Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Slick
Not for me. I assign a side to each team. I'll usually hold it up, with me looking at the edge, and say: "you are the side you see" and flip it with my thumb and index finger (not just my thumb). If a team gets to the plate meeting first (and it's a youth tournament), I may ask which side she would like.
Pet Peeve with a funny story: why do people have to say "heads" or "tails"? My state flipping coin has a flag on one side and the ASA umpire logo on the other. When I allow a player to choose a side, I'll ask: "would you like the flag or the umpire" (while showing both sides). I make a joke in clinics - "strangely enough, all women players say 'flag'". It gets the usual mix of groans and laughter. I repeated that story to a women's SP team waiting to play (we switch fields due to time, and I was called into service as the UIC). The team thought it was a funny story; when it was time for the actual flip, I look at the dugout and said: "what do you want?" and they all said "the umpire!" I think they lost the flip.
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I have rarely ever had to do a coin flip for softball (Rec League championship game once), but I do coin flips for other sports regularly.
Yes, I've had lots of instances where I have had to re-flip. I generally say prior to the coin flip, if I drop it, or it fails to flip, we will do it over.
For Rec League Volleyball I assign the captain on my left side heads and my right side tails. Everyone knows which they are looking for. I do this for flag football as well. This avoids the situations where a team doesn't know who is calling, or I hear a mumbled call.
For HS
VB, where we have a designated calling team, I have the team call the toss prior to me flipping it. I have the other team repeat what she called, so everyone knows what was called, then I flip the coin.
I've learned from mistakes how to eliminate many of them.