Quote:
Originally posted by FUBLUE
I'm sure they did attend a clinic recently, but if the quality is the same as around here, forget it. You'd learn more watching a wall umpire.
That being said, the better LL umpires in this area are ex-ASA umpires that do LL because daughters/sons played.
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FUBLUE,
Again I concur.
At local clinic levels the bar is often set too low for aspiring umpires. We mass produce the wannabees and throw them on a field; maybe we watch, critique or partner with them for a coupla games.
We offer our phone numbers, E-dresses and rarely get contacted again.
At the local levels time constraints are often poorly managed. So, it seems, local clinicians are more concerned with "enough" umpires than they are with the quality of umpire, and who do we hold accountable, local clinicians, local leagues?
Most wannabees are not forced to go to umpire training. They show up to learn an avocation. They are initially trainable simply because they are there to learn. What we do with those trainees after their preliminary instruction is the critical path toward achievement. Do we initiate the contact, or wait for them to ask? Do we take the time out of busy schedules to volunteer advice, or do we let them sink, or swim, on their own? Do we tell them they're doing "great", or do we nitpick 'em with how to's.
Some good umpires just happen. Other umpires need to be prodded, encouraged, pushed into being all they can be.
Is it up to us? Is it someone else's problem?
'Tis a twisted web.
mick