Welcome To South Yorkshire Sport

BaseballSoftballUK (BSUK) is the development agency for baseball and softball in the United Kingdom.  BSUK is working doubling the number of teams playing the sports by 2013, working through four key areas:

-  Setting up new adult leagues
-  Developing teams and leagues in Higher Education Institutes
-  Developing teams and leagues in Further Education Institutes
-  Increasing the number of teams playing in existing clubs or leagues

Our four priority regions are London, the South East, the North West and Midlands, where all four of these areas are being worked on by regional staff members.  BSUK also works across the rest of the country, mostly supporting existing clubs or leagues.

Further information available at: http://www.baseballsoftballuk.com/

For further information please contact:

Chris Rawlings
National Development Manager
chris.rawlings@bsukmail.com

0787 556 9267

Who are we?

BaseballSoftballUK (BSUK) is the development agency for baseball and softball in the United Kingdom. Since 2000, BSUK has provided services to the sports' governing bodies, the British Baseball Federation (BBF) and British Softball Federation (BSF) with the aim of developing and increasing the levels of participation, skill and achievement in UK baseball and softball. This occurs at both junior and adult levels, from school and grassroots through domestic adult clubs up to the Great Britain national teams.

In December 2008 it was announced that BSUK had been awarded £2.7 million in public funding from Sport England - the agency that delivers the Government's sporting objectives - for the period from April 2009-March 2013. This was based on the Whole Sport Plan submitted by BSUK in October after consultation with federation members from both sports. This is BSUK's development plan for baseball and softball and the Sport England funding is budgeted against specific programmes within this. Amounting to an average of £675,000 per year, the current funding is an increase on the £566,000 per year which BSUK was receiving from Sport England by the end of the first Whole Sport Plan period (2005-2009).

Projects under BSUK's Whole Sport Plan include regional support for youth baseball and softball development programmes and support for workplace softball, coaching and coach-training, facility development and expansion and strengthening of clubs throughout the country, including helping with the achievement of Clubmark accreditation.

The National Governing Bodies

The British Baseball Federation (BBF) governs baseball in this country. Baseball clubs pay annual affiliation fees to be a member of the BBF and play in BBF Leagues and Junior Leagues. There is also a full Great Britain Baseball Programme which comprises youth national teams at different age levels and the senior Great Britain baseball team.

The British Softball Federation (BSF) governs softball in this country. The vast majority of UK softball is played in the co-ed (mixed) slowpitch format but there are numerous single-sex slowpitch teams and a growing fastpitch community. There are many regional slowpitch leagues around the country whose teams affiliate annually to the BSF through these leagues. Single-sex or tournament teams must also affiliate in order to take part in BSF National Championship tournaments. Aside from National Championships, there are a multitude of local tournaments during the summer.

Softball has a wide-ranging Great Britain Softball programme which includes men's and women's senior fastpitch teams, junior fastpitch teams for girls at three age levels and a national co-ed slowpitch team that has won the European Co-ed Slowpitch Championship on six straight occasions.

For information on coach education courses please click here (http://www.baseballsoftballuk.com/gen_insert.php?from_section=Softball&this_page=Coaching&headline=BSUK%20Coaching%20Courses&filename=CoachingCoursebutton.txt)