Exciting Updates to Baseball New Zealand's National Player Pathway!

Fantastic news for baseball across the nation! Baseball New Zealand is excited to announce a comprehensive, updated National Player & Performance Pathway system, to better support baseball athletes in their baseball development here in NZ. This evolution in Baseball NZ’s National Performance Pathway creates an innovative structure specifically designed to create multiple opportunities for player and coach development in their pathway to national representative & NZ teams, college dreams and the ability for aspiring baseball athletes to sharpen their skills, cultivate their passion, and ultimately ascend through the pathway to higher levels of play, progressively. If you dream of competing at a high standard in baseball, the National Performance Pathway provides the long-term athlete development model to roadmap a player's success.

What’s New In The NZ Pathway?

Baseball NZ has evolved the National Player Pathway to make player development more accessible by moving to a more decentralised player development model, with increased contact points making for a more individually tailored player development journey and pathway.  The new-look National Player Pathway ensures it is clear and effective but also engaging and provides players with a detailed framework to facilitate their individualized growth and development in the sport of baseball.

Community Baseball – The Starting Point

Every great player has to start somewhere! Whether you find yourself playing for a local club, engaging in regional tournaments, or making your mark in Little League, this foundational phase is designed to help you develop essential skills and foster a lifelong love for the game. Here, you will learn and reinforce the basic skills of baseball, techniques, and teamwork in an age and stage-appropriate system, The National Participation Framework.

National Tournaments & Events

National Tournaments & Events are a key part of the journey, these are opportunities for players to play concentrated baseball in a competitive environment, hone their skills, and receive concentrated coaching. All players should be preparing themselves to compete in events such as the Summer Showdown - National Youth Champs (14u,16u ), Little League All-Stars, or the Club Classic! These tournaments are part of the player and coach development journey.  Not only do they provide vital competition experience, but also serve as critical events for players to showcase their talent, compete against players and teams from across the country and catch the eye of national coaches, and selectors who are keen to identify new, emerging players throughout NZ.

National Squad Player Identification, Selection & Monitoring

Our commitment to identifying emerging talent is stronger than ever before, we are growing our depth chart of athletes and regularly viewing these players in their different environments.  The starting point for being observed is participating in regional leagues, competitions, tournaments and events.  Competing at National tournaments and events is a critical factor in being identified for selection and invitation into the national performance pathway.  National Squads and teams are selected annually, with the ability to add players that warrant a call-up through hard work and commitment throughout the cycle.  National coaches and selectors view, identify and select players aligned to the national selection policies.  Once a player is selected into the National performance program they will become part of a squad and  process that includes; national benchmark testing, performance metrics tracking, and thorough performance reviews.  Baseball NZ’s national coaches are dedicated to the players long-term athlete development, aligned to their baseball development needs.  Baseball NZ’s national coaches and scouts are looking to identify athletes and players who showcase exceptional potential, demonstrate perseverance and grit, and are ready and determined to elevate their game to the next level.

Regional Hubs – Decentralised Model with Increased Local Training

A key shift in the national performance pathway going forward will be the introduction and investment into Regional Hubs.  Regional Hubs will provide increased accessibility,  convenience, coaching and conditioning within the national squads and programs.  Baseball NZ is excited to introduce our first two regional training hubs in Auckland and Wellington as a starting point, with additional hubs in our baseball regions to be added soon.   These hubs are designed to offer localised training centres, that provide players and coaches the ability to work together in a baseball-specific environment on a regular basis.  This will develop better athletes and better athletes make better baseballers as they, enhance their physical capabilities and skills in a baseball-specific environment, without the burden of extensive travel, enabling more consistent time and dedicated, small group, in-person coaching and feedback, which we know provides greater athlete development and growth.  Our Regional Hub Coaches will provide personalised coaching, feedback, technical instruction, and strategic development tailored to the individual player's needs, all aligned to the player development philosophies of Baseball New Zealand.

National Development Squad 

Emerging youth players from age 12 – 16, who have impressed national coaches and selectors will be selected for the National Development Squad.  All National Development Squad players will have access to the regional hubs, be supported by national and regional coaches and be introduced and guided into the pathways player development program.  It is important to note that National Development Squad players are at a critical stage of growth and development for their young bodies and their athlete development needs should be balanced and centred around their developmental stages and phases to ensure they progress at a pace suitable and aligned to their physiological, psychosocial and cognitive needs.   The national development squad will undergo a 12-week off-season and pre-season baseball development program culminating at the National development camp in the October school holidays, as the players head back into their club season and through to National tournaments and events as the development cycle continues.  The National Development Squad has been established to provide the platform to select Baseball NZ’s NZU15 team as well as an NZ U16 Development team.  Both teams will compete in various international tours and events and the NZU15 team will compete biannually at the WBSC Oceania U15 Qualifier. The National Development Squad will also provide the stepping stone into the National Performance Squad as players progress in their development.  

National Performance Squad 

The National Performance Squad is the next tier in the national player pathway in NZ and the entrance into performance baseball. The National Performance Squad has set out to build upon the baseball development program taking players from the national development squad where development was the focus, into a performance realm and focus in the national performance squad.  This squad will work on training to perform with key focus areas of; strength and conditioning, refining baseball-specific skills, mental skills, performance nutrition, injury prevention and elevating performances to continue to build the athlete and the baseballer.  Athletes aged 15 and older who are among the top tier of players nationwide will form the national performance squad. This squad will participate in an off-season and pre-season baseball and athlete development program, beginning with a performance camp in July and concluding at the end of a two-series National Showcase.  Members of the performance squad will conduct most of their training at designated training hubs while undergoing a comprehensive16-week program, with athlete monitoring through; driveline, regional hubs and national coaches.

From the National Performance Squad the NZU18, NZU23 and the NZ Men’s Diamondblacks teams will be selected for various international activities, tours and qualification events, both annually and biannually depending on the age grade.

National Showcase Series

If you are among the top baseball talents in NZ, the National Showcase Series provides an exceptional platform to compete against the best of the best players in the country. The National Showcase series takes on a slight revamp under the Performance Squad for 2025, shifting to a two-series event.  The Showcase events will be a crucial opportunity to perform, demonstrate your skills and look to attract the attention of national coaches and selectors as they observe the talent for prestigious NZ team placements. New Zealand TeamsRepresenting New Zealand in baseball at any age grade is a tremendous honor. Putting on the black pinstripe is representing your whanau, your home, your club, your country and all the people who have supported you in achieving this incredible milestone of representing New Zealand on the international stage. 

Baseball New Zealand is committed to ongoing, meaningful and appropriate, international tours, events and gameplay for NZ age group teams, to continue to compete on the international stage.  Over this short series of articles we will continue to share the opportunities for our NZ teams coming up in the next year, including the NZU15, NZU16 Development Team, NZU18, and NZU23 and our top tier men’s team the NZ Diamonblacks.

Learn more about the progressed Baseball NZ National Player Pathway HERE - https://www.baseballnewzealand.com/pathways-performance/pathways-performance

Article added: Sunday 23 February 2025