Saw this a few days ago and have been meaning to post it, but you know how it goes.

The National Fastpitch Coaches College (offered by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association) has posted its schedule of classes for the coming year. In all, they are offering 14 classes between mid-October and June of 2009.

This is a fantastic program for coaching education. Each three-day course provides intensive study of a single facet of the game, such as skill mechanics, offensive and defensive strategies, structuring practices, etc. All are taught by some of the top coaches in the game.

I've attended two of the courses and found them to be fascinating. They were small groups, perhaps around 50 students or so, and offered a lot of interaction between students and instructors. One of the coolest things, to me, is that the instructors are very approachable and are as interested in what the students think and have done as the students are in what the instructors have to say. It appears coaches at the top of the game look for good ideas wherever they can find them

I highly recommend this program. It's not cheap — tuition alone was $225 the last time I took one of the courses — but it's worth it if you're serious about expanding your knowledge.

My only wish is that they were offering the classes I want to take in the Chicago area. Oh well. I hear Denton, Texas is lovely in January.