Authors: Timothy Hatten, Adrian Thomas and Shaine Henert

Corresponding Author:
Timothy L. Hatten, Ph.D, CSCS, NSCA-CPT, DCT
3301 N. Mulford Road
Rockford, IL. 61114
t.hatten@rockvalleycollege.edu
815-921-3816

Timothy Hatten is a Full Professor and  Academic Chair in the Department  of Fitness, Wellness and Sport at Rock Valley College.   Dr. Hatten has over 30 years of experience, playing, managing and sponsoring male fastpitch softball.

Adrian Thomas, Helford Endowed Chair of Psychology, is currently the Director of Industrial and Organizational Psychology Ph.D. Program and a Full Professor at Roosevelt University.

Shaine Henert is an Associate Professor and Program Director in the Deparment of  Kinesiolgy and Physical Education at Northern Illinois University.

Solutions to Declining Participation Rates in United States Male Fastpitch Softball 

ABSTRACT

The sport of fastpitch softball (FS) has been popular in American sports and recreation dating back to at least 1933 with the formation of the Amateur Softball Association (ASA), the sport’s governing body (5).  In the United States, after a meteoric rise in participation through most of the century, more recently male fastpitch softball (MFS) has seen an equally dramatic downward trend in participation rates.  

The purpose of the current study was to obtain baseline beliefs about the etiology of the decreasing participation rates in MFS from current participatory stakeholders.  A survey of nine questions was distributed to the FS community via Survey Monkey through two softball websites that disseminate information about MFS.  The survey was placed on Al’s Fastball and Fastpitch West FS internet sites for one month and (n=415) current and former participants, coaches and/or sponsors completed the survey.  The current study participants felt strongly that the major reasons for the decline in participation included the importance of local adult leagues (95.9%), lack of media exposure (88.9%), loss of boy’s youth FS programs (88.6%) and the increasing costs (88.2%) associated with MFS.  When asked how the governing body of softball might address these reasons for the observed decline in participation respondents deemed increasing youth involvement (42.4%) as the number one potential solution.  In order, the other areas that participants felt were important were developing new pitchers (36.9%), improving grassroots programs (29.6%), and increasing media exposure (27.1%).  Declining participation rates in MFS has been an ongoing issue for many years and many rationales for the decline have been offered by both experts and novices.  By going directly to the real stakeholders, in MFP, it is hoped that outcomes of the current study include empirical confirmation for some oft voiced reasons for the decline in participation as well as providing some real solutions for reversing the trend.