Fastpitch Talk Radio & Fundraising

Hey, just dropping in to let you know that I just put up a new episode of Fastpitch Talk Radio. This episode is about reducing parent conflict and about how to reduce your stress during the season by preparing better.

Listen in, it's free! Just go to www.FastpitchTalkRadio.com.


Now, on to fundraising...

There has been quite a bit of talk about fundraising recently. You may even be looking for some cool fundraising ideas. Sooooo, I have 2 fundraising ideas for you.

1. Raffle off gas cards
Pretty self eplanatory: buy gas cards and raffle them off. I'd probably stick with $50 cards.

2. Do a Dessert Tasting
This weekend I was at a "end of the season" potluck and there were some delicious desserts! I thought it would be cool to do a "dessert tasting" fundraiser. Now, keep in mind, I've never done one before, but I think it would be soooooo cool. Have families make their favorite desserts (or see if you can have local bakeries or stores donate a dessert or two) and have a dessert tasting or dessert buffet fundraiser. I'm sure you could charge a flat rate at the door for "all you can eat" OR charge per dessert tasted/eaten. Be creative and think of ways to make it fun and enjoyable for everyone. I'm sorry, but I just loooooove good old sweet tasting desserts! I know I'd certainly make it a point to attend a dessert fundraiser. If you need some easy dessert recipes for ideas, check out www.MyEasyDessertRecipes.com. It's a project my daughter is working on and she's about to post some VERY simple fruit dessert ideas later this week.

Lots of Great Information for Parents

Just in case you've never had a chance to check it out yet, I wanted to let you know about a few things going on over at Fastpitch Parents. I've recently found so many great articles and resources for youth sports parents that I decided to slowly but surely share them all with you over at www.FastpitchParents.com.

Recently, I posted articles about:

• 50 Tips for Helping Your Child Achieve in Sports
• 10 Tips to Improve Confidence in Young Athletes
• How to Manage the Busy Softball Season
• ACL Injuries in Young Female Athletes
• Help Your Child Handle Pressure

and so much more including how to help your child set goals, avoiding common post-game mistakes, sports specialization, youth sports psychology guidelines, etc, etc, etc

Like I said, there is quite a bit of great information there for you to consume and digest and help your daughter be the best she can be.

Check it out at www.FastpitchParents.com and don't forget to share the articles you like with the "Share" button at the bottom of the articles!

Poll for Coaches

What kind of players do you want?

I have a poll going on at Fastpitch World. If you are a coach, please come by and cast your vote. However, you only get ONE vote, so make sure you've decided on your "final answer" before hitting the "Vote" button.

You'll have to scroll allllll the way down to the bottom of my page to see the poll and cast your vote. I've hidden the results for now because I don't want you to be able to see them before you vote. I will post the results after I run the poll for a bit. I think I know how the results will turn out. Of course, now that I've said that, some monkeys will cast votes solely to produce "funny" results. Still, I'm curious to see the results since I have been known to be wrong before. ;P

Click Here to share your thoughts on what kind of players you'd like to have on your team.


Want to run your own poll?

Join Fastpitch World (free) and add the Poll Daddy application like I did. Then you can run your very own softball poll!

AAF Live! October 15, 2008

Tomorrow we'll be running our 2nd AAF Live! event. I hope you can join us, but please note the CORRECTED TIME. The event will run from 7pm-8pm Eastern.

If you didn't get a chance to join in the last conversation, it was a lot of fun! It's a free, unscripted, real time discussion on fastpitch softball. At this point, I'm not even choosing the topics, we'll discuss whatever you want to bring to the table.

Even if you can't stay the full hour, drop by, let us know you're there and join in for a few minutes! Hope to "see" you tomorow.

Reduce Parent Conflict

Would you like to have a more enjoyable, less stressful season by reducing the amount of problems you have with parents? Are you spending too much time dealing with parents instead of coaching players?

If so, I have a new report that can help you with your parent issues. There are specific actions you can take to reduce the conflict you have with parents. I share some of these ideas with you in this new report.

Click here to get 3 Tips for Reducing Parent Conflict

• What I learned about parents
• How your coaching staff can help
• How to help parents help you
• 5 Must Do's for reducing parent problems
• Why it's common to have grumbling parents
• How to plan ahead to make your season better

Get the report for free HERE

First Ever All About Fastpitch LIVE

Wow - that was a lot of fun! Thanks to those of you who joined in the conversation on such short notice.

We had over 30 people stop by and 224 reader comments.

If you want to see the replay of the live chat we had, it's still up at www.allaboutfastpitch.com/live.html

Next time I will try to make a bigger announcement and let everyone know with more advanced notice so that more of you can stop by and join us.

If you were there, leave me a comment here and let me know what you thought of the experience.

Fastpitch Conversations Update

Here's an update on those fastpitch conversations I'm putting together for you. If you have no idea what I'm talking about Click Here to watch the first video. (This all has to do with picking the brains of various eperts in the Fastpitch Softball World and in Youth Sports)




Sign up to receive priority updates HERE.

Great Reason to Join My Fastpitch World

You may remember that I set up a site a while back called My Fastpitch World where people who love this game can connect, hang out, and talk with other fastpitch people around the world.

Well, since the holidays are coming up (well, not quite, but I really love the holidays so I'm getting a head start here), I'm going to give you a great gift when you join My Fastpitch World. Actually, I'll give you a number of great gifts once you're in there, but right now, there's just one ready for you.

What will you get?

Free Access to the Coach of Action program. (if you're already a COA member, keep reading because I have something for you too).

How does it work?

1. Go to MyFastpitchWorld.com
2. Create a profile
3. Sign in and go to "Groups" & Request an Invite for the *Members Only* group

That's it! Once you're invite request is approved, you'll have access to that *Members Only* group and that's where you'll get access to the Fastpitch World Members Only freebies.

Those that are already in COA, don't worry, I will be adding more and more freebies there as time goes on. In fact, the next freebie will be access to the College Recruiting Seminar I'm planning for later on this month. If you're in that *Members Only* group at Fastpitch World, you'll know be able to access that seminar for free too.

To join MyFastpitchWorld.com and gain access to these *Members Only* freebies, CLICK HERE.

Long Over Due

Hope you're having a great week! I'm just jotting down a quick note to let you know that All About Fastpitch finally has an affiliate program set up. Now you can easily refer your friends to AAF with the "copy and paste" links that are provided to you in the new affiliate center.

I was actually surprised to see people signing up already and I haven't even said anything about it yet. If you'd like more information on how to sign up (for free) and learn how it all works, Click Here to visit our Affiliate Sign-Up Page.

I also have another exciting announcement which I'm planning to make next week (it'll also be a unique opportunity for a select group of coaches). However, this opportunity will only be announced to our members. If you haven't already signed up for the Free Fastpitch Membership here at AAF, click here to join now. Then keep your eyes on your mailbox for more information on this rare opportunity. Again, it won't cost you a dime. Just make sure you're on our mailing list if you're interested.