Sports Tourism

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My children played baseball from an early age in Australia and are mad keen baseball enthusiasts. So of course you have probably guessed this blog entry is about sport tourism – specifically baseball tourism. However I am not going to tell you, to remember to catch a baseball game whilst you are holidaying in America (as I am sure sitting in Fenway Park watching the Red Sox or cheering loud for the Giants, Dodgers or Angels is a well known tourist draw card). I am going to tell you how to do one better – how to experience baseball in America from another angle – the inside!

As I said my children are baseball players so at an early age we looked for camps and opportunities for them to play in America. We had holidays, one year, over July and decided to visit Los Angeles. We booked our children into a day baseball camp (meaning they get dropped off each morning and picked up each afternoon) in LA. School summer holidays are during this time and there is a plethora of camps, activities and events happening.

We discovered that the Mark Cresses School of Baseball was holding summer baseball camps and enrolled our kids into his program. Camp runs for around six weeks each year but you can select to participate for shorter periods if you choose. We enrolled our children for two weeks, which meant we stayed in one position and dropped them off to camp each day. There were a few location options but we choose the Huntington Beach locale.

The Huntington Beach location was good because it gave us, the parents (whilst the kids were at camp) an opportunity to discover the area. It also meant we were in close range to beaches, shops, Disneyland etc. for other outings. Many say that Huntington beach is the epicentre of Southern California. A place where the mild and mellow California beach culture takes a back seat to casual and cool; where the true trendsetters of West Coast fashion, food and lifestyle reside. * I did enjoy it here! For the first few days we did not leave the field. We stayed and watched them train but as we felt more comfortable (after a few days) we stayed local but ventured away from the field. I must admit we did enjoy that mellow beach culture mixed with shopping at Bella Terra,South Coast Plaza, Walmart and Westminster Mall.

The kids LOVED it. It was well organised – they learnt skills and experienced baseball in America. The coaching staff had the participants (around sixty each day) hustling to the beat of a whistle. There was three areas the camp worked on; the fundamentals, developing as an individual and playing in teams. They had the kids rotating through a series of training stations that covered foundational skills. They were given the opportunity to individually work on their pitching, catching and hitting. My children learnt how to slide and how to pitch at this camp. They came home exhausted each afternoon, yet still begged each day to go early for woofer ball.

What I really liked about this camp is that an excursion to an Angels game was organised.

The kids sat in a yellow school bus and were driven to the Angels Stadium in Orange County (that alone was awesome) Parents could also opt to accompany their children on this day. The kids sat on the field before the game and met the players, and then watched a live game of baseball. Did I mention they sat in the middle of the field and met the players!

It is not just going to a game in America – it was joining in!

The other parents were really nice to us ‘the Ausralians’, organising a beach BBQ for us to welcome us into camp. I can not speak highly enough of this whole experience. The coaches often referred to the ‘skippies’ and engaged our kids in friendly bantor , always encouraging them as developing players. Although most of the participants were male, my daughter also joined in and had a great time. If your kids play baseball, at home, and you feel like a great holiday where the kids are happy and you get free time this is the trip for you.

Baseball is a sport that is growing in popularity in Australia, with the Australian Baseball league stating that there are currently 35,000 registered junior and senior players with in excess of 17,000 children play in recognised competitions on a yearly basis.

As a side note: please watch out for other great camp ideas in following blogs.

http://www.markcresse.com

* http://www.surfcityusa.com

http://www.bellaterra-hb.com

http://www.southcoastplaza.com

http://baseball.com.au

#outfit #collection