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Originally Posted by tarheelcoach
I am a school coach who has started doing some rec umpiring as a prelude to moving up to the HS ranks when I stop coaching.
Tonight the coach was giving me a hard time about my strike zone. This is the same community in which I coach, and he kept saying "These aren't HS kids, they are 9 years old." He thought my zone was tight.
I give them the benefit of the doubt vertically, but nothing horizontally. My feeling is that 9 year olds can still hit a pitch a little low or a little high, but there's no way they can cover a pitch off the plate, especially the smaller kids.
What do you think? How do you adjust your zone for the lower levels?
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I think the plate's 17" wide and the bats, even for the little tykes, are 30" long, which kind of argues against your theory.
The bottom line is if you're umpiring a walkathon, nobody's having any fun. With kids in a rec league, adjust to the level.