Program areas at ABCA
Clinic Events: The ABCA hosts 21 clinic events around the U.S. on an annual basis to teach coaching methods and techniques to coaches of youth, high school and college baseball teams. The ABCA Convention is the world's largest baseball coaching clinic. The convention clinics promote education and training in coaching, leadership, sportsmanship, and ethics with 7786 coaches attending in 2023, out of 14931 active member coaches for the fiscal year ending 4/30/23, during which 23 well-known clinic speakers provided presentations to the attendees in the general session for three days. The ABCA also ran a Youth Coaches Clinic during the Convention which was attended by about 600 coaches for 13 sessions during two days, and the ABCA Expo Theater included 18 additional educational presentations during the Convention. The ABCA Regional Coaching Clinics are one-day events are conducted around the country and average 30 coaches in attendance. The clinic presentations are similar to those conducted at the annual convention. The ABCA sponsors youth clinics at the NAIA and NJCAA World Series, involving over 500 young people each. The ABCA also provides a grant to International Sports Group, which conducts educational coaching clinics around the world, as well as Turn Two for Youth, which provides used baseball equipment to children in need.
Awards to members: ABCA awards include the Hall of Fame; Lefty Gomez Award; Ethics in Coaching Award; Head Coaches of the Year, Assistant Coaches of the Year Award; Youth Baseball Service Award, Travel Baseball Service Award, Century Club Awards; 25-year Coaching Awards; and Lifetime Membership Awards. Award programs to serve amateur baseball include selection of the national players of the year, All-America, All-Region and Gold Glove Teams from each division: NCAA I, II, and III, NAIA, NJCAA, Pacific Association Division and high school, collegiate conference champions, as well as regional and national coaches of the year and Team Academic Excellence Awards from each of the aforementioned divisions.
Publications and Websites: "Inside Pitch Magazine" is the Official Magazine of the ABCA, continued with six issues annually. It is mailed to all current ABCA member coaches featuring baseball coaching articles, articles about the game in general, association and membership updates, legislation, and issues involving the game of baseball. The ABCA primary website (www.abca.org) is a helpful, informative tool to coaches. From 5/1/22 to 4/30/23, the ABCA received 2,211,094 page views for an average of 184,258 page views per month. The website contains more than 600 educational videos, information about ABCA/Human Kinetics books, a podcast, and other coaching resources. In 2019 the ABCA launched the "My ABCA" mobile app which has since had more than 8,000 individual ABCA members download and log in, out of the possible 14,931. The app contains coaching resources, articles and instructional videos as well as access to ABCA events and membership information.