The Alliance Fastpitch launches inaugural Coaches Summit during the Women’s College World Series

May 19th, 2022 – The Alliance Fastpitch is launching its inaugural Coaches Summit during the Women’s College World Series. As part of their vision, the Alliance Fastpitch strives to bring industry leaders together to create better programming and resources for athletes and coaches. The Alliance Fastpitch hopes this annual Summit will offer youth, high school and college coaches as well as current and former athletes an opportunity to come together during our sport’s biggest event to learn, share and network together.

This year’s summit will feature a variety of speakers from top travel ball coaches and club directors, Team USA Olympians and former WCWS stars, and thought leaders from baseball who want to share insights on how the softball industry can learn from baseball’s mistakes when it comes to understanding and utilizing performance and in-game data.

The Alliance Fastpitch has partnered with several companies and sponsors to host this day of gathering, learning and sharing. Presenting partner Versus, a new sports edtech company, is getting ready to launch their platform and app in June. Versus will provide aspiring athletes access to elite mentorship and skills training with professional athletes and coaches through exclusive video content and conversational AI. At launch, Versus will feature a roster of world class baseball and softball players serving as instructors including softball greats Jennie Finch, Amanda Lorenz, Tim Walton and Jessica Mendoza. (Baseball will launch with Fernando Tatis Jr., Adam Wainwright and Albert Pujols among others.)

One of those world-class pitchers who will also be on the Versus platform is Cat Osterman, who will bring the app to life at the Alliance Fastpitch Coaches Summit talking about developing youth pitchers and borrowing from her Versus curriculum on “Mastering VS Throwing Pitches.” The Alliance Fastpitch also added Texas A&M All American and current Twelve Softball Director Megan Gibson to further elaborate on the development and management of youth pitchers today.

HitTrax and RISR will present Session I targeting the foundations of player development. HitTrax Softball Director Elena Bowman and RISR Instructor/Team USA’s Amanda Chidester will discuss the launch and accessibility of RISR and how coaches can use data to validate their hitting philosophies. RISR by HitTrax is an app designed to help hitters at any stage in her softball development, from absolute beginners to advanced experts, with skills instruction and mental training all conducted by Olympic softball players.

The Alliance Fastpitch has assembled two panels of youth coaches and club directors that includes Tony Rico (Firecrackers), Mike Stith (Batbusters), Marty Tyson (Corona Angels), Scott Smith (Bombers), Jazz Jackson Vesely (Impact Gold), and Kevin Shelton (Texas Glory). Combined, this group has over 100 years of experience developing youth softball players, many of whom have gone on to All American, National Champion, and Olympic careers. This group will share insights on creating a year-round training plan for your team focused on truly developing your athletes and getting athletes to peak at the end of season for Championship Play. They’ll also discuss what it takes to grow your organization and brand, and how club softball needed to evolve into a year-round business in order to truly develop softball players.

DS Sports‘ portfolio of companies including Yakkertech, ProspectWire Softball, SoftballCloud and The Spring Games, will present Session II with thought leaders and experts in the areas of in-game data, data-driven performance and solutions, player development, and biomechanics. Kevin Davidson, CEO of DS Sports, will present and discuss the in-game college softball data Yakkertech has captured this year and what the year’s ahead will look like when softball collects more in-game data on players.

Eugene Bleecker is one of the most progressive minds in human performance training. He uses sports science to change the way players train. His success in player development has led to many Major League Baseball teams hiring him to advise their big-league player development coaches. Eugene founded 108 Performance and launched a series of courses and book titled “Old School VS New School: The Application of Data and Technology in Baseball.”

Bobby Tewksbary is a private MLB hitting coach and the Founder of Pelotero, a software company for player development, training facilities, coaches and teams. Pelotero creates personalized programs for hitters, based on data and conditions, to follow to improve strength and skills. According to Tewsbary, many in baseball were collecting data but very few were using the data. Through the creation of Pelotero, Tewksbary is hoping to change that by combining technology and teaching.

While many in softball think we’re behind baseball in understanding the application of data and technology, Davidson, Bleecker and Tewksbary plan to debunk that myth and explain why they think softball has a huge opportunity to learn from baseball’s mistakes. Their panel session on this topic will close out Session II.

Following the two Sessions, Chattanooga Sports will host a Happy Hour for attendees, speakers and invited guests. This is a great opportunity for attendees to interact with and continue the conversations with our speakers. During the Happy Hour, the Alliance will announce the launch of a new non-profit called the Alliance of Fastpitch Athletes (ALFA), a community for all softball players to be a part of for life and a platform to provide more access and resources to players.

To cap the evening, Visit St. Pete/Clearwater will host the Alliance Member and VIP Watch Party for Game 5 of the Women’s College World Series on the patio of the Skyline Bricktown on Canal venue. This event is open to all Alliance registered coaches or you can purchase VIP tickets.

D1 Softball will be onsite all-day Friday and will be airing live shows including interviews with Summit Speakers Mike Stith and Marty Tyson, who will share their insights and stories about their former players competing in the WCWS.

Tickets are on sale now but space is limited. You can purchase tickets using the link below.

Register Here