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Lack of schooling - You can sit at a table with an newbie and cover rules until hell freezes over, but the mechanics are half the issue.
Too many areas have given up on schools. Every umpire that has returned from a national school in the last 6 years has complained that it was hard for them to learn anything due to the instructor's need to tone it down and cover issues that should have been handled locally.
You have state/metro associations using national schools as their own private school for inexperienced umpires. In the recent ADVANCED ASA Slow Pitch Camp in Cincinatti, there were umpires who have not been to a school and one umpire who was a newbie. AT AN ADVANCED CAMP! Allowing this to happen does no one any favors. The newbie struggles to stay with the rest and the experienced feel held back waiting for the instructors to move beyond Umpiring 101.
How in the name of Merle Butler can an umpire get any valuable training if the school must be dummied down for those who haven't a clue?
Yes, I've gone beyond the scope of the thread, but training is a continuing process that, in spite of the belief of most veteran umpires, should never end.
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