Nine British blind baseball athletes visited Italy on the weekend for a course on the fundamental skills of Blind Baseball.
The group first visited Brescia for one day to learn the basics such as base running, batting, pitching and defence. The local team welcomed the visitors and joined their activity which was conducted on a hockey field turned into a makeshift baseball field.
The group moved to Bergamo the next day and had another practical session with the players and coaches of Leonessa and a group of expert coaches from Catania and Milan. The session included some tests of the defensive and base-running skills and then wrapped up with a four-inning game to apply all their learnings from the course.
The Italian coaches were pleased with the quick improvement of the British athletes, who mostly are completely new to the sport, and said UK Blind Baseball could use them to organise new teams in the future.
Italy became the first-ever champions of the WBSC Blind Baseball International Cup, the maiden WBSC international event in the paralympic discipline, in August after beating Great Britain in the final to claim the title.
