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First of all, thanks guys for all the input. Becoming a member of this board is already paying dividends.
Now, let me clarify my experience. When I said I was a young, inexperienced umpire, I meant at the varsity level. While in college during my summers, I umpired 14U, 12U, and 10U on a regular basis. Umpiring in those groups prepared me for proper mechanics, blah blah blah. What it did not prepare me for was the game speed. For example, there are VERY VERY VERY VERY rarely pickoff attempts in those age groups. Unless you have a prodigy behind the plate, most coaches view it as too much of a risk to let their catcher fling the ball all over the field. To sum up, umpiring the lower age groups did not prepare me for a 17 or 18 yr old senior that has a cannon behind the plate.
As far as positioning, I have quickly determined that if I am the 'C' position with a runner on 1st and 2nd, it doesnt matter if I am on the 2B or 3B side of the SS. There is going to be an angle that will ultimately suffer. (IE, 3B side of the SS gives me a better angle for the pickoff at 1st but not for a pickoff at second and vice versa). So, I need to establish which side of the SS I feel I need to be on to properly be in 'good to decent' position to make any or all those calls.
As for the help from my plate guy, if I am absolutely not sure, I should ask for help and hope that he is not a huge donkey about the deal.
Once again, thanks for the replies. Reading them and combining the different views while establishing my own methods is probably the best way to make sure I am improving my mechanics, which is why I originally posted.
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