 3-7

2010

2011 EChWA – Championship Women A FRIULI Region (ITA) Jul. 25 - 30 6

EChWB– Championship Women B FRIULI Region (ITA) Jul. 25 - 30 4-6

EChU22 – Championship U22 Girls NOMINATION TO BE OPENED AT THE CONGRESS 1-5

EChCG – Championship Cadette Girls NO NOMINATION RECEIVED 1-7

EChJB – Championship Junior Boys KOSTELEC NAD ORLICI (CZE) Jul. 11 - 16 6

EChCS – Championship Coed Slowpitch NO NOMINATION RECEIVED 1-7

Nominations of Organizers are still open

Documents

ESF newsletter 2010, Jan