Not long to go!

Further to our announcement confirming our plans to restart MK Softball Training on a small group basis we are now able to share a few more details ahead of our first session, this Tuesday 23rd June.

Fees

Membership fees for the outdoor season have been set as £10 and will cover players up until the end of September. This is a reduction on the usual seasonal membership fee but a small increase if viewed on a pro rata basis. Session fees will be increased to £5 per person. The reasoning for this is that our hire price at Woughton has gone up, and we are also likely to incur an increase in affiliation fee from the British Softball Federation in the near future. On top of this we are limited in the number of people able to attend weekly which reduces our income considerably. With this in mind, we have had to increase fees for this season to ensure we do not run at a loss.

Payment

All payments must be made by bank transfer to our usual account, we will no longer be accepting card payments at sessions. Please use the date of the session attended as your reference and ensure your membership fee is paid at the same time as your first session fee. We would appreciate if fees could be paid prior to sessions but failing that would expect them to have been transferred within a week of a session. Please note anyone who has fees outstanding will not be able to book any further sessions until their balance is settled.

Booking a session

All members who signed up to the outdoor league are eligible to join sessions, you simply need to inform us if any of your contact or medical information has changed. Anyone who did not sign up to our outdoor league but wishes to join a session will need to complete a membership form.

To book your place at this week’s training please complete this form.

You can book your place up until 8pm the night before any given training session. We will then create pods, notify players of their places (or if they were unsuccessful), their session time and coach as quickly as possible but by Midday on the day of training at the latest.

If you complete the booking form but your availability then changes, please let us know ASAP. We know occasionally people have to drop out on the day of training, in which case we will try to find a substitute, however as this is not always possible we would urge people to do everything they can to avoid last minute dropouts.

Session timings

Just a reminder that our sessions will be limited to ninety minutes and start times staggered to ensure no cross over in communal areas such as the car park. The first session will run 6.15-7.45pm, the second 6.30-8pm and the third 6.45-8.15pm. The consensus of committee members and coaches was that this would be a good length of session given the lower player numbers and therefore larger number of reps within drills. However, we will review this after the first few weeks and amend if there is demand for longer sessions. Please make every effort to be at the pitch for your start time so that everyone can get the most out of the hour & a half.

Coaches

We currently only have seven coaches available to deliver sessions, this means that in order to deliver the proposed three sessions a week our coaches will likely be delivering fortnightly. This is a big commitment from our voluntary coaches, who we are also asking to take on extra responsibilities in terms of equipment cleaning & safety measures. Should any of our coaches become unavailable we may have to reduce the number of sessions delivered.

Covid 19

A reminder that players should not attend training if they have exhibited symptoms of Covid-19 in the previous 14 days, or if you have recently been in contact with someone who had Covid-19. Please bring hand sanitiser and follow all Covid-19 related safety protocol (including distancing) as outlined in BaseballSoftballUK guidance. If, within 14 days of attending a session, you develop symptoms of Covid-19, please immediately inform the club at mkdiamondssoftball@gmail.com so all relevant people can be notified.

We hope to see you soon…

However, we know that everyone’s situation is different so if you won’t be joining us just yet we understand, but please do keep in touch!