Aiming to help facilitate athletes, coaches, officials and National Federations to conduct efficient self-learning of the various topics related to Baseball, Softball and Baseball5, a year ago, the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) launched the WBSC Academy, an online learning platform that provides the development tools necessary to further expand the sports’ popularity and practice in both traditional as well as new and emerging baseball/softball countries and territories.
Born under world-changing circumstances, the WBSC Academy has grown fast and strong during its first year of life as a modern, intuitive and accessible learning tool to democratize baseball and softball knowledge across the world.
The WBSC Academy has two areas: The Open Area, accesible to everyone through the WBSC website; and the Restricted Area, available to all WBSC Members only through the My WBSC platform.
The Open Area currently offers 10 courses, including a series of six learning tools about women’s baseball, two about baseball for the blind, one about Baseball5 and one on baseball/softball coaching.
The Restricted Area offers two courses, including the Baseball Coach Licensing Programme - Level 1, and the Softball Coach Licensing Programme - Level 1.
During its first 12 months, the WBSC Academy has proven to be a valuable instructional tool for people around the world, serving a total of 1,391 users that have registered from 77 National Federations. More than 28% of the users come from the African continent. In addition, 153 users from 22 Member Federations have accessed the licensing programmes, 89 from China.
Over the next few months, the WBSC Academy will continue adding learning tools for the global baseball/softball community. Upcoming courses include the Softball Umpiring Licensing Programme – Level 1; a course for current baseball technical commissioners; a course for new softball technical commissioners; and Baseball for the Blind Technical Course for Coaches - Part 2.
