Events, Notifications, Registrations

Registrations Open

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The 2019/20 Baseball and Teeball season is fast approaching.

To Register

It’s time to register your son or daughter with the Castle Hill Knights.

Here is the link. It’s easy and you can get by with no further instructions:

https://reg.sportlomo.com/club/baseballaustralia/baseballnsw/bnswhjba/castlehillknightsbaseballclub

Active Kids Voucher $100 refund

To claim the Active Kids Voucher you need to email the voucher and your bank account details to Elizabeth Ahmed: juniorsregistrar@castlehillbaseball.com.au.

Elizabeth can also answer any questions you may have about applying for or claiming your $100.

Given the volume of vouchers we are expecting to receive and the time needed by Services NSW to process the payment, we anticipate that it could take four to six weeks before the $100 is deposited into your account.

The New Registration System: some things we want you to be aware of

The new system comes with:

  • An administration fee that is 3.2% of the total value of the purchase.
  • A 75 cent transaction fee which is levied per transaction e.g. if three children are registered at once, the fee is 75 cents but if they are registered separately, the fee is paid three times.

The administration and transaction fees will be levied at the time of payment and aren’t shown as part of the fees prior to that point.

The registration link is:

https://reg.sportlomo.com/club/baseballaustralia/baseballnsw/bnswhjba/castlehillknightsbaseballclub

Uniform Enquiries

Email Chiara Foeken uniforms@castlehillbaseball.com.au

Uniform day will be held on Saturday 24 August at Castle Glen. Times to be confirmed. Credit card facilities are now available.

Teeball Enquiries

Email Dave Martyn teeball@castlehillbaseball.com.au

Modball and all Liveball Enquiries

Email Matt Watson vpjuniors@castlehillbaseball.com.au

Senior Registration Enquires

Email Pat Whitton vpseniors@castlehillbaseball.com.au

Your Help Will Be Required

We are a community club that is 35 years old.

We are a successful and a highly desired baseball club because of our wonderful volunteers who serve in the canteen and BBQ, sell uniforms, help mark up the fields, help maintain the fields, coach, manage, score, umpire, keep the young ones under control in the dugout…

And then there are the hard-working committee members that do so much behind the scenes to help make everything run like clockwork.

We sometimes don’t live up to expectations, but more often than not we set a standard that is envied by other baseball clubs all across NSW and Australia.

We need you to be a part of this happy and hardworking community. You will know when you will hear the calling… or feel the tap on the shoulder to put your hand up.

Your children who play the game will be the winners of your community spirit.

Castle Hill Knights thank you in advance.

For anything else that you need help or information with

that can’t be answered by existing committee members, please email Mark Maguire president@castlehillbaseball.com.au

The Registration link

https://reg.sportlomo.com/club/baseballaustralia/baseballnsw/bnswhjba/castlehillknightsbaseballclub

Articles, Notifications

The Car ride Home – Pt 4

THE CAR RIDE HOME (that takes 5 minutes)

4) The car ride home is an experience that helps define a parent / child relationship. Here are six topics that have helped me improve myself, understand my son better and allow him to challenge himself to be the best athlete he can. This is your fourth ride sitting in the backseat of my car listening in on our relationship. And if you’re wondering… yes, he did agree to everything written.

 At the very least expect THIS from your child.

Theoretically, as parents, we have an unfair advantage of instilling our will and discipline on our kids. Most of us would have no chance if we had to sell our will and discipline to them like one business person to another. That salesperson really has to work to sell their idea or product.

A parent can use their authoritive position to demand the sale… and most of the time the sale to our child is reluctantly bought—I mean enforced.

I’ve tried to enforce my will and my view on my son many times about his baseball. The more I tried to assist—I mean enforce—the more he would resist. By the age of nine he knew, and I knew, and I knew he knew, that he knew much more than I did. He said to me at the age of twelve, “Dad, your job is now to help me with my mind.”

One thing we both agreed upon was one’s attitude towards playing the game. It is easy to tell out there on the baseball diamond—in fact any sporting field—what a kid’s attitude is like by what she or he did: by the speed of running on and off the field; were they watching the coach when they talked to them; did they even listen to the coach… There were always obvious actions one could observe if a young athlete had a good attitude.

In baseball, a simple measure of attitude is how fast a batter runs to first base. A batter hits a ball and by all measures they are guaranteed to get onto first base: do they bust out of the blocks hoping that luck maybe on their side and they are looking at gaining that extra base. Or do they run at 75% with no consideration of getting onto second base.

A batter hits the ball into what looks like an automatic ground out or pop up fly. The batter doesn’t run at full speed to first base; the batter considers themselves a given out. The observers interested in that player are judging the player’s attitude by his or her speed and don’t give up mindset.

Coaches generally want their players to hustle on and off the field; look interested, look alive, look like they want to be there, look like you’re a ball player that cares… Again, this is where a young player’s attitude is judged.

Coaches love a great attitude even over pretentious skill.

Yes, skill can be obvious, but skill with a poor attitude is obnoxious.

A lack of skill, or some bad luck out on the field can’t be helped, but a good attitude will always give hope for a better outcome.

One thing that is never accepted between my son and I is a poor attitude. Whatever team he is on; whoever his teammates are; whatever level he is playing at; no matter if his personal form is down, a good attitude is expected. And this is the one thing that he excels at. So whether he makes it to the top or not a good attitude will help him be successful whatever he does in life.

If you’re ever going to expect anything from your child, if you’re ever going to have those challenging conversations, make it about attitude. Attitude can be measured and seen. You can’t enforce it but you can expect it.

Mark Maguire

(You can contact me at maguireonfire@bigpond.com if you would like to discuss your experience or dilemma. I’m always open to learning something new and I’m always open to giving time and thought to help)

Articles

The Car Ride Home – Pt 3

THE CAR RIDE HOME (that takes 5 minutes)

3) The car ride home is an experience that helps define a parent / child relationship. Here are six topics that have helped me improve myself, understand my son better and allow him to challenge himself to be the best athlete he can. This is your third ride sitting in the backseat of my car listening in on our relationship. And if you’re wondering… yes, he did agree to everything written.

How to stop dumping your stress on your kids.

Recently, I spoke to a group of baseball parents while their kids were beginning a Friday night winter program. I spoke about how our stress and anxiousness while watching them doesn’t decrease as they get older but only increases.

The player’s ages ranged from nine to twelve. Every player desired to be there to improve his or her skills.

Every parent desires to see their young athlete perform to the best of his or her ability and hopefully, just hopefully, go on and do something in their chosen sport.

My son is sixteen and he is now one of the young coaches on this Friday night instilling what he has learnt from the game. I told the parents when my son was at the age of twelve I had a chat with him about what he thinks of my yelling from the sideline giving him instruction and trying to inspire him to do better.

My son said bluntly, “Dad, it doesn’t help.” And he further went on to say that none of his teammates liked it when their parents called out. He was brutal in his appraisal and it sort of stunned me.

I thought I made a difference. I certainly did: the difference between my son enjoying the game or not; the difference between him learning from someone else without me interfering; the difference between him having his own pressures out there on the playing field and then also being loaded down with my stress that I unknowingly dumped on him.

That’s exactly what I was doing, unknowingly dumping my stress on him. In my excitement I believed I was helping and inspiring when I was only increasing stress and anxiety in him.

Fortunately, my son is not an anxious kid. Thankfully, because of his mum, he is calm and collected. I wanted to be a part of that calmness and give him a further chance to do well so I decided that day when my son told me, dad, it doesn’t help, to shut up and let him play without my interference from the side.

I asked the parents that first night of winter development to have that brave conversation with their child; ask them if they like all the yelling and instruction from the sideline. I told them there is enough pressure on our kids on the field without having to be burdened with our excitement issues and inability to shut up. *

Nothing gives me more pleasure now than when my son says to me, “Dad, you really helped.” Isn’t that what we all really want to hear from our kids one day. They have the rest of their lives to gain their own stresses without sharing ours inadvertently from the sideline or the car ride home.

* There is NO fine line between cheering and calling out instructions. Cheer your heart out; applaud your child’s effort. Even clap the opposition team. All your child needs to hear from you after the game is, ‘I enjoyed watching you play.’

Mark Maguire

(You can contact me at maguireonfire@bigpond.com if you would like to discuss your experience or dilemma. I’m always open to learning something new and I’m always open to giving time and thought to help)