Umpiring Vid

[RPatrino]

Canada, I applaud your courage to post video of yourself working a game. I hope you are serious about wanting honest constructive feedback. So, here goes.

You are properly attired,apart from the grey ball bag (only partially kidding). I have a pet peeve about clean shoes and your plate shoes look very good!! Ball/Strike signalling looks ok. It is very hard to evaluate how you track pitches from the angle you shot the video, but your head is very still, another good point.

I am not sold on your stance. It looks too high and too far away from the catcher for a classic heel/toe stance. You need to get lower and closer to the catcher, as I'm not sure you can call the low strike from where you are. From where you are lined up, depth wise, you could very easily convert to the GD and be properly aligned...hint, hint.

Other than that one upgrade, keep plugging away, you will do just fine!!

[MrUmpire]

Your stance is high, rigid and too much over the catcher.

There are three elements to getting the correct head height....width of stance, drop down and foward lean. You have zero forward lean.

At times your right foot is so far to the right of the catcher's outside foot you are not lined up properly in the slot.

[jicecone]

Generally you looked good, although I agree a little stiff looking. But at least your squared up with the pitch which is tough to get some people to do. Relax a little and maybe hands on your thighs would help.

I did not hear you say "ball" once. I have been taught to call each pitch.

Keep up the good work.

[canadaump6]

Thanks as always for the comments guys. I will work on getting the head height lower and being more relaxed when dropping into my stance. Regarding the lack of back tilt, I was always under the impression that you wanted your upper body to have a more or less 90 degree angle to the ground, because that helps set your eyes in the same place. I will try and work in some back tilt into my stance.

I will be honest and say that I haven't been doing the heel-toe stance as taught at the pro schools. I started doing it this year, but it was uncomfortable and I just wasn't feeling fluid back there. I quickly went back to the heel-instep which feels a lot more natural, but maybe it's time to try heel-toe again.