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I'm currently doing indoor games. The teams playing (12U travel teams) use the winter league to develop new players and work on new positions and skills. It's the perfect time for umpires to do the same thing!
Last week, my curiosity piqued by some posts on these boards, I decided to try the GD stance for the first time. Or, rather, I used the GD stance as best as I understood it at the time. The link to the handout posted ealier in this thread gave me a few more pointers and a better understanding of how this system works.
A few impressions from a first-timer:
It felt strange! Which would be expected after hundreds of games using a typical "heal/toe, in the slot" stance.
You do seem to get a pretty good look at the pitch all the way into the mitt.
Those low pitches sure do look different! I had the sensation of looking down through the zone, compared to my usual "eyes at the top of the zone". Again, that would be expected. The view is different, but certainly not inferior.
I felt exposed and found myself flinching on some pitches that I would not normally flinch on. Probably just a reaction to the more upright stance.
Two of the positions that teams naturally work on in this league are pitcher and catcher. The wildness of the new pitchers and the lack of skills with the new catchers made things interesting back there!
This is a common problem with the younger catchers, but some of them want to set-up really close to the plate. With me being further back, my view of the plate seemed blocked at times. I was compensating by staying a little bit higher and moving closer to the catcher. Right approach? Wrong approach?
I wasn't really on the field long enough (2 one-hour timed games) to gather much data on the fatigue factor. My initial impression was that my legs were under less stress than usual.
I'm not sure what my local associations position is on the GD stance. Our meetings start next week and I plan on asking about that. At our past clinics, things were pretty much limited to the box and scissors. And, of course, we've always been told to never rest your hands on your knees.
More games tomorrow! I think that I'll experiment some more and see what happens.
[Edited by BretMan on Feb 3rd, 2006 at 01:22 AM]
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