Sorry for the duplicate post if you read the softball board as well, but I will be assigning for baseball and softball and I'm sure the answers between the two will vary.

I have offered to assign umpires for our local rec league. I have umpired for them for the past 4 years (this will make 5). All of the umpires besides me have had no formal training, they are all just players off of the high school team. It is unfortunate because we live in a small town and funds are not readily availiable to pay certified umpires, so we must live with what we have. However, I want to try and change that a little if I can. I'd like to have a 1 day mini clinic (probably on a saturday morning) and go over some basics with them. Just curious as to what topics you would cover if I gave you 3 hours to impart softball umpiring knowledge on them. Any and all input would be greatly appreciated.

-J

A 1 day mini clinic in 3 hours?
1. How to dress for the job.
2. Basic field positioning for 2 man system.
3. Pre-game discussion.
4. Some basic rules, 40 myths of baseball type stuff.

3 hours is up.

DG-

I realize 3 hours is a very short amount of time to have a clinic in, it's just that I highly doubt that any of them would give up an entire day. I wish I had enough people who wanted to do it bad enough that I could say, you don't show up to the clinic/rules meeting, you don't ump, but if I did that, I'd be umpiring every game, sometimes 3 on different fields at the same time. Thanks very much for your input.

-J

I feel for you. I used to do something similar for a league I was involved with. An optional 4th hour was to take the test to become registered. Hot dogs and a drink after the 3rd hour might keep some around to become registered, although becoming registered will not make for better umpires.

Here is a link to the IHSA website. Look at the Softball Level 1 PowerPoint Presentation.

http://www.ihsa.org/education/index.htm

Peace

All I have to say is good luck.. I coordinate for a local rec league as well. I have 4 adults and the other 20 or so are teens. They have to become regisitered with the league to call. I then just give them pointers as we go. I have done it for the last 2 years tho this is my last one as I have gotten too busy with varsity and college ball to be able to spend time with them.

Laat year, going into the season I had classes going over mostly rules and some mechanics. The local High school association also has a 1 day clinic and they invite little league blues to come out of the training. Very few take them up on it tho.

[Edited by cowbyfan1 on May 28th, 2005 at 02:40 AM]

U_of_I_Blue,
In addition to your miniclinic, you may want to consider have them show up for their game 20-30 min early. I used this time to go over 1, maybe 2 sitch's, using both the book and posts from this forum. Then 10 min. before game time I'd turn 'em loose on the Managers and head off to do my thing. Of note, I'd concentrate on the 90 percentile events that happen in a game and try hard to capture the intent of the rule... so when B2 ran F6 over, who was in the process of fielding the ball, at least B2 was out. If runners got sent back that was even better. If they didn't remember what to do with the batter, well, in U10 ball we'll live with that one. Good luck.
SD
ps. My best Blue was a tennis player!

Where are you? Ill? There might be some clinics in your area, have you asked around?

GSLAU members attend a 2 day clinic in the fall at Ill.'s ball field near Maryville. It is primarlily on mechanics, 2 days at $100.00, some guys pay $50 for one day. We ump 2 innings at a time durning a tournement for local Jr. College teams. It is fun.

Reply if you need more information