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Post by gj on Mar 6, 2012 14:59:25 GMT 10
Nate, Just because some consultants decide to not include Geelong as a regional centre for the purpose of a baseball study does not change the fact Geelong is a regional city. You may have missed my point on the other 2 topics, I have PM'ed you to elaborate.
Cheers
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Post by aueagle30 on Mar 7, 2012 14:00:03 GMT 10
Nate, Just because some consultants decide to not include Geelong as a regional centre for the purpose of a baseball study does not change the fact Geelong is a regional city. You may have missed my point on the other 2 topics, I have PM'ed you to elaborate. Cheers gj, I'm honestly not picking a fight with you on this... I'm trying to highlight quotas as political mechanisms rather than actually serving any real purpose for recruitment and retention. The problem with any political mechanism is it can (and will) be manipulated to ensure the required outcome is achieved. I don't doubt any of you're thoughts, but highlighting how Geelong is considered regional for one purpose but not another shows this manipulation in effect. Happy to follow up on the PM...
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Post by barkdog70 on Mar 14, 2012 15:37:33 GMT 10
Interesting topic you raise tgonguy999.
I have been involved in Bendigo baseball for most of my life although I was away for the better part of the naughties but still took an activity interest through family and friends. When I left Bendigo baseball in 2000 the league was quite strong and all teams had good numbers. I only resumed in Bendigo in 2009 and the change in the standard of the competition and the involvement of participants was stark. The competition was dominated by 1 team and overall participation of the other clubs was low. There are many and varied reasons I believe why the Bendigo competition has slipped to where it is now. One team dominating A Grade certainly hasnt helped from a competition point of view (wooden bats in a bush league, why oh why?) but junior participation is very poor for all clubs I think, which means teams arent retaining juniors and they arent coming through to senior level which would help a lot of sides. It seems to me there is just too many options available now to kids be it soccer, afl, another sport or sitting at home on the PS3 or Xbox. Junior baseball in Bendigo also suffers in my opinion from Auskick being on a Sunday morning and junior soccer being on a Saturday morning. Up against these 2 behemoths, baseball has no hope of attracting serious junior numbers.
Another point I have noticed is that it's still the same old dedicated and hard working people here organising things, be it on the association, club committees, coaching, playing or umpiring. And once these people decide they have had enough or find other interests and are lost to the game then there doesnt seem to be many willing or able to put up there hands to have a crack to improve the league. And more often than not its the kids of these old timers who have been around the league for years which keep most of the clubs afloat.
I dont have a position on the Bendigo Association so I cant speak for them, I am a committee member of my club and an organiser of our new Masters team and I am only telling as I see it. But in my opinion if things dont change markedly in Bendigo, I cant see there being a serious local competition here in 5 years the way things stand.
What is the solution? I dont know, perhaps ideas from the wider baseball community could be of assistance to us here.
Just my 5c )
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Post by aueagle30 on Mar 14, 2012 16:52:12 GMT 10
barkdog70, both the Geelong summer club and winter association has had some success over the past few years in operating a program called Rally Cap (the ABF might not like to read this because it's not their Aussie T-ball program, but if it works...)
The program teaches skill development through game sense activities. Players are graded by a coloured cap, much the same as karate uses coloured belts. Parents are encouraged to be active in the sessions and activities are pretty easy for parents to understand, even those parents with little baseball experience. The program was developed in Canada and we contacted Baseball Canada for permission to use the program.
We also struggled with the clash against other sports... we moved to Friday night, thinking we would avoid junior cricket in the summer, only for In2Cricket to also move to Friday night... we're not competing directly against cricket and still drawing solid numbers. A good program is a good program and kids are drawn to fun and learning, regardless of the sport.
It does require some good people to run it... the hardest part of junior development I see is engaging young men to assist in the program... young guys live at home longer, avoid 'career commitment' till later, stay unmarried later and have kids later... 30 years ago, 22 year old blokes had a mortgage and a kid (and therefore a steady job) and by the time he was 30 his kids were well into the sport... not now, so you need to find what incentive will get young people involved in running the program.
Regardless of whether its Rally Cap, Aussie T-ball, or any other program, if it's fun, if it teaches, if the parents are engaged, and you have good people running it, it has a chance to succeed.
I hope this has helped some... if you're interested in more information, please feel free to PM me... I'm happy to help where I can.
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