By ISG Baseball
The annual ISG/Deutsche Baseball and Softball Verband coaches educational clinic was held this year over the weekend of 11-13 January at the Deutsche Olympic Sport Bund in Frankfurt. ISG Team Leader Tom O’Connell, a veteran of 20 summers as an MLB Envoy Coach, brought with him two outstanding speakers who no doubt added much to the German coaching training. Ryan Sienko, the LA Dodgers Catching Coordinator covered all phases of receiving, game calling and throwing in a fresh, cutting edge manner while Don Sneddon, California JUCO coaching legend from Santa Ana Community College covered a variety of topics based on his long storied career as a head coach and manager in the Cape Cod summer collegiate league.
This was the 18th consecutive year that ISG Baseball has cooperated with the German Federation to provide educational opportunities for coaches at all levels there. In addition to Sneddon and Sienko, the clinic featured the new German national team coach, Steve Janssen, a well known and respected coach who has worked with the Belgian and the Dutch National teams in the past. Stefan Mueller, physio trainer for the Regensburg Legionaere covered some cutting edge warm up and conditioning topics while Chris Howard (Assistant Coach on the National Team) handled topics dealing with hitting technique.
Coaches attending the clinic were also given training in identifying and preventing bullying, a very serious concern in sport today.
ISG Baseball is a non-profit organization founded in 1985 whose mission is working with national baseball federations to develop coaches at all levels, aiding individual clubs and federations in their rapid growth and development, and assisting them with their coaching education programs by improving lines of communication with baseball and softball experts.
To organize an ISG Baseball coaching development program in your country or be a sponsor of the program contact ISG Baseball, isgbaseball14@gmail.com or check the International Sports Group on the web: www.isgbaseball.com