Bobby Simpson is the founder and owner of Higher Ground, and
international leader in softball instructional services and products.
He has helped to develop coaches and players throughout the United
States and also in Canada, Great Britain, Italy, Holland, Germany,
the Czech Republic, and Sweden. Working at all levels of the game,
he has conducted training for recreational, and National Team participants.
Simpson frequently speaks at large national and international clinics,
appearing often along the clinic circuit in such cities as Chicago,
Seattle, Los Angeles, Houston, Orlando, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt.
Serving also as a consultant to national federations in many European
countries, he regularly conducts training seminars and schedules other
clinicians for annual clinics. Higher Ground was also recently awarded
a contract by the United States Air Force to conduct five-day camps
at twenty bases, sixteen of which are in the USA and four overseas
bases in the Azores, Italy, and the United Kingdom.
In
addition to numerous personal training seminars, Simpson has been
a leader in the development of instructional videos. Through Higher
Ground, he has served as the producer or instructor for thirty-seven
videos and five baseball videos. Prior to starting Higher Ground,
he co-developed seven instructional videos for the Amateur Softball
Association/USA Softball and was the video instructor for three tapes
produced by the National Youth Sports Coaches Association. Simpson’s
softball background includes ten years as the Georgia State Commissioner
for the Amateur Softball Association, the National Governing Body
for softball. During that time, he served seven years as the National
Chairman for the ASA Junior Olympic Committee, founding their National
Coaching Schools and co-developing their VIP Coaches Education Program.
He also served on the Executive Committee and Finance Committee, in
addition to being a delegate to the United States Olympic Committee
House of Delegates. In addition to assisting the NYSCA in developing
its video instruction for coaches, Simpson served on the organization’s
blue ribbon panel to develop National Standards for Youth Sports.
Along with youth sports leaders from throughout the world, he served
for two years on the committee that was federally funded to develop
comprehensive national guidelines for youth sports.
Simpson
also has extensive experience in baseball as a player, coach, and
professional scout. After completing his collegiate playing career,
he coached three years of high school baseball, followed by three
years of coaching at Florida State University. He also served as a
coach and scout for the Kansas City Royals Baseball Academy, an extremely
innovative instructional concept developed by the Royals in the early
1970’s. His background also includes twenty years in the recreation
field, ten of which he served as he director of a county department.
During that time he served in many leadership roles for the state
organization and spoke at numerous state and national recreation seminars.
He was also the director for Twenty-eight ASA National Tournaments,
two National Junior College Athletic Association Championships, and
numerous regional, state, and local events. Simpson has previously
authored and self-published Improved Hitting For Girls Softball: The
Physical and Mental Mechanics for a Controlled Explosion and co-authored
New and Improved Softball Coaching for ASA/USA Softball. He has also
published thirty-five magazine articles for leading softball publications
and produces a quarterly newsletter, Getting Better Every Day, for
his company.
Simpson
is a successful entrepreneur, founding Higher Ground in 1988, and
is an active member and deacon of the First Baptist Church of Ty,
Georgia, where he has served as a Sunday School Teacher and Leader
for numerous training courses. He is married and has one child, a
daughter in college.