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  #1 (permalink)  
Old Tue Jun 20, 2006, 09:47am
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Rules training and education

I am trying to get a feel for what you do as individual umpires and what you do as associations to train rules and maintain rules proficiency.

Here are what I understand to be the basic references:

1. The Rule Books themselves (OBR, NFHS, NCAA, etc.)
2. Baseball Rules Differences (I've seen a few versions, but the one most often cited is Carl Childress')
3. Jaska/Roder

I have also seen a copy of Jim Evans' Baseball Rules Annotated, and it seems to be really, really well done. It also seems to be unavailable commercially.

So studying those things would be a start. What else do you do as individuals?

I am also trying to develop, for my association, a formal instruction program on the rules. Do other associations do this? If so, what do you do?

Thanks in advance.

Strikes and outs!
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Old Tue Jun 20, 2006, 11:34am
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Hmmm,

A very timly post my man.

I am currently writing the High School Umpire training manual for the State of Oregon. Coordinated with that document are requirments for local and state formal training and testing.

I am currently down to doing the "Mechanics for a Three Umpire Crew." That will be the final step.

In Portland we have mandatory classes for 1st and 2nd year umpires (classroom and field) and have what is becoming mandatory classes for 3rd and 4th year umpires (it is only mandatory at this time if the umpire is "directed" to attend). This also has both classroom and field teaching.

We are considering a 5th year class that would catch anyone that falls behind in skills or rules knowledge.

We are also going to require (statewide) that each of the 16 local associations must have a director of training that attends as state certified training class. The penalty would be that any non-conforming association will not be allowed to have an umpire work the state championship games at any level.

Regards,
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Old Tue Jun 20, 2006, 01:22pm
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Mechanics

Tim:

Our association has adopted the CCA Manual as our mechanics guide- are you using something different?

And I take it from your post that you are developing an entire amatuer umpire education curriculum- not just rules, which I am particularly interested in for this thread.

I'd like to take the opportunity to shamelessly plagerize at some point in the near future. I think we as an association owe it to our umpires, especially the new ones, to give them benchmarks by which they can judge their progress.

My recent fascination with the rules comes from my own realization that I blew a rule the other night in a game I was watching (evaluating) and from taking a different problem to my local rules Yoda who then proceeded to blow something very basic (not even what I was asking him about). Rules knowledge and application is a very perishable skill. My own informal system of study (a few OBR pages a week) seems to be inadequate.

Thanks, man.

Strikes and outs!
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Old Tue Jun 20, 2006, 01:38pm
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As would I!

FYI - Evans WILL be publishing an updated Annotated in both CD and print versions.
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Old Tue Jun 20, 2006, 03:00pm
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Good work!

It's nice to see that there are organizations that are actually pro-active in umpire development.
In my association, we have no set mechanics manual that we use... I have suggested PBUC and CCA but was told that "We don't want to shove this down the memberships throat."

FYI- there are still umps here who want the plate man to make all catch/no catch calls as well as every call at 3B.

We do hold the record for the longest pre-games in history I believe.

Last edited by ctblu40; Tue Jun 20, 2006 at 04:05pm.
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  #6 (permalink)  
Old Tue Jun 20, 2006, 05:26pm
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Blue:

The manual as currently written takes an umpire from ethics and professionalism, through uniform and acceptable signals, to mechanics for two and three person crews. (Beware -- the CCA does not allow copying of their mechanic pages and are very testy about using their moniker to identify the use of their mechanics (we use "The Oregon Modified" mechanics which mimic the CCA manual).

In Oregon (The Oregon Athletic Officals Association -- State Umpire Committee) has decided to force all umpires in the state to show improvement. To do that we need to set standards -- we have a classes schedule that covers two hour classes (12 each year) for classroom and 3 hour classes (3 each year) of field work.

Since Oregon is a Federation state we incorporate rules discussions into each classroom experience. Since I am "1st Vice President -- Rules" I am required to do not only the season opening "Rules differences & Points of Emphasis" I also try to have real world experiences to share with three different groups of umpires.

We try to keep from "Third World Plays" and deal with actual happenings from our members. We have tried (with a fair amount of success) to have umpires call me or e-mail me plays that we discuss (with research and rules citations) to keep people on the same page.

As with any group we still have individual umpires that make up rules (this year a 12 year vet told a hitter he couldn't change sides of the plate for batting after he had two strikes) but things are better.

While it is true that Evans is nearing the date of release of the the new "JEA" it is great but does not change often enough to cover the "new Fed" each year. With 23 new OBR rules (including penalty strikes rather than "directed pitches") we will be plenty busy helping guys prepare for summer OBR leagues.

I am lucky that I work in an area that over the years has increased the amount of training required to work . . . I don't have to start at ground zero to convince people that they need to learn.

As our system sits now by the time a fourth year umpire hits a varsity field he has about 192 classroom hours, 48 field class hours and at least 2 professional run umpire clinics under their belt.

Over the remainder of an umpire's career in our association they are required to attend 9 meetings per year that they get both added mechanic and rules classes as necessary.

We are now considering an "advanced class" that any umpire that wants a high school playoff assignment must attend at least two meetings.

Finally, on the state level:

Not only are we setting up a mandatory training for "trainers" we are trying to impliment a state wide evaluation process to select umpires that work the state championship playoffs that documents certain requirments to qualify to work.

We're trying, man!

Regards,
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  #7 (permalink)  
Old Tue Jun 20, 2006, 11:59pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ctblu40
We do hold the record for the longest pre-games in history I believe.

What's that? I've had 2 partners this year show up more than 15 minutes before game time.

At one of our meetings we had a half hour argument on mechanics, and a fistfight almost broke out. What is so difficult about setting down positioning and mechanics and sticking to them?!
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  #8 (permalink)  
Old Wed Jun 21, 2006, 04:25pm
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Thanks

Tim:

It sounds to me like you're doing more than trying- you're succeeding. Good job.

Implementing something like that statewide in Arkansas will be very, very hard. Baseball is still considered a second-class sport. Football is king and basketball is the crown prince. This is the first year, for example, that the State picked umpires for Regional and State High School Tournaments. I was selected for both, and yet, somehow, nobody from Little Rock came to evaluate me. Maybe if they had, I would have had no postseason. I digress.

You appear to have a very thorough, well-thought out curriculum. I want to develop something similar for my association. Thanks for the help.

Strikes and outs!
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