As the accompanying article and the photo above from the UK attest, arena softball is particularly active in Europe. (Photo by Dan Lord)

2009 EDITION OF INDOOR CUP IS HERE
2009-01-15

The growing popularity of arena softball shows in this coming weekend’s Indoor Cup in the Netherlands being the 14th edition of the annual event. In addition, the continued acceptance of this discipline can be seen in the fact that 16 teams will be participating in the 2009 edition of this tournament.

Teams competing at the January 16th, 17th, & 18th event will be from the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, and USA. They will be split into four pools, each consisting of four teams.

An Opening Ceremony will take place following tomorrow night’s first game, with two more games closing out the evening. Saturday has a full schedule, with play beginning at 9 a.m. and the last games of the day – three at a time, all day long – scheduled to end at 6 p.m. Sunday’s slate is similar, culminating with the awards ceremony at 5:30 p.m.

In addition to the above activity, recently there was also arena (indoor) softball played for the first time ever by Belgium’s under-16 national team. Plus, the XI City of San Sebastián Indoor Girls Softball Tournament was contested last month in Spain, which was also to host the VI Andrés Iborra Memorial Indoor Softball Tournament.

The International Softball Federation is encouraging their member federations to actively promote arena softball as a means to get more people playing the sport as well as giving boys, girls, men, and women the opportunity to participate in the game year round, as opposed to (only) competing outdoors, weather-permitting. Furthermore, this discipline provides a non-traditional facility option for softball to be played in. To that end, it therefore becomes a means to utilize venues that might otherwise be sitting empty.

Lastly, while certainly different from the outdoor game, playing softball indoors gives beginners an opportunity to get used to basic fundamentals of the sport, all while being able to participate in physical activity, which contributes to a healthy lifestyle, rather than staying home and being inactive because of the weather outside.