USA Baseball and the American Baseball Coaches Association announced on Monday the addition of five new courses to the USA Baseball Online Education Center. All five courses feature content provided by the ABCA as part of the educational partnership formed between the two organizations to create a higher standard of coaching education and enhance the ability of coaches to better serve athletes, teams and communities.
Each of the five new, developmentally-focused coaching courses includes clinic videos from recent ABCA Conventions. These courses are now available on the Online Education Center, at no cost to users, and are available in English and Spanish.
The five new courses are:
- Offensive Development, featuring Jay Johnson, head baseball coach at the University of Arizona, and Casey Dunn, head baseball coach at Samford University
- Pitching Development, featuring Greg Moore, two-time USA Baseball coaching alum and head baseball coach at Cal State Northridge, and Jamie Pinzino, former pitching coach at the University of Oklahoma and current pitching coach at Army
- Baserunning Development, featuring Todd Interdonato, head baseball coach at Wofford College; Mike Curran, retired High School Hall of Fame coach; and Mike Roberts, roving Minor League consultant for the Chicago Cubs and head coach of the Cotuit Kettleers
- Catching Development, featuring Tom Griffin, head baseball coach at Carson-Newman University
- Managing a Pitching Staff, featuring Jason Dietrich, pitching coach at the University of Oregon; Bob Keller, pitching coach at the University of South Alabama; and Wes Johnson, pitching coach at the University of Arkansas
The USA Baseball Online Education Center currently includes a catalog of online courses for players, coaches, parents and umpires, hosted by some of baseball's most esteemed professionals; and hosts additional resources such as the Long Term Athlete Development Plan, USA Baseball Mobile Coaching App, the Sport Development blog and more.
"Today’s announcement marks another important step in our partnership with the ABCA," said Rick Riccobono, USA Baseball's Chief Development Officer. "These courses broaden the digital offerings for coaches seeking skill development resources and once again bring some of the coaching communities’ brightest minds directly to users. While we are encouraged by this most recent launch, we remain diligent in working towards more comprehensive solutions for the many coaches of our great game.”
“These additional courses help further the ABCA’s mission of educating baseball coaches and we are happy to provide more resources in conjunction with USA Baseball,” said ABCA Executive Director Craig Keilitz. “We are hopeful that courses like these will help provide quality coaching education for generations to come, and that we are able to work with USA Baseball to provide an all-inclusive program that brings all of our resources together in the future.”
The educational partnership between USA Baseball and the ABCA, which was announced during the ABCA Convention on Jan. 6, also comes with a call to action for coaches to engage in and support the new Baseball ACE Community Clinic program. This joint initiative is hosted at CoachClinics.org and aims to encourage active mentorship among the baseball coaching community by providing coaches at all levels the opportunity to learn and grow by interacting with one another. Further announcements about the partnership will be made later in 2018.
To access the online courses presented by USA Baseball and the ABCA, visit USABaseball.Education.