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South London Baseball Association strives to create programs that are fun and promote athletic development for kids of all ages. To achieve this, we believe in Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) and specifically the LTAD Model developed by Baseball Canada.
The intent of our programs is to develop athletes, not just baseball players. This means we strive to promote healthy living, provide positive role models and develop athletic skills that go beyond throwing, catching and hitting.
To help achieve these goals our organization has built several partnerships that ensure we teach by example:
Healthy living is a popular “buzz” phrase today. But what does it mean? To South London Baseball, it means educating our members on healthy eating, the importance of getting active and the dangers that exist based on the choices we make. To support healthy living within our programs we have partnered with Live, Play, Be Tobacco Free.
As an organization, we have a strict Tobacco-free Policy that extends beyond players, coaches and umpires to include spectators.
Our Tobacco-free Policy is simple: No tobacco products (including e-cigarettes) in any park or facility where a sanctioned event is being held.
All of our coach’s uniforms include the Live, Play, Be Tobacco Free logo on their sleeve as a reminder of this commitment.
Role models play an important role in the development of every child. As an organization we want to ensure our coaches and volunteers are champions of positive sport environments and each individually strive to provide good sport experiences. To achieve this we have partnered with True Sport, an organization dedicated to the notion that good sport can make a great difference. It is an initiative that:
As a reflection of this partnership, we have adopted the Principles of True Sport into our organization constitution whereby all decision making is guided by the seven principles:
Our organization believes there is more to sport than just baseball. This is why we focus on teaching our participants more than just the fundamentals of hitting, throwing and catching.
We believe that true athletes develop a range of skills in a range of sport environments and this development contributes to their overall physical literacy, or their physical competence and knowledge.
To support the development of physical literacy our organization has tied our programs into the Baseball Canada LTAD Model. Our programs are structured based on the LTAD stages of athlete development and include:
Stage 2: FUNdamental (Coed Learn to Play)
Stage 3: Learn to Train (Mite/Squirt Fastball & Mosquito/Peewee Hardball)
Stage 4: Train to Train (Novice/Bantam Fastball & Bantam Hardball)
Stage 5: Train to Compete (Midget and Junior Fastball & Midget and Junior Hardball)
Stage 6: Train to Win (Midget and Junior Fastball & Midget and Junior Hardball)
Stage 7: Active for Life (All Programs)
*Stage 1 is not included as it pertains to participants younger then T-Ball age
Each stage of the model and each stage of our program introduces participants to different sport objectives. For example, our Co-ed Learn-to-Play program focuses on the FUNdamentals of sport. This includes structuring programs to be primarily game based and encouraging the development of a range of basic sport movements including running, jumping, throwing, catching, hopping and kicking.
As participants advance through our programs they are introduced to different elements of the game and sport. By the time a participant is 18-19 years of age, the focus is no longer on simply having fun but rather striving to win while having respect for the game in a positive sporting atmosphere.
Want to know more about physical literacy? Check out the resources below: