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Originally Posted by UMP 64
The only reason I can guess that these issues are not addresses where the teams play their regular season games, is that some umpires want the good ratings and do not want to cause problems. Granted, we are not perfect in our association either, but we do address these issues and try to be consistant through out our ranks. We have a way to go in our training, but we are not affraid to make the call as we see it.
Do any other associations see the same problems when you have out of area teams in for tournaments?
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Absolutely! I do a couple big tournaments (JV and Varsity) in another city each year and I run into these issues all the time.
However - I run into it in my own area all the time also! Having been the trainer for our local association I know that only 30% of our umpires (the same ones) consistantly show up for training. So every time a coach says, "
No one has ever said that before," or "
that is the first time that has been called," I can say to myself "they have been umpired by the other 70%!"
It is my opinion that we are heading for a major problem with umpiring at the youth level (JO or NFHS). The players are spending more time and money increasing their skills - and through repetitiveness - their knowledge of the game. The coach are doing the same. And millions of coaches, players, and parents are reading the Internet forums and becoming more rules knowledgable. Few are complaining about judgment calls; the majority of complaints are about rules application.
Balancing that is a small percentage of umpires that try to increase their skills by reading these forums and attending clinics. The others are still getting by with good judgment skills (ball, strikes; safe/out, fair/foul). In the past they could bluff their way through a sticky rules situation because no one else knew the rule either. Increasingly today they are being challenged by more knowledgable participants.
Unfortunately, I see the problem, but I don't know the answer.
WMB