DURHAM, N.C. -- USA Baseball announced on Monday the addition of a new course, Building a Baseball Experience, to the USA Baseball Online Education Center. Building a Baseball Experience is hosted by sport psychologist Dr. Anne Shadle and aims to provide coaches and parents with the tools they need to provide a positive and impactful sport experience for their athletes, both on and off the field.
Topics covered in the Building a Baseball Experience course include building a coaching philosophy, engineering a sport environment and mental preparation. The course also includes several interactive features to engage coaches and parents in brainstorming, writing and reflecting about their role in the sport experiences of their children and athletes.
"The Building a Baseball Experience course is unlike any of our other offerings, and the topics it explores go beyond baseball specifics and add greater depth to the USA Baseball Online Education Center," said Rick Riccobono, USA Baseball's Chief Development Officer. "We believe there is tremendous value in analyzing and learning from best practices in other sports and in the Olympic movement in general, and that is reflected in this course's more global approach to the youth sport experience and the on-and off-field aspects that help shape it."
Host Anne Shadle, Ph.D., is a certified consultant in Sport Psychology CC-AASP and a member of the United States Olympic Committee's Sport Psychology registry. Shadle received her Bachelor of Science in Education and Human Sciences from the University of Nebraska, where she also ran track and field. She was a two-time national champion in the mile and 1500-meter distances before going on to run professionally for Reebok and compete in the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials. Following her three-year professional running career, Shadle received her Master of Counseling Psychology and Ph.D. in Health Education from the University of Missouri. She currently serves on the Athlete Advisory Committee and is the President-appointed committee chair for Psychological Services for USA Track and Field (USATF). Shadle is heavily involved with coaching education and certification for the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) and USATF.
To access the Building a Baseball Experience course, as well as other free educational resources including a catalog of more than 25 online courses, the Long Term Athlete Development Plan, the USA Baseball Mobile Coach App, the Sport Development Blog and more, visit USABaseball.Education.
All resources on the Online Education Center are free of charge to the public, and all online courses are equipped with a functionality that allows the user to select their preferred language (English or Spanish) upon launching the course.